Paige and Frankie are over the moon when their “Bizaardvark” channel finally hits 10,000 subscribers and they are invited to produce videos in the prestigious “Vuuugle space.” (imdb.com)

Imagine if you took Carly Shea and Sam Puckett, moved them to Los Angeles and, instead of having them do a webshow, they did fun little videos?  Imagine if, when they passed 10,000 subscribers, they got to go into the Vuuugle space (Get it, its a combination of like, YouTube and Google!)  Then realize how much funnier iCarly was (and still is).

Our two leads,Paige (Olivia Rodrigo)  and Frankie (Madison Hu; I guess this means no more Marcy on Best Friends Whenever) are the two weirdos in school.  Of course, they go to a stuffy prep school, of course one of them has a boy’s name and of course they are weird.  Their video project on the Blobfish in “AP Science” (hey, there is no such thing) is described as one classmate as “banal” (got to love that word).

They finally gain entrance into Vuuugle, which is populated by a number of “famous” Internet stars.  I thought this was a missed opportunity – why not have actual YouTubers there.  I get that they need some characters for the space, but weaving in a legit YouTuber would have given the show some additional credit.

The main story: when its VidView time, Paige and Frankie have nothing.  Of course they are going to quit their video-making and of course their little “agent” buddy reminds them of how important they are to their fans.  And of course they make the video they originally intended, much to the appreciation of their fellow Vuuuglers.

In many ways, the show reminded me of the Disney Channel version of Game Shakers. I’d all for girl empowerment and for creativity, but it seems like each new show is a clone of the previous one.

That said, I have high hopes for Bizaardvark.  It will work across multiple media platforms and, of course, we will get a new video each week.  And of course, I’ll tune in again.

In a special crossover with “The Thundermans”, Phoebe Thunderman comes over to Swellview to help Kid Danger and Captain Man stop a villain meeting in town. But when they finally get there, Phoebe realizes her brother Max Thunderman is one of the “villains” attending. (imdb.com)

Sometimes crossover episodes work and sometimes they don’t.  This crossover between Henry Danger and the Thundermans doesn’t.

Let’s get the B story out of the way first.  Due to Piper’s constant looking at screens, she develops text neck.  Dad takes her to the doctor and she returns home with one of those halos that dogs wear when they are injured.  Jasper becomes her substitute texter and he mistakenly invites Booger Steven to Emily’s sushi party.  Outside of Piper trying to eat spaghetti wearing the halo, the rest of the story is throwaway.

Now on to the A story.  I’m all for the Thundermans and Henry Danger is a standard Dan Schneider kind of quirkiness.  The basic premise here is that a crime wave has struck Swellview and Captain Man + Henry Danger are worn out.  Phoebe sees their story and heads out to Swellview to help.  Little does she know that Max is headed to Swellview as well to meet up with the Toddler, who has a cool device called the Heliometer, which turns oxygen into helium.

We get a big meeting of all the Swellview villains, whose goal is to wipe out Captain Man and Henry Danger.  Phoebe IDs herself to Max, who is also at the meeting, who then blows Captain Man and Henry Danger’s cover.  We end up with a scene – that goes on way too long – of Captain Man in a block of cement on the top of a train.  Henry and Phoebe sweep in to save the day, eventually knocking all of the villains off the top of the train.  Charlotte shoots some bomb thing at the cube of cement, which frees Captain Man.  The Toddler is vanquished, Max never gets the Heliometer and everyone leaves happy.  Well, except for Max, who is returned to Swellview hanging from the helicopter.

Here’s the problem with the episode: You didn’t need Max and Phoebe to move the plot along.  The entire episode could have been done in a 1/2 hour with just Captain Man and Henry Danger.

Moreover, the whole plot came across as “so what?”  Captain Man and Henry Danger never really appeared to be in any trouble.  And when the Toddler was beaten, my response was also “so what?”

So please.  No more “very special crossover episodes.”

After last week’s not so hot Girl Meets Jexica episode, GMW returned to interesting form with Girl Meets Permanent Record.

A story: After receiving a bad grade, Riley realizes high school scores count toward her permanent record.

B story: Auggie’s success in meeting the challenges in 2nd grade.

I have two pet peeves with this episode, so let me get them out of the way first.

1. It’s high school folks.  No one puts the textbooks on the desk like that.
2. I don’t think anyone uses the phrase “permanent record” anymore.  Transcript yes.  RIley can’t be that naive to think one test will go on her permanent record.

That said, this episode provided a little bit of role reversal for Maya and Riley.  Miley is the successful Spanish speaker, while Riley struggles in the class.  I still think there is too much mopey, philosophical stuff going on, but I’ll let that slide based on the overarching theme of the episode: life is going to throw you challenges and how you respond to those challenges is important.

Of course, the role reversal applies to everyone.  Smackle is smarter than Farkle in chemistry; Zay bests Lucas at baseball tryouts (Hi, writers, baseball is a spring sport in NYC); Topanga bests Cory in teacher communication.  Part of me wonders if it would have been better to focus solely on the Maya-Riley reversal instead of applying the scenario to everyone.

I’m also troubled by Riley’s woe-is-me attitude. We know moving into HS is a challenge.  Something tells me that Riley’s natural reaction would be to fight to succeed as opposed to arguing with Sra Feinstein-Chang about her name “Roberta” and her desire to not speak in the target language.  This might have made a more compelling story that whether one grade goes on her permanent record.

I also enjoyed seeing Cory be the “student” here, learning how teaching in high school is so much different than teaching in middle school.  Sra. Feinstein-Chang knows of what she speaks – and is undoubtedly, as a character, willing to challenge her students.  But she challenges herself to see the potential in every student.  Those are the best teachers out there!

In this epsiode, Max promises to give up pranking for Allison, while Phoebe tries to prove that Mrs. Wong is a good neighbor.

It’s a cavalcade of guest stars in this episode: Evan, Oyster, Wolfgang, Allison, Mrs. Wong, Principal Bradford.

It’s Max and Allison’s anniversary, and Max ruins the event by pranking poor Evan, who apparently has fallen in love with a lizard.  Allison tells Max that he needs to give up pranking and even stages a “prank-ter-vention” with all of the victims of Max’s pranking.  This reminded me of the episode: iGet Pranky on iCarly.  Max swears off pranking – until Dr. Colosso suggests Max pull one last big prank to get it out of his system.

Max sets it up so that Principal Bradford sees a free pair of khakis in school and, upon trying to claim them, is hoisted up the ceiling.  He only knows the prankster had a red hat on.  Bradford thinks its Max, but in an unfortunate turn of events, Wolfgang ends up with the hat and will be sent back to Germany.

As one might imagine, Allison is ticked off and breaks it off with Max.  Max finally admits he realizes how much his pranking hurts Allison while Allison admits she likes this fun side of her personality.  All is well in Max and Allison relationship-ville.  And there’s nothing funnier than when Wolfgang says “Max-en plan-zen.”

The B story is equally as weird.  When Mrs. Wong crushes another Billy/Nora ball, Phoebe sets out to prove that Mrs. Wong can be a good neighbor.  Props to Helen Hong as Mrs. Wong – she is awesome!  Phoebe volunteers to paint and fix Mrs. Wong’s fence – which Mrs. Wong sees as a future opportunity for free labor.  She uses Phoebe, Billy and Nora ins a scheme to impress the PTA so she can get the school food contract (who knew the PTA had that much control).  Phoebe finally boards the obvious train and payback against Mrs. Wong ensues.

This episode is one of the splitsville type episodes where the A and B story don’t particularly connect.  But overall, it’s a “you know what you are getting” episode of the Thundermans!

I passed on reviewing the season 3 opener of Girl Meets World, mainly because I knew it would involve our little group of friends moving on to high school.  Sure enough, I was right.

In watching this episode of GMW, I finally figured out what really bugs me about the show, besides the fact that what happens in Cory’s classroom is often paralleled in the students’ own lives.  It’s this: I don’t like the character of Riley Matthews.  I find her both mopey and philosophical.  That’s great and all but I’d love to see her bust out and have some fun.

In this epsiode, our little gang of five (welcome to the GMW party Zay!) is creating online profiles for the school’s online social network (Interesting, almost no technology in site but they have a social network).  Naturally, Riley is nervous about people liking her, so Maya suggests that RIley put her own information down but use a fake name.  As such, Jexica is born.

Everyone thinks Jexica is cool and everyone wants to be Jexica.  Students even claim to be friends with her (Yogi, here, is a stitch).  But once that coolness and newness wears off, people have moved on from Jexica to something new.  And from Farkle to Lucas to Zay, everyone knew that Jexica and Riley were one and the same.

Parallel this with the lessons Cory teaches in “World History.” (I like how when they enter class, the textbooks are already out on their desks).  Cory’s words here about the short lifespan of likes and dogs and cats on the web is right on target.  It’s what we value as a society and how we want future societies to understand what we stood for is what is important.  Moreover, since the beginning of time, from caveman drawings to art, humankind has sought to represent its social fabric.  A telling and timely lesson indeed.

Unfortunately, this episode still comes across as another GMW “very special episode.” It’s impressive that the gang of five wants to stay friends forever and that they’d have a discussion about whether or not to invite Jexica into their group.  Last week, we had the three seniors as “mentors” for our group but they already have seemed to disappear.  That’s sad, because without our group interacting with others, and learning from people other than Cory, those relationships will begin to stale.

The subplot in this episode is some mumbo-jumbo about Auggie, Nigerian $ on the internet and Ava.  Meh.