Having seen neither "Animal House," the quintessential college film, nor "Undeclared," the sort-of-quintessential college television series, I fear I may be lacking perspective on the new series "Greek," a fraternity/sorority dramedy that premiered this week on ABC Family. However, I am a college student, and, though not a Greek-er myself, I know a thing or two about the campus scene. With this knowledge, I might venture to guess that even diverse institutes of higher learning do not house quite as many time-tested stereotypes as Cyprus-Rhodes University, the show's fictional setting. There is the quiet irritable Asian engineering student; the frat boy in boxers and a cowboy hat; the rival preppy jerk frat boy; the bitchy perfect rich bulimic sorority girl; and the wide-eyed ingénue of a nerd trying to reinvent himself freshman year (our protagonist, Rusty, whose attempts to make it into a fraternity make up the pilot's plot). 

Rusty has a sister, Casey, who's a queen bee at Zeta Beta Zeta, and who should be able to score him a bid because of her preppy-stud boyf, Evan, President of Omega Chi.  But she sort of refuses to acknowledge Rusty, which is an issue.   

He throws himself into the fray of Rush Week anyway, beginning with failure and ending with an awkward monologue about the greatness of fraternity brothers that impresses Evan at Omega Chi. Before the rush process wraps up thing turn a little soap opera-ish: there's a sexy moral dilemma with sexy complications, and a few comic interludes. Rusty is idealistic and a little charming throughout; a few other characters show some promise too (Dale, the roommate, one half of the internet comedy duo Clark and Michael, might be funny given more screen time). But, for a premiere, a lot of the jokes bombed and many scenes seemed like place-holders. So we will see: elements are there, elements are missing, but improvements will likely be necessary for this thing to take off.