Max is nervous when his girlfriend auditions for the romantic lead in the school play opposite a cute boy, so he convinces Phoebe to audition for the same role.

It’s nice to have a new episode of the Thundermans.  They are too few and far between.

Lets start with the B story first.  Billy and Nora want a playhouse (it seems like they’d be a little old for a playhouse).  When Hank says no, they play on Barb’s insecurities with tools to get her to build one for them (granted, it is a kit that she buys).  When Hank sees Barb building one, Billy and Nora set up a competition to see if Freestylin’ Hank can outbuild Barb.  But when Barb and Hank overhear Billy and Nora discussing their plan, Barb and Hank combine efforts and build one combined playhouse for Chloe.  The storyline is rather meh.

The A story was fun.  I love stories that address Max’s insecurities as well as have Max and Phoebe work together.  Here, Max’s girlfriend Allison (winningly played by Griffo’s real-life girlfriend Ryan Newman) is going to audition for the play “Kissed by an Angel”) and the lead, Nate, has a reputation for kissing his leading ladies.  Allison is auditioning for the lead (Max’s best line:  I didn’t know the school had a drama club.)  As such, Max is jealous so he asks Phoebe to audition for the lead.   Her initial acting is woeful but during her audition, she draws on her hatred for Max and wins the lead.

The story has a little twist.  Max congratulates Allison for being Angel #3, but it turns out Angel #3 is the one who kisses Nate.  Max’s jealousy rears its ugly head – he does everything he can to prevent Nate and Allison from kissing before opening night.  Even then, Max and Phoebe work together to get the show cancelled so the kiss never happens.

What happens next is a nice twist.  Nate admits to Phoebe that he kept her as lead just to kiss Allison. Max admits his insecurities to Allison and she is ok with it.  In the end, the kiss happens, but Max can’t look.

1. I love Max’s swoon motion when he thinks about Allison.  Casting Ryan Newman as Allison was brilliant.
2. Oyster makes an appearance but no Wolfgang or Gideon.
3. Phoebe’s acting is awful.
4. Here’s my pet peeve: the revolving circle of friends.  For Phoebe’s entourage, we get four friends that I don’t think we’ve seen before.  Where was Cherry?
5. There’s very little superpowers in this episode.

Overall, I found this to be a pretty good episode.

 

 

Backstage follows a group of outstandingly talented teenagers as they live through the highs and lows that come with attending the prestigious Keaton School of the Arts, an arts school and a key to their future and rise to their stardom – from the angst and disappointments to the new friendships and crowning achievements. (Wikipedia).

 Remember Dance Academy?  Remember Glee?  Remember Fame? Haven’t seen enough shows about teen musicians and dancers. “You’ve got big dreams.  You want fame.  Well, fame costs.  And right here is where you start paying.  In  sweat.”  The words of Debbie Allen echo through the halls of Keaton School for Dramatic Arts.   I’m not sure we need another Fame at DeGrassi combo.  At least its not another “hey we have magic powers series” on Nick!

The first episode lays out the relationships and conflict.  Fortunately, all of the young stars are talented and are dancers, singers and actors in real life.  But I fear that the storylines are already predictable.

We have

1. Vanessa and Carly, best friends and dancers.  They go by V and C.  In the opening episode, V is selected as top dancer over C.  Here’s your best friends split and competition.
2. Alya and Bianca.  The nervous nelly in competition with the famous TV star.
3. Miles.  The brooder whose “complex” and friends with Alya (and her biggest supporter).
4. Jax and Kit.  The “thinks he knows it all” DJ/mixmaster and the “she really knows it all” DJ/mixmaster.

We have the tough as nails teacher Helsweel and the everybody’s welcome teacher Park.

These kids are talented for sure.  And I’m all for any show that deftly weaves musical performances into existing storylines.  That’s not an easy thing to do as the performances need to move stories along, not just serve as “let’s put on a show right here” moment.

It should be interesting to see where Backstage goes.  The first episode was rather isolationist.  Characters interacted with one other character and a teacher but there was little interaction between islands of characters.  Backstage will need to resolve this as they move forward.