Tower Prep



Cartoon Network's second hour long Live Action show.

Tower Prep is the story of Ian Archer, a teenager who has an ability known as Preflex, which allows him to see things before they happen. He has a tendency to get into trouble at school and one day, after a fight with a bully which sees him suspended, he finds himself in a mysterious preparatory school that no one knows the whereabouts of and is surrounded by many secrets such as the creatures that guard the school's off limits areas in the night. He befriends CJ Ward, Gabe Forrest, and Suki Sato. Together, they try to escape the school while also trying to discover the secrets of Tower Prep.

This show contains examples of:
"The Hero/The Big Guy: Ian, who doubles as both.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot:.
 * Asian and Nerdy: Suki. Justified in that it's a school for the gifted, so everybody's a little nerdy.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking:
 * Awesomeness By Analysis. C.J.'s power, which allows her to analyze body language and handwriting to determine mood.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Ian, Suki, and CJ showing up to save Gabe from the Rooks in the finale.
 * Berserk Button: Do not show Headmaster drawings of vintage vacuum tubes.
 * DO NOT insult Gabe's friends.
 * Brought Down to Normal: The plot of "Election" is about a disease that causes this.
 * Brown Note: The one thing in common with every student's story of how they came to Tower Prep is hearing a peculiar noise followed by waking up at the school.
 * Butt Monkey: Gabe
 * Creepy Doll: Senor Guapo can be seen as one during "dreams".
 * Companion Cube: Senor Guapo to Gabe, to the point that Gabe says the toy monkey actually has spoken to him before.
 * Compelling Voice: Gabe's "hypersuasive" abilities.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Tower Prep is apparently run by an entire board of them.
 * Cowardly Lion: Gabe
 * Dawson Casting:
 * Dyana Liu (Suki) is 29.
 * Ryan Pinkston (Gabe) is 22.
 * Doppelganger Spin: Suki's brother, Shinji, can create at least one duplicate of himself by spinning.
 * Dueling Shows: With House of Anubis
 * Escape From the Crazy Place: The basic premise.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Ian, full stop. Ray also seems to have a growing fanbase of girls, if the Tower Prep Wiki is any indication.
 * Evil Counterpart: The Rook leader in episode 5 is basically an evil Ian, complete with "preflex" as his power.
 * Fake Nationality: Suki is Japanese, her actress is an American born in Taiwan. Also has elements of All Asians Are Alike.
 * Fan Service: Ian. Can you tell the actor is a model?
 * Five-Man Band:
 * Five-Man Band:

The Lancer: C.J.

The Smart Guy: Suki.

The Chick: Gabe."

"Gabe: How come their hypersuasion works and mine doesn't?
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Suki to Ray, when he wants to snap a picture of her: "I'd hate to think what you'd do with a picture of me."
 * Literally, as within the first five minutes of the first episode, Ian actually says that the bully was treating his friend "like crap."
 * Also from the first episode, all the girls catcalling the boys when the latter are naked on the front lawn of the school.
 * "Shut the front door!"
 * Give Geeks a Chance: Norman and Penny Stosic, the former being a full-on geek.
 * "My hero."
 * Good Is Not Nice: The Monitors; the staff appear to be on their way to this.
 * The Game Plays You:
 * The Hero's Journey: Discussed in the sixth episode, "Book Report", specifically in regard to its relation with The Odyssey.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Daniel Jackson is the Literature teacher.
 * Jason DiLaurentis is Ian
 * Ho Yay!: Between Ian and Gabe. It’s not unnoticeable that Ian and Gabe tend to touch each other more than necessary, more than any other pair of characters actually. And then there’s the fact that as a pair, they’ve shared the most kisses (on the cheek still counts) than any other pair in the show thus far. It is also brought up on more than one occasion that Ian is one off Gabe’s greatest weaknesses, and vise versa for Ian. Another point might be that in 1x02, Gabe admits that Ian means more to him than his coveted sock monkey. Plus, there’s Gabe’s very blatant line of “I love you man!” and Ian’s ambiguous admission that even if he did dream about Gabe in his underwear, he’d never tell him.
 * Ironic Nickname: Flash McNulty, the speed reader who does everything else very slowly. Mentioned by Ian.
 * Jerk Jock: Cal.
 * La Résistance: The Broken.
 * Large Ham: Jeremy/Odin is an unbelievably hammy villain, even in-universe.
 * Last-Episode New Character:
 * Lightning Bruiser: Ian.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Adverted nicely in some natural variety in the uniforms found at Tower Prep.
 * Master Computer: Whisper 119,.
 * Mind Screw: The episode "Dreams" where people slip from dreams to reality frequently and nothing is as it seems.
 * Missing Time: None of the students have any idea of how they got to Tower Prep. Taken Up to Eleven for CJ, who remembers literally nothing of her life before Tower.
 * This could also be a technological issue: either or she's just the victim of a technological glitch at some point (perhaps a trip to West Campus?).
 * The Mole:
 * Mysterious Watcher
 * Non-Action Guy: Gabe does not fair so well in a comabt situation.Mostly he tries to use his ability to talk his way out or someone else defends him. The closest he's come is jumping on an opponent's back and holding him as someone else hits him. Ironic, given his actor is trained in martial arts.
 * Neither CJ nor Suki ever really shows any real fighting skill aside from the occasional blindside after Ian does most of the work.
 * Noughties Drama Series
 * "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Gabe's nightmares in "Dreams" end on this note.
 * Ontological Mystery
 * Prep School Girls Rule
 * Quest for Identity: CJ.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: What appears to be the strongest Gnome has red eyes, while the others have green.
 * Alternatively, Red Eyes Mean Evil Leader.
 * Ship Tease: A bit between Ian and CJ. "Dreams" also has some between Ian and Suki, but this is just her dream.
 * Shirtless Scene: Ian, a couple of times.
 * Shout-Out: In episode 6, CJ describes the plot of the first Twilight novel when going on about vampires, followed by Suki referencing the second with werewolves. And, later in the episode, CJ reads something called Vampire's Last Gleaming.
 * In the season finale, Ian has the last Gnome in the group beaten into a daze. He then proceeds to FINISH HIM!!
 * Show Some Leg: The "sirens" in "Book Report" are three very hot chicks who can make men do whatever they want. This may be their actual power. Lampshaded when Ian calls on them to deal with a stubborn guard who Gabe can't hypersuade into obedience.

Ian: I don't think they're using hypersuasion. [continues staring at them until snapped out of it]"


 * Slave Mooks:
 * Spider Sense: Ian's "preflex" ability.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Norman and Penny Stosic, as mentioned from episode 6.
 * Super-Hero School
 * Super Senses: In several varieties:
 * Enhanced sight: Howard Gilmore (beyond visible spectrum) and Emerson Poencet (microscopic vision).
 * Enhanced smell: Hubert Kovalev.
 * Enhanced taste: Noelle.
 * Enhanced hearing: Cal Rice.
 * Super Strength: Ray's ability. Comes with the Required Secondary Powers of enhanced toughness and resistance to pain.
 * Too Good to Last: It seems like if this series was on any other channel than Cartoon Network it would have gotten more viewers.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Gabe at the end of episode 5.
 * Troubled but Cute: Ray.
 * Useless Superpowers: Gabe's hypersuasion. In theory it would be a very useful power to have... except almost everyone is somehow immune or resistant to it. It's likely that it doesn't work as long as the target is focused on ignoring it.
 * Voice Changeling: Suki Sato.
 * Xanatos Gambit:
 * X Meets Y: The Prisoner meets Harry Potter.
 * Or, The Prisoner meets X-Men