A story: When Cyd and Shelby revisit their favorite memory from middle school (the pizza-slam-rito), they are shocked to find that moment wasn’t the same as they remembered.

B story: Barry and Renaldo try to decide if success comes from brains or from the heart.

With many time travel shows, I often worry how many episodes will be based on “events from the past that will be revisited” or how many episodes will be based on “we need to go forward or back in time” to fix something.  I’m ok with all of the time jumping here as long as it gives us insight into the main players.  This episode successfully does that.

Our main story involves Shelby attempting to “jam Cyd’s jump” back to middle school for some pizza-slam-ritos (which have subsequently been banned).  Cyd’s perplexed about the jump jam – I love her attempts to break the jump jams.  Really creative!

Shelby and Cyd finally make it back to 7th grade (love the “time selfie.”)  Cyd’s curious: why is this past different.  And yes, they used the word “period” in that sense!  Turns out when Shelby received invitations from perceived bad girl Jenn, she lied to Cyd about them.  Shelby thought Jenn would be a bad influence on Cyd … here comes the morality line: I judged Jenn without getting to know her.  Turns our Jenn volunters at the local children’s hospital and has “whatever” tattooed on her knuckles because she will do “whatever” for those kids.

In the end, Cyd ruins Jenn’s life when she encourages her to help steal the case of pizza-slam-ritos.  Nice touch that the police officer was the former history teacher from a previous episode.

There were some little gems buried in here as well.  We got a sense of Barry in 7th grade – “Little Barry” – and his relationship with Renaldo.  I couldn’t help but laugh at lines like “Even when I laugh at her misplaced modifiers,” “the analogy coconut,” and “Bros before grows.”  Barry and Renaldo have a similar Felix-Oscar relationship as Shelby and Cyd.  Its a nice parallel.

The B story involves a debate over which scientific approach is the best – brains or heart?  Barry and Renaldo each seek to build a rocket.  Barry argues that brains will build the best rocket, while Renaldo believes … just believes.  Renaldo reminds me of Kramer from Seinfeld (I loved his riff on sauces and dressings).  Barry and Chet (or Brett) spends way too much time trying to figure out how close Renaldo and Brett (or Chet) are to launch.  When Barry finally launches, he argues its his rocket – but Renaldo states he believes its his rocket.  Its a nice parallel to Shelby and Cyd’s dilemma – what do you know if your heart versus what you know in your mind …

BFW is a creatively written, slice of high school life.  In some ways the time travel is immaterial as the ongoing theme of heart v mind plays out in many of the episodes.  I could do without the twin brothers and I appreciate the strength of the actors in the show to carry the story without the presence of adults.  In the end, I’ll watch these best friends … whenever.

When CJ begins feeling like she does not have any special talents, she teams up with Fen and Crispo to discover their ”special thing”.

I have to give Scott Fellows a lot of credit.  He truly understands the mind of the middle school student.  Not only that, each show is approached creatively, through either the storyline  or the character names.  This episode is no different.

Like all of us (and even some of us today), CJ is seeking her super power – the one thing that makes her stand out, makes her unique.  Its interesting that she views herself as truly average girl, because there are many times when we all wonder what makes each of us stand out.  Crispo’s attempt to cool juice boxes is a riot (CJ: “It does seem a little bit cooler!”) while Fen is known for his super smell (Nose Boy).  There’s a great dynamic between Crispo, CJ and Fen (that reminds me of the dynamic between Ned, Cookie and Moze on Ned’s Declassified.)

The story is played against a set of characters with perceived super powers, including Mindy Minus (who can clear a hallway) and Paul Schomolitor the Hall Monitor (who can stop people within their tracks) – its awesome how some characters get the names we’d probably call them when they aren’t looking.

The story is also played against a B story in which Principal Hader is trying to beat the district fire drill record.  Mr Roberts is spot on when he mentions how much teachers hate having fire drills disturb class time (I know it well).  This ongoing balance between perceived absurdity and reality is what makes Fellows so great.  It may be a weird world that these characters exist but its a world with themes we can easily relate to.

A story: Max tries to reestablish his evil reputation by committing petty crimes; Max must choose between his friends and his reputation.

B story: Billy feels left out when Chloe and Nora bond so he creates a new friend Luigi.

C story: Hank and Barb binge watch.

This is another interesting episode in that Max and Phoebe have no interaction with their parents.

Once again, we have Max trying to re-establish his street cred as a villian.  Once again, we have Phoebe trying to re-establish her street cred as a superhero.  There’s been a rash of thefts at Hiddenville High, the latest being Cherry’s laptop.  Phoebe promises she’s on the case.

Meanwhile, Max spies three mischievous girls with Cherry’s laptop.  He’s got a conundrum on his hands.  His bandmates, Oyster, Wolfgang and Gideon see Max as a friend but Max believes having friends makes him less evil.  When Max’s guitar strap needs replacing, Wolfgang hand sews Max a new, personalized guitar strap.  Friendship is a wonderful thing!  In the end, Max is torn and, letting evil win out, Max quits the band.

But then Max is on the horns of a dilemma.  Does he help the girls steal his former band’s equipment or does he walk away.  Evil wins out – for now – and he assists in stealing his former band’s equipment.

But Max’s conscience once again wins out.  After Phoebe literally drops in on him backstage, the dynamic duo find the thieves stash and its a fight to the finish – without superpowers.  My favorite tactic: eraser clap.  My favorite stolen item: Cherry’s Shark on a Stick (perhaps a nod to Griffo’s role in Sharknado 3?).  In the end, the band is reunited – its best-in friend-zins.

Its interesting that the more evil Max tries to be, the less he succeeds.  And the more superhero Phoebe tries to be, the more she realizes she can’t do it alone.

The B story is a little odd – although I do like that Billy named his friend after the marinara sauce on the kitchen counter and that Nora (and even baby Chloe) quickly figured out Billy’s scam.  The arrival of Baby Chloe could have been disastrous – but the admiration and love between Chloe, Billy and Nora is rather sweet.

Hank and Barb’s binge watching of The Real Superheros of Metroburgh seems like an add on (as in what are we going to do with Hank and Barb for the show).  They are barely seen in the second act.

I liked this episode.  Phoebe and Max are maturing nicely and I still like the dynamic between the two.

 

 

Because TITK is a telenova, its hard to review individual episodes.  So consider this a week in review.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a big fan.  And yes, its a recipe for success.

TITK is based on the Nick Colombia show, Toni, Le Chef.  I’ve never watched it – but a quick look at some clips on YouTube shows that the same basic sets are used (and I’ll assume the same basic storylines).  Congrats to Nick for adapting many of these telenovelas into US versions.

This week on TITK we saw some more characters be adversely advected by the spices in Talia’s cooking and some additional headway into understanding the power of the spices.  Apparently, sous chef Will picked up a lot of information from Talia’s dad and that Dolores and her son fought quite frequently about the spices.

1. Strong Latina/Latino characters.  Plus a look at the credits reflects Latina/Latino directors and writers.
2. Its a good company of actors.  There’s no overacting here.
3. Good story.  The show is well written – and, considering the context of the show, the storylines are believable.
4. The outdoor shots.  Like EWW, they look very good. So far we have seen the main street between the restaurants and the soccer field. Definitely filmed in HD and gives authenticity to the show.
5. There’s some snark going on.  I love snark in any show and there’s just enough snark and campiness buried under the surface.   Frenchie’s “Karate Karaoke” anyone?  The death of “Spatchy”?  Good stuff.
6. Talia.  She’s the right balance of insecurity and cockiness.  Maria Quezada is a perfect fit for the role.
7. Dolores.  Played by Jeanette Lehr in both TITK and TLC.  Yes, she’s over the top but she deeply cares for her granddaughters. She’s become more than just comic relief.  Plus she has friends her age!
8. Frenchie.  Also over the top and that spandex outfit after Cardio Conga was too a riot.  He’s the right combination of evilness and pride in what he does. Miguel Luciano is a gem and had one of the best lines this week to Rocky: “You’re an intense little child, aren’t you?”
9. Frenchie and Debbie.  Also just the right combination of family love and evilness. Its interesting that, while many of their plots are successful, they do seem to backfire on them.  That imperfection goes a long way to humanizing them.
10. Tyson.  The perfect bridge between the Montagues and Capulets.  Debbie mentioned that he’s a straight A student, but in some scenes, seems clueless (i.e., looking for Bechamel).  But then he surprises you with a thoughtful insight. Tyson had my 2 favorite scenes of the week – the “Lets go out” go out scene on Talia’s roof and “Eating Talia’s cupcake for Frenchie.”  It was great to see Liam Obergfoll break out into some serious funny again with his Frenchie/Debbie lovefest (remember, the flour fest?)  He also had another one of the best lines of the week (to the walk in refrigerator): “and you for always being so cool in temperature and personality.”  This kid is a riot.

Going Forward

This upcoming week is the final week for TITK.  Since 40 episodes have been filmed, I’d assume the next 20 will show up in January.  Here’s what I’m hoping for:

1. They’ve danced around the Rudy/Tyson rivalry (seeing Dolores give Rudy advice was sweet) but amp that up a bit.
2. Julie and Rocky and the ice cream machine storyline comes across as a little weak.  But I’ll go with it.
3. We need some answers to:
   1. What is the power of the spices, really?  How did Talia’s dad find out about them?  What does Dolores know?
   2. What was the initial cause of the Fuccinellis/Parras feud?
   3. How did Talia’s parents die?

In some ways, the story of the spices is secondary to the story of relationships between our characters.  But the deeper question being asked: if you could change what someone believed and their moods, would you?

A story: When Betty’s foghorn from her days in the Coast Guard is stolen from Rumble Juice, Logan volunteers to solve the crime and everyone is a suspect.

B story: Jasmine seeks to be more spontaneous.

Interesting factoid: This episode was directed by Jean Sagal, who appeared with her twin sister in the 80s sitcom, Double Trouble.

Line of the episode: “I love mysteries.  It’s the only time other people are clueless too.”

Yes, its another Disney Channel Whodunnit themed episode.

Here, Betty installs her Coast Guard horn in Rumble Juice to be used to announce the purchase of the new Banana Boat smoothie.  Its fun to watch Garrett, who clearly likes to avoid embarrassing situations, grimace every time someone orders one.  Surprisingly (or not), someone steals the horn.

At the same time, Jasmine tries to get out of her tendency to be non-spontaneous, so Lindy and her spend a night on a houseboat on Lake Michigan (I thought for sure their neighbor, Margaret, played the mother of the “breathtaking baby” on Seinfeld).  Jasmine’s attempt to be spontaneous is apparently letting the houseboat go on the lake.  There’s some other mumbo jumbo about a big cat under the bed.

Meanwhile, Logan takes over the missing Coast Guard horn case and interviews each suspect one by one.  Garrett – nope.  Delia – no way.  Surprise Betty relative – not him either.  That just leaves Betty, who took the horn down for some reason of relative unimportance.  The fact that the stolen item was not directly related to our gang of five – and two of them weren’t there at the time – made the whole thing meaningless for me.

I had to laugh, though, when Betty and (her cousin, nephew, whoever) Kevin installed the horn on the bike and the bike went flying.  Im not sure there’s any physics explanation for this …

And I thought for sure they would have every suspect state, “I Didn’t Do It.”

The Disney Channel is back with another one of its theme weekends: Whodunnit?  As such, all of their shows focus on the same theme.  My favorite: “What the What?” weekend.

A story: When the class fish dies, Riley and her friends are the main suspects. Owl Detective Auggie Matthews takes on the case.

So here is the set up.  Apparently throughout the whole school year, each student in Corey’s class has had the honor of taking the class fish, Chelsea, home.  When it is RIley’s turn, her brother Auggie gives her the fish, which promptly ends up belly up (I’m not sure why Topanga and Auggie are there at this auspicious moment, but they are.  But hey, why aren’t any other parents there ever?)  Auggie, dedicated viewer of the show, Owl Detective, is on the case.

We slip back and forth between color and film noir as the investigation unfolds.  Farkle, Lucas and Maya all admit to killing Chelsea (Maya’s killed 7 of them); all of the new Chelseas come from Phil’s Fish House (the visual of many, many fishbowls with the same fish made me laugh).  In the end, every kid in the class had killed – and replaced – Chelsea during their tenure.

However, since Riley only had the fish on her desk for a second or two, who killed Chelsea 104?  SPOILER ALERT: Auggie goes to feed the fish graham crackers (which apparently fish cannot eat, who knew!) and soon realizes when he fed Chelsea graham crackers in Corey’s classroom, that’s what did the trick.  I’m sure no one saw this one coming.

Every GMW is a little junior high school morality play.  At the end of this episode, Riley asks what the lesson to be learned is, and Corey surprisingly says there isn’t one, just “whatever you came up with.”  In this case, its about taking care of each other.

This episode appears to be oddly out of sequence as the opening credits are from Season 1.

A story: After discovering that Link’s ex-girlfriend is a secret supervillian, Phoebe enlists Max’s help in exposing her rival’s true motives.

B story: Nora and Billy are afraid of a monster under Nora’s bed in their bedroom.

It was inevitable, with Phoebe getting a steady boyfriend in Link, that we’d get to the required “evil ex girlfriend” episode.  Here, Link’s best friend, Quinn (surprise, she’s a girl, not a boy!) accompanies him on a visit to Hiddenville.  Another surprise … Quinn sees Phoebe as competition for Link!  Surprise … Max is attracted to the potentially evil Quinn!  Surprise … Phoebe enlists Max’s help to take out the competition!  Surprise … Quinn is actually an evil bug!

The B story involves Billy and Nora moving into their own bedroom but Chloe being afraid of monsters in her own bedroom.  Billy and Nora end up sleeping in the living room (Hank and Barb dont find out for a few days, apparently); it turns out, once again, that Dr. Colosso was making noises underneath the bed.

This was not one of the better episodes of the Thundermans.  Outside of the opening scene, there is no interaction between Max/Phoebe and Hank/Barb.  It also seems like we’ve seen this plot before.  It might have been more interesting if Max started dating Quinn, without Quinn raising the jealousy flag in Phoebe once again.

There are two common themes evident over the course of the show: Phoebe’s insecurity and Max’s overconfidence. Keep focusing on these themes but also focus on Phoebe become more confident and Max becoming more accepting of his “2nd place” behind Phoebe.  They’ve got a talented cast here ….

 

A story: Cherry asks Max to use his powers to help her pass her drivers’ test; Phoebe’s jealousy causes a problem between her and her best friend.

B story: Meanwhile, with Hank and Barb being more tired than ever due to Chloe’s transportation, Nora and Billy trick them into thinking it is Saturday to skip school.

Sometimes Thundermans episodes work, sometimes they don’t.  This one – so-so.

Its another variation on the Max-Phoebe epic battle with a side of jealousy thrown in.  This has been a running theme in the show – Max is jealous of Phoebe or vice versa.  At the end of such an episode, we get some agreement between the two and then we relive the jealousy one more time in a following episode.

Here, Cherry ends up exploiting Phoebe’s powers: she’s having Phoebe turn back time but wants her help passing PE so that Cherry can get her driver’s license (the girl can’t shoot an arrow, I’m not sure I’d want her behind the wheel).  Max manipulates the situation – he and Cherry become besties – so that Cherry can drive his band (what, no catchy Max-inspired band name?) to their gig on Friday night.

Cherry successfully gets a C in PE after her arrow at least hits part of the bulls-eye.  An A would be better so Max and Phoebe use their powers to try to hit the bulls-eye … but the arrow ends up in Principal Bradford’s foot.  (I was waiting for a Thunderscream at the end of Act 1) Of course, all three end up in detention on Friday afternoon – but they manage to escape with the help of an errant tarantula.  Cherry fails her driving test and Max’s band pushes their gear in a shopping cart (couldn’t they have asked Hank or Barb to drive them … but props to Gideon, he’s awesome!)

Chloe – with her teleportation power – is wearing out Hank and Barb.  H&B get confused on the day – they think its Saturday.  So Billy and Nora take advantage of the situation by skipping school for the real Thursday and the real Friday.  I’m guessing the Hiddenville Elementary School didn’t do an attendance check!  This wasn’t the strongest subplot ever but it is usually fun when Billy and Nora conspire together to get some sort of advantage.

This episode was ok.  Not a winner … but not a loser either.

 

Nick has gotten very good with telenova style program aimed at teens and tweens.  Their first such series, Every Witch Way, is in Cycle 4.  Make It Pop was successful enough to be renewed for a Second Cycle.  Moreover, Nick has made Miami a new production hub and has done an admirable job with bringing positive Hispanic characters to life.  Bravo to Nick for re-imagining teen programming.

In Talia in the Kitchen, main character Talia Parra (winsomely played by Maria Quezada) and her younger sister Julie will be moving to Miami to stay with their abuela for a month.  Abuela Dolores seems straight out of central casting (hey, let’s get an older, sassy Hispanic woman who loves salsa – if she was the owner of Lola’s restaurant, she must be a smart, savvy businesswoman – or should be).

Lola-ville is populated by a standard issue group of characters.  Hipster new best friend Rudy (who looks like Jonathan Jackson of Nashville when he starred as Lucky on General Hospital) and former friend/renewed BFF Valerie complete Talia’s circle.  In the pilot, they discover Lola’s has closed and they discover some secret spices in the wall (do we really need another hidden powers series on Nick?). Naturally, we need some competition.  Restaurant competitors the Fuccinellis (these two seem straight from Master Chef Junior) fulfill the “evil competition slot.”  We get some EWW parallels here.

• TITK’s Frenchie + Debbie = EWW’s Maddie and her crew
• TITK’s Valerie = EWW’s Andi
• TITK’s Talia = EWW’s Emma
• TITK’s Tyson = EWW’s Daniel

So there is the set up: Fuccinellis closed Lola’s.  Lola’s tries to reopen.  Competition ensues.  A pretty good set up for a telenovela.

Then there’s the acting.  When EWW debuted, the actors were pretty raw (but grew nicely into their roles).  The cast of TITK is up to snuff as they do not appear to have graduated from the teen school of over acting and over emoting.  They talk like normal teens and act like normal teens.  Frenchie, though, is a little over the top.

The sets are rather expansive – we have Abeula’s apartment, the 2 restaurants, the Fuccinellis house and an outdoor space.  There’s a lot of bright colors for sure.  Fuccinelli’s kitchen looks great but Lola’s looks overworked.  One notch higher in the set department would have moved some of them past Trading Spaces quality.

I’ll give props to Liam Obergfoll who plays Tyson.  He’s the guy in the middle between family loyalty and his obvious affection for Talia.  He’s relaxed, natural and normal in a somewhat bizarro world.  He’s got a big career ahead of him.

Teens would be well served to see what Talia is cooking up in the kitchen.