When Chloe reveals that Max is her favorite sibling, Phoebe tries to reveal Max’s true colors by telling a bed time story. (Source: imdb.com)

Stories within stories are always hard to tell.  When this episode of the Thundermans began, I was worried.  It was another “Hank and Barb are going out for the night, so could you babysit” openings.  But the episode had a nice turn to it.  Phoebe agrees to babysit Chloe.  Max arrives and does a magic trick for Chloe.  Chloe announces that Max is her favorite, much to Phoebe’s chagrin.  So babysitting duty now involves Phoebe telling Chloe a classic bedtime story with the goal of portraying Max as bad so that Phoebe becomes Chloe’s favorite.

The episode allows our company to step outside their usual roles, although their usual ticks and idiosyncracies are still present.  Many of the elements of the normal Thunderworld are carried over: Hank doesnt want to wear his glasses, Billy’s hands are all slimy from eating salami, Nora is disgusted by Billy’s eating habits, Max is “evil” and Colosso is the king.  We have additional appearances from Cherry as the court jester (her standard level of joke: what do you call a pony with a sore throat – a little horse); Oyster is there to do poop patrol; Wolfgang is there to “buh-dum-dum” on drums after Cherry’s jokes.  We just needed Gideon to complete the team.

The story of Maxingham and Phoebe Hood goes as follows.  Maxingham steals all of the people’s money and Chloe the Cute’s golden slippers.  Phoebe Hood is able to get Maxingham to return all of the peasant’s money but not the slippers.

Maxingham returns to the castle and Colosso is disappointed that Maxingham has not been able to secure more money.  After all, they are one step above “common folk” in the bank. Maxingham suggests that the lure Phoebe Hood out of the shadows with an archery contest with the golden slippers as the prize.

That scheme works – until Phoebe Hood splits Maxingham’s arrow in the bulls’ eye.  Phoebe Hood is sentenced to “death” by catapult.  The scene switches to the castle where Phoebe Hood declares that Maxingham is pure evil.

In Hiddenville, Chloe soon understands that Phoebe is good and Max is bad.  Chloe banishes Max to the North Pole.  Hank and Barb return from the date night and wonder where Max is.  Phoebe tells them that Max went to bed early “because he’s got a cold.”  Phoebe realizes she made a mistake and sends Hank and Barb back out for ice cream.

Phoebe decides to change the story ending but Chloe doesn’t buy the quickie ending.  Phoebe continues with a long, drawn out second act in which Maxingham helps save the day, deciding he wants to do good.  There are some very good fight/swordplay scenes here and some solid physical action.  This type of action is not common for a Nick comedy but it makes sense here.  Plus its fun to watch.

In the end, Chloe decides that Max is her favorite as well, until Nora comes out with a salami she got from Billy.  Now Billy’s her favorite.

Overall, this was a fun episode.

Sweeches count: 1

Wolfgang -zen/-zen count: 0

In Part 1, when Cory becomes the head of the Nature Club, the whole gang heads out on a trip to a familiar ski lodge. In Part 2, with the group’s ski trip coming to an end, it is apparent that Lucas must finally choose between Riley and Maya.

I often get worried when GMW announces that there will be some parallel to BMW.  The parallels are usually not gratuitous, but help drive story.  When GMW stated they’d be going back to the ski lodge episode (Heartbreak Cory), I was worried.  That episode is rather iconic.  In that episode, the BMW gang heads off for their senior ski trip.  Cory sprains his ankle upon arriving and ends up spending the whole day with Lauren, one of the employees.  She even gives Cory a piece of the jigsaw puzzle (which she calls his “own piece of the mountain”).  A couples game is played and Cory ends up talking to Lauren all night.  The two kiss.

In Girl Meets Ski Lodge, our gang is excited about their ski trip as part of the Nature Club (sitcom TV requirement met – all major characters have to be part of the same club).  Hovering over this trip is the famous Lucas-Riley-Maya triangle.  That storyline has been getting a little long in the tooth.  However, Maya’s exploration of who she is, and why she is acting like RIley, is key to its resolution.

When they arrive at the lodge, Riley trips and sprains her ankle (a boot instantly appears).  Lauren is still at the front desk (Topanga: “She hasn’t aged well.”) The stage is set for the exploration of relationships over the two episode arc.  The exploration is exquisite, thoughtfully and believably written, and well acted.  Peyton Meyer is in the unsung hero in this series. He shines in his role as the conflicted teen.

Without giving too much away, through conversations with Josh, Cory’s much younger brother, in its simplest form, that her transformation into someone RIley-esque was to protect Riley.  Because Maya and Riley have been best friends so long, that as boys begin to enter their lives, Maya was seeking to make sure that Lucas really was as nice as he said he was (or as he acted; I’m not 100% sure I buy this, but I’ll go with it.)  Josh and Maya pledge to be together “someday.”

Meanwhile, Riley is in the bay window late the first night when a young man (and, apparently an employee) named Evan comes in.  He engages in conversation with Riley, suggesting that he’d like to be a sherpa, bringing people to places they never thought they’d go before (isn’t that what teaching is all about?).  The conversation lasts all night.  As one might imagine, Lucas is not happy.  The couple’s game is played again.

In the end, Lucas chooses Riley.  Its a natural choice and the journey to get to that decision made for some outstanding GMW episodes.  The ability of the writers to parallel to Heartbreak Cory episode is admirable, but it also makes sense. Lucas offers Riley a jelly bean as a gift (he had previous tried to decide by adding jelly beans to a scale).  Riley gives Lucas the leaf that floated in the window at the beginning of the episode, her signal that the triangle must end.  The question for the viewer is now: where do we go from here.

There’s a little surprise at the end of the episode: it turns out Evan is Lauren’s son.  Nice final connection to the inspiring episode.

It’s impressive to see how intricately plotted this episode is, or in general, how intricately plotted the entire series is.  Character’s motivations are clear, believable and understandable.  The actions that they take are clear, believable and understandable.  This show continues to impress.  Now, Disney Channel, don’t cancel it!

 

 

Cyd and Shelby learn a secret about Shelby’s mom, Astrid.  Meanwhile, Naldo and Barry’s prank war is interrupted by a chance to be knighted by Princess Daisy.

Sometimes episodes work, and sometimes they don’t.  This BFW episode is wholesale weird.

W’re back to two storylines, not three.  First, Cyd (did you know her last name is Ripley) has a flyer advertising an upcoming Roller Derby contest down at the mall.  They ask Astrid if they can go and she says no.  The girls decide to sneak out anyway.  When they arrive down at the mall, they are surprised to see that Astrid has a secret career as a roller derby queen.  First, that’s weird.  Second, two members of the opposing team decide to take out Astrid (her roller derby name: Mommy Fearest) and, in the process, break her arm.  Cyd and Shelby then want to go back in time to prevent Astrid’s arm breaking.  This is a pretty weak motivation for time travel.

They return back to before Astrid leaves to “run some errands.”  Cyd and Shelby follow her back to the mall, Cyd with homemade lasagna in hand.  Their first option: go back and get the roller skates they had in 6th grade.  Well, Cyd can’t skate so that’s out.  Their final option: throw the lasagna on the roller derby track.  The other team slips on lasagna and crisis avoided.

While that was somewhat funny, how the story plays out is more important.  Cyd feels guilty about sneaking out and disobeying Astrid.  After all, her parents are in Peru so she can do things without her parents ever knowing.  But she soon realizes that Astrid has become more of a mother to her than she may have ever imagined.  This is a much needed evolution in maturity for Cyd.  Astrid also admits that Cyd has become very much like a daughter to her.

Meanwhile, Barry and Naldo are engaged in a prank war.  Their first big prank – gluing stools to each other’s butts.  Princess Daisy is enamored by the concept of a prank war but when she asks Barry is she can join, he says no.  She does tell Barry and Naldo that, because she is a princess, she has the power to knight them.  While you can see where this storyline is going from a mile away, this plays nicely into Barry’s desire for fame and his “moment.”  Daisy has Barry and Naldo do some ridiculous tasks: pulling leaches out of the pool, getting Chet and Bret’s baseball from Paintball Pearson’s yard and bringing Chet and Bret to their evening soak.  It’s all pretty basic stuff and Princess Daisy’s quick understanding of American culture is not particularly believable.

When Barry is too busy to help Shelby build her new website, Shelby must take matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Cyd and Naldo win a boat and try to hide the huge cruiser in the backyard. (Source: imdb.com)

This is one of the oddest constructed episodes of Best Friends Whenever.  There’s been a trend lately to have three plots running at once and a trend to mixing up relationships.  That’s been a pleasant trend.  But we also get the “very special episode” about girls and coding.

The first storyline involves Shelby and her crafting.  Apparently, the Portland craft community is also a community of active traders so Shelby decides to set up a website called Tradeskees as a forum for craft trading.  She asks Barry to do it.

The second storyline involves Cyd and her entry into a local Action News contest – guessing how many coffee beans are in a jar.

The third storyline involves Barry planning his grandmother’s birthday party.  His gift to her is a miniature living room set.

Cyd and Shelby decide to time travel to the future to see if Barry does the website.  He hasn’t and someone else has stolen Shelby’s idea.  Meanwhile, Cyd learns she didn’t win the contest but she does get the winning number of beans.  They jump back to the present.  Barry says he’s too busy to do the website so he suggests Shelby ask Alex from the Computer Club at school to help out.

Shelby wants Alex to just do it for her (here’s your life lesson coming: If not this, then that, Unless this).  Alex won’t so Shelby charms two nerds Reboot and Eddie to do it for her (stereotype alert: only nerds can be coders).  This sets up a potential love triangle and Reboot and Eddie battle it out to see who will earn Shelby’s affections.  In the end, Shelby learns from Alex how to code her own website and guess what, she has a website!  She’s a coder!  And she’s a girl!

Meanwhile, Cyd asks Naldo to help her cheat in the contest.  They win (of course) and they win a boat – not a tablet or a laptop.  Barry, man of many hats, finds a captain’s hat on the boat and assumes the role of captain.  He turns into a preppy captain, barking orders to Cyd.  Cyd is not happy with the transformation and trades the boat for a new hat for Naldo, a hat with little boats on it.  That trade shows up on Shelby’s Tradeskees website.

The Bret/Chet story is just weird.  Bret (or Chet) blasts the laser at the floor just after Chet (or Bret) finds Barry’s huge popcorn closet.  The mini living room falls onto the floor and Bret (or Chet) thinks he’s shrunk Chet (or Bret).  Hilarity once again ensues as Chet (or Bret) speaks from inside the closet and Bret (or Chet) first thinks Barry smushed mini Chet (or Bret).  In the end, Bret (or Chet) uses the laser to break open the lock on the popcorn closet.  All of the popcorn pops, just as Barry returns back with his grandmother.  He says “I have a big surprise for you” and opens the door.  A massive amount of popcorn comes along with Bret and Chet.

Its tough to construct these episodes but its a sign of talented writing to bring the stories together at the end.  I also appreciate that the writers have started mixing up the characters so its not just a Cyd/Shelby story, a Barry/Naldo story and a Bret/Chet story.  Princess Daisy does not appear in this episode either, which makes building that relationship tough.  She’s been woven in the same way the Future Lab was built in last season.  We need some consistent storytelling in this area in order to make it a worthy investment of time for the viewer.

Since it looks like their time-traveling princess may be here longer than expected, the girls decide to take Daisy on an official Shelby and Cyd “Epic Girls’ Day” at the mall.  (Source: imdb.com)  Meanwhile, Chet and Bret decide they want to dress cool while Barry takes over Naldo’s Naldo-Tees kiosk at the mall.

This episode has an unusual storyline arrangement – three main-ish storylines.  These types of episodes are hard to construct, and as often happens, the storylines don’t intersect very well.  This episode does a good job of connecting all three storylines at the end.

First, Cyd and Shelby have the whole day to spend with Princess Daisy, so they decide to take her to the mall for what they call Epic Girl’s Day (which, apparently, Cyd and Shelby invented).  Key plot point: Cyd and Shelby were thrown in mall jail for making the mannequins touch each other’s butts.

Cyd and Shelby have always been best friends (whenever) but the addition of Daisy makes one of them the third wheel.  The pair goes from being diplomatic about the issue to being competitive about it.  As the episode progresses, Cyd and Shelby lose Daisy, so they go back in time to when they last saw her.  However, Shelby says “train” when Cyd says “massage chairs” and they end up in separate time lines, time lines in which the other best friend does not exist.  The two separately end up back at the mannequins, and when the mannequins hands touch, Cyd and Shelby are restored to the same time line.  They do, once again, end up in Daisy’s tower room, and a mysterious figure appears at the door.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Marcus takes Bret and Chet back to school shopping (which seems weird since the gang of four were in school when Daisy arrive and in the previous episode, they went to their 6th grade dance) at the Little Cool Men’s Pants Shop.  Bret and Chet spy the Urban Bros clothing shop and go in.  Their choice of hip clothing is amusing, and at the end, they end up in different outfits.  Mrs. Marcus realizes that, because Bret and Chet are 13 now, they can make their own decisions.

The third storyline brings us back to Naldo’s state t-shirts. He’s got the use of a kiosk at the mall to sell his designs (we add: Sass-achusetts is for Divas, Shy-oming is for Introverts and North Duh-kota is for the obvious to our list of state tees).  Naldo wants to sell the Tshirts his ways (for example, he has them backward on the cart so that the buyers have the element of surprise) and Barry promises not to take over the operation.  But he does, much to Naldo’s dismay.  It was funny that t-shirts sold for pretzel-50 and booger-25.  To show his spontaneity, Barry announces that the t-shirts are free, causing a mini-riot.

In the end, Barry and Naldo end up in the mall jail for inciting a riot, Bret and Chet for shoplifting and Cyd, Shelby and Daisy for touching the mannequins (I’m not sure this is a mall jail worthy offense).  Mrs. Marcus bails them all out and each of them learns a little lesson about friendship and identity.

When Chet and Bret are preparing for their 6th grade dance, Cyd and Shelby decide to go back in time to their 6th grade dance.  Hilarity ensues.

So apparently the 6th grade dance was a humiliating one for Barry and Naldo.  Barry ended up stuck in the janitor’s closet, earning him the nickname Barry Cry-senberg.  Meanwhile, Naldo’s pants split, earning him the nickname, Barry Cry-senberg’s Friend Whose Pants Ripped.  Shelby though is in despair that she and Cyd never got to do their big dance because of a power outage.  So Cyd and Shelby decide to go back in time to rectify the situation for Barry and Naldo – and also to do their dance.  The challenge is staying away from Bianca (who b-blasts people she doesn’t like).

As luck would have it – and quite frankly it was no surprise – Cyd’s pants split and Shelby ends up trapped in the janitor’s closet.  No one at the dance is dancing – except for Principal Dilmore.  Cyd soon realizes that Principal Dilmore doesn’t care what people think of him, he’s just out on the dance floor having fun.  Here’s our lesson for the episode.

Meanwhile, Chet and Bret decide not to attend the dance.  Mr. Marcus, whose taking his wife out to dinner for their anniversary, warns the duo not to open the door for anyone.  However, when their buddy Neil shows up, they let him in (or as Bret – or Chet – says, “I panicked.”)  The visit turns into a mini world war between the twins.  The scene where Neil saves almost every falling object is hoot.  Mr. Marcus shows up at the end, and is going to punish Bret and Chet, when he realizes he left his wife at the restaurant.

There’s some good morality plays going on here, but some little pet peeves.

1. Princess Daisy does not appear in the episode.
2. At the dance, Naldo is Ricky Garcia (Cyd says she remembers he was tall for his age) but Barry is mini-version Barry.
3. Cyd and Shelby leave the garage and go back to the dance; when they return, its clear its a few minute later (Barry and Naldo are in the same seats).  But Bret and Chet come in and say they are going to the dance anyway.  So in what timeline did the anniversary and fun time with Neil take place?

I like the show, but I wonder how many times they can go to the “fixing something that happened in the past” well.

A princess named Daisy has come through a time rift from the 16th century and finds herself at Cyd and Shelby’s school. (source: imdb.com)

Our intrepid foursome is back for another season.  At the end of last season, Cyd and Shelby vanquished enemy Janet Smythe.  But at the tail end of the episode, a rift opened between another time and the present and a shadowy figure emerged.

It turns out that figure is Daisy, a medieval princess who has been locked in a room whose door never opens and who has food slid under the door.  Now, here’s my pet peeve.  You just traveled into the future about 600 years.  It seems like you’d want a little bit more detail about what the heck is going on.  Princess Daisy seems pretty content with her new surroundings.

Budding scientist Barry is seeking his “moment” to recreate time travel in his RV lab.  It clearly still irks Barry that Cyd and Shelby “discovered” time travel (by zapping Naldo’s hair gel).  Barry tries every trick in his lab book to recreate it but to no avail.  His last attempt, some concoction made to resemble Barry’s hair gel, basically explodes the RV.  And in probably the quickest rebuild ever (Hilary from Love It Or List It would be proud), Barry’s parents build him a state of the art new lab in a state of the art garage (that has the same furniture arrangement as I Didn’t Do It).  Interesting the social area is front and center; the lab is in the back.  I still haven’t figured out how Barry’s RV or now the garage is in Shelby’s backyard.

Cyd and Shelby decide to help send Princess Daisy back to her time – and just stand around the high school lobby area waiting for a rift to appear.  I guess there’s no way of checking that it’s the right rift to the right time.  After they hear Daisy’s tale of woe, they decide to save her from the rift.

There’s a funky little subplot about Mr. Doyle (dishy Doyle, loves the hot goss), using the chem lab as a place to stay since his mom kicked him out.  Please stop making teachers idiots.

So Princess Daisy acclimates to her new lifestyle pretty quickly.  Naldo’s mom allows her to stay at his house (I wonder how he explained that one!)  My bet is that Princess Daisy is somehow related to Janet Smythe.

Unexpected consequences arise when Phoebe uses the Hero League’s villain search software to track down a cute boy.  Meanwhile, Max tries to earn money for a hoverboard.  (Source: imdb)

First, two thumbs up for an appearance by Cherry (or as Super President Kickbutt calls her: fruit girl).  Phoebe and Cherry are dining at Splatburger (sadly, no Mrs. Wong appearance here).  Their food gets stuck in the splat tube and a cute boy comes by to free the food.  This starts a conversation about Phoebe’s lack of dating since Link left.  Phoebe claims she will wait for a sign before starting to date again.

She turns around and sure enough, the cute guy in the booth next door loves cat, loves Meow-zart and is reading the same book as Phoebe.  When he leaves, he leaves his book behind and the search is on to find him.  Here’s Phoebe’s conundrum – does she use the Hero League’s Villian App (also known as Find My Fiend) to find him?  Phoebe has a funny conversation with Angel Phoebe, Devil Phoebe and IT Phoebe and finally decides to do it.

Meanwhile, Max is working overtime to earn money for a hoverboard.  He spies Billy & Nora doing some ninja antics and soon realizes he can make $100 an hour with a Ninja act.  He blows them off and Billy & Nora put the Ninja curse on him.

Phoebe gets a call from SPKB that the strike team has been alerted to take out the master villain she had reported.  Cute Boy has been located at the movies, so Phoebe asks Cherry to stall the strike team.  Putting Cherry in charge of something this doesn’t work.  Cherry takes Chloe’s sketch of Max is his Ninja gear and shows it to the team – they are now off to Splatburger, where Max  is doing a kiddie birthday party.

Phoebe shows up and so does SPKB.  Phoebe admits what she has done, and she’s given a pass, mainly because SPKB used the same app to meet her husband.  Meanwhile, Max is “defeated” by the strike team before the team is called off.  Sweater Vest kid ends up walking out with Max’s collection can.  So Max ends up with no hoverboard, and Phoebe ends up with no Cute Guy.

It turns out Cute Guy is a pizza delivery guy.  He shows up with the Thunderman’s pizza but Phoebe’s in the kitchen.  When Phoebe comes into the living room, Cute Guy bends over to get the soda from the porch.  When Cute Guy turns to give the soda to Billy & Nora, Phoebe turns around, missing him completely.  Will Phoebe ever meet Cute Guy?  We may never know!

Nervous about meeting his girlfriend’s parents, Max enlists help from Phoebe, whose charms ultimately backfire and leave Max banned from ever seeing his girlfriend again.  (Source: imdb)  Meanwhile, Hank has the super hiccups and Billy & Nora decide Hootie the Owl is much better than Cutesy Cow.

Sometimes episode work and sometimes they don’t.  This one is 50-50.  I’m not sure I understand the ongoing fascination with MMA action on Nick shows (its showed up in iCarly before).

One benefit of this episode is we once again see Max’s conflict about being a villain and his love for Allison.  Allison humanizes Max in a way that Max never expected.  We know Max is a top notch prankster; we also learn that when he is around adults, he can’t help but insult them.  So when Max is invited to the opening of Allison’s parents’ new business, he gets Phoebe in on his plan.  She’ll do all the speaking.

Naturally, things don’t go as planned.  Phoebe’s pretty good about carrying on the conversation and Max is pretty good about avoiding the conversation.  But one ill-time karate kick to a dummy causes someone to be pushed into the wall.  All of the shelving comes down and apparently this is enough to cause all of the customers to leave.  One customer says “This is a weak gym” but I don’t buy it.  A stronger, more believable reason is needed for Allison’s parents to ban her from dating Max.

After the break, Allison works diligently to get Max to “make up” with her parents.  He brings Phoebe along again.  She ends up in the MMA ring with Debbie (this is completely unnecessary).  While Phoebe’s being tossed around, Max finally admits his feelings for Allison to her parents and the story ends happily ever after.  To me, it seemed like a tired plot with a tired resolution.

Meanwhile, on the Cutesy Cow front, Billy and Nora decide to introduce Chloe to Hootie the Owl.  They soon realize that Hootie is not the nicest owl in the world, especially when Chloe starts acting out some of Hootie’s poor lessons.  In the end, Billy & Nora accept Cutesy Cow and, apparently, Hank’s super hiccups go away.

A mockumentary comedy about two brothers who are forced to co-exist in the same homeroom class. (Imdb.com)

When I first saw the commercials for Legendary Dudas, I thought it ticked all of the Nick boxes: middle school students, older sibling/younger sibling, apparently wacky friends, school setting.  I didn’t have high hopes for the show.  Turns out I was wrong – I was pleasantly surprised!

The show takes a mockumentary approach to the story of Sam and Tyler Duda.  Tyler’s in 7th grade, Sam is in 6th.  Sam has one very weird friend – Niederprum – who struggles to open his locker.  Tyler’s part of the 7th grade cool crowd.  But Sam has the worst best day ever when he throws paint on the 7th grade wall/mural.  But then surprise, surprise, Sam is instantly promoted to 7th grade (apparently no parental consultation is required).  Welcome back Kelly Perine as Principal Platt, who played Mr Pines on the Thundermans (Tyler’s impression of the principal is awesome).  And 2 thumbs up to Ms. Tolomeo, who actually is a homeroom teacher who is not an idiot, a goof-off or clueless.  (However, who gives homework in homeroom?)

Sam’s move to 7th grade sets up our fish out of water scenario.  We have a good stable of classmates for Tyler: Dallas, a photographer and environmentalist (who gets the line of the show award: “I don’t eat my friends”); Logan, Tyler’s best bud and partner in crime; Gigi, who didnt do enough in the episode to stand out; Sophia, Logan’s girlfriend; and Carter, who competes with Dallas for the most likes online.  No one here seems stereotypical but I worry how the writers will manage to create stories for all of them.

At the end, in order to redeem himself (even after getting his homeroom extra homework), Sam creates an awesome video from the photos and videos he took during his first day of school.  Its a great video – however, because everyone’s all happy at the end, that fish out of water theme may get lost going forward.

Overall, Legendary Dudas is a strong additional to the Nick lineup.  Its well acted, well written and well produced.