Popular: Season 02  (2000)

Theatrical Release Information:
Popular: Season 02

Season one of Popular ended with what seemed to be a dual triumph for snooty high-school cheerleader Brooke (Leslie Bibb) and her intellectual classroom rival Samantha (Carly Pope), as the wedding between Brooke's dad, Mike (Scott Bryce), was canceled after the announcement from Brooke's real mom, Kelly (Peggy Lipton), that her divorce from Mike was never finalized! Season two picks up the action, with Kelly scheming and conniving to win back Mike's love, and the heartbroken Jane briefly moving out of town with Sam in tow. Elsewhere, the walls of the two leading cliques at Jacqueline Kennedy High School -- Brooke's and Sam's -- are slowly crumbling to dust. Brooke's bitchy friend Nicole (Tammy Lynn Michaels) is aghast when she loses her coveted slot in the "Glamazon" cheerleading squad to Sam's chubby chum Carmen (Sara Rue). Brooke's football-jock boyfriend, Josh (Bryce Johnson), likewise finds his supremacy challenged by newly arrived gridiron star George Austin (A.T. Montgomery), who, to make matters worse, has crossed over to the enemy camp by dating Sam. And in a similar move, Sam's nerdy buddy Harrison (Christopher Gorham) commits a form of treason by going out with Brooke's shrill Southern-belle pal Mary Cherry (Leslie Grossman); can it be that Harrison's later bout with leukemia is punishment for selling out his anti-clique values? (Even worse: once his disease is in remission, Harrison takes up with Brooke herself!) As the season (and the series) draws to close, Sam's mom, Jane, gives birth to a baby conceived during her relationship with Brooke's dad, Mike, and for a few fleeting minutes the two girls become inseparable friends. But this truce is forgotten by season's end, which concludes with a nail-biting cliffhanger...one that, alas, will likely never be resolved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide