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.”