JEM and the Holograms is one of the classic 80's cartoons that we are lucky enough to have brought back to life on DVD. To start the series, Jerrica's father died and left her half of his record company, Starlight Music, and the Starlight Home for Girls, an orphanage that Jerrica and her sister Kimber, and their friends Aja and Shana have helped out with. They need to fix up the home for girls, and the housemother said Jerrica's father always got money from Starlight Music. Jerrica goes to the president, Eric, who has the other half, but he refuses and introduces Jerrica to the Misfits, Pizzazz, Roxy, and Stormer (her soon to be rivals) and you get a funny music video. Eric is holding a battle of the bands the next day.

When Jerrica gets home, she finds a mysterious pair of earrings on her dresser. When she puts them on, a hologram appears and tells her that there are instructions in the earring box and that she should follow them. Her friends go with her and they end up at an old drive-in that isn't what it seems. Inside is Synergy, a holographic computer that Jerrica's father developed. Synergy can create any hologram and shows them where her father left them clothes, instruments, and even a car. With Jerrica being transformed into JEM, she and her friends decide to form a band and beat the Misfits at the battle of the bands to stop Eric, and they win. Jerrica makes sure that everyone thinks that she and JEM are different people. Eric challenges Jerrica to a contest - in 6 months there will be another battle of the bands. If JEM wins, then Jerrica gets control of the company. If the Misfits win though, Eric gets control. The winners also get a mansion and a movie contract donated by movie studio executive, Mr. Sands. The Misfits, upset at losing to JEM this time, destroy JEM's equipment and nearly get them all killed. Thanks to Synergy, their friend and road manager, Rio, finds them in time. Of course, that won't be the end of their troubles. Not long after, their home is destroyed, thanks to Eric. Mr. Sands just moves them into the mansion that he put up as part of the prize for winning the contest, but if they lose, they'll have to move out. Eric tries things such as pulling Kimber away from the band by making her feel like she's less than JEM, framing JEM for robbery, hiring a detective to find out who JEM really is, and holding Ashley, one of the Starlight Home girls, hostage to keep JEM away from the battle of the bands.

When JEM does beat the Misfits, they've won the mansion, the company, and a movie deal, but they've made enemies for life in Eric and the Misfits. Given that Pizzazz's dad is filthy rich, this means that they have the means to do what they want, including buying the movie studio to try and ruin the movie deal that JEM won. JEM has to endure all of the Misfits' torture though because one of the orphan girls needs a very expensive surgery and they need to get the money to pay for it. You can guess that the rest of the series is going to follow this pattern. JEM will try and do something good and the Misfits will show up to crash it.

Jerrica and Rio like each other and this makes it very hard on Jerrica to not tell Rio that she's really JEM. Of course, I think she should tell him because as it is, she's forcing him to have conflicting feelings between JEM and Jerrica. Eventually, Jerrica is jealous of herself as JEM, which is just plain insane. Hopefully though, in the next season, some of these issues will be resolved. I mean, JEM can do everything: music, clothing design, take on Broadway, solve world hunger, win physical competitions, and even rebuild a totaled Indy car in 3 days and then race in the Indy 500. I think if I were JEM, I would have a backup plan to communicate with Synergy that was more than just a single pair of earrings and I would just hire some bodyguards to keep the Misfits away. There are quite a few continuity holes, so just suspend disbelief for a while. Basically, the Misfits are evil, so they're always going to be beaten in the end and JEM is always good and will help and forgive anyone any time. Even when JEM loses, they still win because they are good. This very black and white view of life isn't extremely realistic, but the Misfits do show a bit of humanity from time to time, mostly from Stormer though. After about halfway through the series, they start doing short PSAs at the end like G.I. Joe did, about things like being good to people, don't trust strangers, never give up, don't lie, things like that.

JEM hasn't really stood the test of time in a lot of ways as it seems very out of touch with today's world, but the nostalgia factor still makes it a good show for those of us who grew up on it. If you miss the 80's cartoons, I recommend you get in touch with JEM and the Holograms to refresh your memory today.