Air Date: September 27, 2014

A/B story: Max needs minions to help him take over the school (and the world).  Phoebe needs minions to help her complete her chores before she goes to a new teen dance club.

Cherry alert!  And Club Ooh!  Ooh!  ( a nice throwback to episode #1)

This is one of the few times I remember that Max and Phoebe were in parallel plots but not involved in the same plot.

Marymount School had the idea first award: The Mariachi Band (circa 2009).

After pulling a prank of Principal Bradford (played with gleeful snarkiness by Jeff Meacham, Max is named “Public School Enemy #1.”  This, of course, attracts the attention of three castoffs from nerdland (or central casting) who implore Max to “teach us your pranky ways.”  Max turns this request into having minions to take over the world.  Little does he know they will turn against him.

At about the same time, while excited by the opportunity to go to the new “teen dance club,” Phoebe is challenged by the fact she must complete two pages of chores before Saturday.  (Bad parenting alert – maybe Hank and Barb could have given her a heads up early; Bad planning alert – between a dress, shoes, hair and makeup, its going to take Phoebe all week to get ready).  She coerces her siblings to “do her chores” by framing it as superhero training.

I like that Phoebe isn’t too afraid to take a step into the dark side and Max does deeply care for his siblings.

The Max as motivational scene cracked me up.  I’m not sure I’d buy the DVD, “Prank you, Max Thunderman.  You’re Welcome!” But you know trouble is abrewing when Max says to his minions “You wanna be the best, you have to take on the top dog.”  Eventually his minions are fully maximized and the tables are turned.

In true sitcom fashion, every scheme falls apart.  Billy and Nora find Phoebe’s chore list (which closed captioning kept calling the “choir list”) and they rig her vacuum cleaner (the vacuum-fu) to blow the dust out.

Max gets his revenge at the Bradford Special Assembly and takes down his minions.  My only complaints …

• We’ve seen the crap from the ceiling route before.
• Ahh, the old “we can’t walk on high heels” gag.
• Its the second episode where Max’s prankiness has been featured.

The scene with Dr. Colosso was the kind of zaniness I approve.  Not at the same level as Arithmo-tic, but still inspired zaniness.

Waiting on the next episode!

Air date: September 27, 2014

A story: Captain Man loses his powers of invulnerability.  Can he get them back?

B Story: Jasper tries skinny jeans.

First things first.  We learn that State Route 99 goes through Swellview!

In this episode, Captain Man is hit in the face by a box thrown by Jasper.  He starts bleeding, which means he is now vulnerable.  Captain Man, Henry and Charlotte, along with Gooch, seek to find the cause of the vulnerability and a “cure.”

Props to Dan Schneider for his ability to weave inside jokes into his shows.  The can of meat eaten by Captain Man is “Shia’s LeBeef”; the jolly beetles are at Rigby’s Cannery on Abbey Road.  Schneider is also very deft at bringing in scenes and characters from his previous shows.  Tonight’s featured Scheider-com: Drake and Josh.

The team of Charlotte, Henry and Captain Man work together well as a team.  With each episode, we see a deepening relationship between Henry and Captain Man.  Its pretty clear Henry would endanger himself to save Captain Man.  Sign us up for the mutual admiration society.  Charlotte has evolved into a smarter, less sassy sidekick.  She’s almost the brains of the operation.

But lets talk about Jasper.  He’s the one bud who doesn’t know Henry’s secret – and since Henry only seems to have two friends – its still 50/50.  But Jasper’s in danger of being exiled to B story land.  The scene with him trying to put on skinny jeans with the help of the “A&F-ish” male employee and a giant shoehorn was downright creepy.  Moreover, Jasper’s buds told him that the skinny jeans would help him get a girl.  In the end, the jeans just precluded him from going to the bathroom.  I’d bring Jasper into the super hero clan.

Jace Norman – as Henry – does a great job with the snark.  I’m a big fan of snark in a show – so lines like “Seriously, they’re playing me off,” “Captain Man to the Man Cave,” and “Let’s not stereotype all the tigers” worked for me.

I said before I’d be willing to invest more time in Henry Danger.  Its not iCarly – yet – and it may never be, but for its intended audience, its an amusing half hour.

The premise: The story of a 10-year-old girl Dawn Harper (Lizzy Greene) whose sibling rivalry with her three brothers Nicky (Aidan Gallagher), Ricky (Casey Simpson) and Dicky (Mace Coronel) is heightened by the fact that they are quadruplets. (Source: Wikipedia)

First, hats off to the return of Brian Stepanek to the world of teen television.  We all remember him as Arwin on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody!  Unfortunately, the excitement for NRD&D ends there.

NRD&D is clearly aimed at children of maybe the age of 10 – maybe, if they were clueless.  Showrunner and writer Matt Fleckenstein has quite a pedigree – Family Guy and a slew of Dan Schneider teen-coms – but even he shouldn’t be proud of this show.

We know Dawn is the girl.  Nicky, Ricky and Dicky are interchangeable – during the first episode, I couldn’t figure out which one was which (and I didn’t really care) so I called them Nerdy Boy, Sunglasses, and Neuroses.  All stereotypes.  Nerdy Boy was focused on his grades and school work (that’s not a bad thing); Neuroses seemed to live in fear of being hurt (even once when he gets hit in the face, he says “I deserved that.”  Really?); and Sunglasses was quite the ladies man (Do you know any 10 year old who acts that way).  But since the show is focused on the pre-tween audience, I suppose having somewhat identifiable characters might be a good thing…I think.

The parents – played by Stepanek and Munn – seem either surprised still that they have quadruplets – or dismayed.  Naturally, NRD&D’s “unique personalities” lead to conflict and, at the end of the pilot episode, we have the quintessential, “we can work as a team” moment.  That earns a big “Awwww” from the studio audience.

Let’s talk about the pilot. No name dad receives his sought-after signed Brownie Wilson football jersey – which is the highlight of his life (even more than his wedding or the birth of his kids).  Local pet adoption person enters the store and NRD&D adopt a dog.  Could anyone possibly guess that the dog would somehow ruin the shirt?  Could anyone possibly guess that, in their attempt to fix the problem, NRD&D would make it worse?  Heck no, never saw that one coming at all.

Treat kids like the mature individuals they are.  Thirteen weeks may be too generous of an order for NRD&D.

The premise: Henry Hart (Jace Norman) is a 13-year-old boy who lives in the town of Swellview. He lands a part-time job as Kid Danger, a sidekick to the superhero Captain Man (Cooper Barnes). Captain Man told Henry not tell anybody about his job, so he has to keep it a secret from his best friends Charlotte (Riele Downs) and Jasper (Sean Ryan Fox), his parents, and his younger sister Piper (Ella Anderson). A shop called “Junk’n’Stuff” has a secret lair hidden underneath where Captain Man does his work. Captain Man says he won’t be around for long and he needs help and soon enough, he will need someone to take his place when he’s gone (meaning Henry will take over one day) and he needs help from Henry. (Source: Wikipedia)

Like the Thundermans, Henry Danger has a certain earnest goofiness to it that would make it attractive to young adults (after all, who wouldn’t want to work with a superhero).  But the superhero/superpowers theme has been done to death in tween-land, so I’m not sure one more show is needed.

Norman, who played “Flunky” on The Thundermans, is endearing enough.  His responses to most situations is either the “deer in the headlights” look or screaming.  Like all superheroes, no one ever seems to ask where he goes or where he was, and a suspension of belief is required to understand how he manages to make it all over Swellview so quickly.

Barnes is standard-issue goofy as Captain Man. That goofiness gets in the way, though, of his superhero status.  He’s the “accidental superhero.”  His main – and only – superhero ability is that he is indestructable. It’s not readily apparent if Captain Man cares for Henry or not, but they do have a growing older brother-younger brother dynamic.  This relationship I’d like to see fleshed out more.

The supporting cast is generic.  Standard issue parents, two best friends (Jasper, from the “I’m sorta dumb” category and Charlotte from the “I’m sassy” category; she seems modeled after Zuri Ross on Jessie) and one heck of an annoying sister, Piper, who mainly seems to scream and yell. (Please, send her off into space or something!)  As friends, the trio makes a good team but again, there is nothing particularly unique about their dynamic either.

Pet Peeve Alert: Once again, teachers are played for fools (Come on, Schneider, Sipowitz on Victorious was awesome).  The teacher, Miss Shapen, has a hunch back and/or hump.  This is in bad taste.

Henry Danger is also lacking that hidden undercurrent of “this will be cool for parents” which is often found on Schneider’s shows, shows I’m a big fan of.

I’m willing to invest more time into Henry Danger.

Anyone who grew up in the 90’s was assumably a fan of ABC’s Boy Meets World.  Every teenage boy had a crush on Topanga – even though we didn’t know anyone named Topanga nor could we figure out how she ever got that name.

As such, fans were excited last year when Disney announced the reboot of BMW as Girl Meets World (its already been renewed for a second season.)  Now Cory and Topanga – still married – live in New York City, where they are raising their daughter RIley and son Auggie (really, Auggie?)  Riley attends middle school and, like her father Cory, is trying to find her way in the world as well.  Riley, naturally, has the kookie best friend, Maya (she’s the female version of Shawn from BMW) and the two of them together explore the challenging world of middle school.

John Quincy Adams Middle School is your standard issue middle school – chalkboard, desks in rows, unnamed students in class, rows of lockers.  The show seems a little skimpy on the sets – the Matthews apartment, the classroom, the hallway and the cafeteria.  I’ll give them credit for getting the NYC subway set on target (they even had Metrocards!)  The pilot episode also featured a poster of Mr. Feeney (!) promoting education.

Riley and Maya are friends with Farkle (Mincus, Mincus’ son) who, as a character, is your standard-issue weird kid who crushes on both Riley and Maya and who is afforded “Farkle time” in class.  I appreciate out of the box thinkers but Farkle clearly is in need of an evaluation.

The “Topanga” role for Riley is filled by Lucas, a transfer student from Texas who, in stereotypical fashion, wears cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.  He talks with a southern drawl, but as a character, he brings zero energy to the show.  Perhaps we havent seen enough of his qualities be fleshed out to make him interesting. There are also times when Riley, Maya and Farkle are in Cory’s class, but Lucas is non-existent.  Hopefully the writers will develop his character more.

There have only been a handful of episodes – and I really wanted to like this show – but right now, its not must see TV for me.