A story: Phoebe’s first assignment as a superhero is to protect Hiddenville.  Phoebe challenges Max to inject some mischief into their sleepy hometown.

B story: The Thundermans new little sister Chloe has grown and will get a new super power.

C story: Billy avoids taking a pill to prevent the Flamingo Flu.

Phoebe and Maxy T are back for Season 3 for a battle of wits as Phoebe takes on her new role as protector of Hiddenville and as Max tires of hearing how Phoebe “saved his life.”  Phoebe’s bored with the lack of action in Hiddenville, so she engages Max to set up some opportunities for him to up his evil street cred while she earns some “protecting Hiddenville” cred.  The best Thunderman episodes are ones that pit Phoebe and Max together but are also episodes that show the deeper caring that the siblings have for each other.

For someone who is always trying to catch Phoebe in an epic fail, Max’s plan to take over Hiddenville, somehow with a big tub of nitric acid, turns to failure once again as well.  Its not nitric acid in the big tub but citric acid (lets not talk about why someone would have citric acid at the Hiddenville Power and Light factory).  In the end, the system backs up, and its Max who saves Phoebe (making them even).  Its interesting that Phoebe once again states that she is not as great as Max thinks she is (she noted this in ThunderVan).  Phoebe continually struggles with her superhero role, while Max seeks what Phoebe cannot seem to obtain.  I still like the dynamic between Kosarin and Griffo and its nice to see their characters true aspirations (and challenges) on display.

I do worry though that the arrival of Chloe (who is grows pretty quickly!) is the show’s jump the shark moment.  So far, it doesnt appear to be.  The B story focuses on Chloe’s new superpower (which turns out to be teleportation).  Chloe’s relationship with Billy nicely mimics his relationship with Nora – but is it really necessary?

The C story of the flamingo flu seems to serve only one purpose – to further cement Billy’s status as Chloe’s hero.  While Billy still appears not to be the brightest knife in the drawer, his love for his sisters is palpable – and refreshing.  Its a nice touch of humanity in a show that could be driven simply by superhero actions and antics.

 

Premise: When two best friends are zapped with their friend’s laser, they gain the ability to time travel.

Pedigree: A single-camera sitcom developed for Disney Channel, created by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas and executive produced by Jed Elinoff, Scott Thomas and Michael Kaplan. The series stars Lauren Taylor as Shelby and Landry Bender (formerly of Disney XD’s Crash and Bernsterin) as Cyd. (wikipedia.org)

Yes, its another trip to the “special powers well” for Disney.  For every I Didn’t Do It and Jessie, there’s a Lab Rats, Dog with a Blog  or Mighty Med.  BFW comes across as a teen version of Groundhog Day.

Props for another sitcom set in Portland, Oregon.

You can check off all of the usual teen sitcom characters here:

• Shelby and Cyd,  “Felix and Oscar” type best friends who demonstrate “opposites attract.”
• Barry, the scientist-y best friend.  Don’t all of our friends have their own lab in an RV
• Naldo, Barry’s wacky friend (and 1/3 of Forever in Your Mind, who sing the theme song)
• Marci, Shelby and Cyd’s other friend who is just, well, weird
• Brett and Chet, Shelby’s twin brothers who have an obvious crush on Cyd, and who come across as two low rate Gibbys from iCarly.

The first episode is pretty standard issue Disney Channel fare with the standard Disney Channel theme about the importance of friendship.  Shelby is seeking a super-fun dance proposal with Cameron (played by Emery Kelly, another 1/3 of Forever in Your Mind).  Naturally, proposal #1 is a failure, and Shelby and Cyd soon discover that they have the power to travel back in time to try the dance-posal again.  (Where’s Bill Murray when you need him!)

After dance-posal #2 is a failure (when Cameron ends up asking Cyd), Shelby and Cyd jump to the future, only to find that dance-posal #2 ruined their friendship.  Understanding the importance of their friendship, Shelby and Cyd realize that it is their differences that make their friendship special.  They travel back to the present, where in an ironic twist, Marci ends up the beneficiary of the dance-posal.

Here’s the key question tho: We can fix everything that went wrong.  If you had the power to do this, would you?  But its fun to imagine.

# of best friend pair screams: 3

Line of the episode: “I can’t tell if you’re kidding or phlegmatic.”

A couple of thoughts:

• Why not have Shelby and Cyd be the scientists?
• In the future scene, wouldn’t Barry and Naldo look older?

Overall, I think BFW has potential, but its not there yet.  We’ll see what the future brings…

A story: The trio of friends set out to conquer each of their biggest fears.

B: CJ tries to talk to her crush, gorgeous 8th grade boy.

I’ll give Scott Fellows credit for one thing: he understands the fears and daily existance of the middle school students.  Yep, it’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide for a new decade.

Episode starts with a ringing school bell: check.

Main characters does voice over to explain episode: check.

Wacky highjinks ensure: check.

“Declassified Book” included (Fenwick’s Fears): check.

Oddly named characters: check.

Characters whose fears are believable and whose characterizations are believable: check.

It’s not easy writing for the middle school student.  In most sitcoms, the middle schooler is the middle student in a family.  But as with NDSSG, Fellows has his finger on the pulse of the middle school.  Either it was the best experience of his life – or the most traumatic.

This is only the second episode of the series (I’m curious if there will be an episode 101) and the storyline for each episode is clear – focusing on one thing to accomplish over the span of middle school.  This episode deals with fear.  Crispo overcomes his fear of snakes pretty quickly – as the “fear helper” (I might have gone with fear whisperer), he claims to Fenwick that by getting over his fears first, he’s able to help others work on their own fears.  Fenwick is fearful of the “running of the bears,” when the school’s basketball team runs through the halls (which they seem to do on a regular basis.  C.J.’s fear is speaking to Gorgeous 8th Grade Boy.  She tries every trick in the book to get to know him and speak to him.  In the end, its a team effort with her family, Crispo, Fenwick and the guidance counselor, Mr. Roberts, to get C.J. alone with GEGB.  And yes, she speaks.  What’s endearing is C.J. states, “I don’t remember what we talked about but it was the best conversation I ever had.”

C.J., Crispo and Fenwick are believable as middle school students.  Its also nice to see an adult on the show who is willing to support the students as opposed to the evil principal/teacher type character.

Props to Max Ehrich – he can do comedy, drama (Y&R) and scifi (Under The Dome).

The show’s got legs – or at least 98 more episodes.  I can’t help but wonder if Ned is off somewhere taking copious notes about the “100 things to do before high school.”