I’m back!

Series description from imdb.com: Two mismatched students form an unlikely alliance to protect each other’s secret and pursue their dreams at a magical school for knights in training.

Episode description from imdb.com: Arc’s predecessor on the Phoenix Squad returns, bumping Arc to the Kraken Squad while his friends secretly work to get rid of their former partner.

Knight Squad has an interesting pedigree.  Sean William Cunningham and Marc Dworkin have both worked on The Thundermans and Pair of Kings and have moved into the showrunner role here.  Owen Joyner had a lead role in the undervalued 100 Things To Do Before High School; Lilimar was in Bella and The Bulldogs; Kelly Perine was a favorite as Mr. Pines on The Thundermans.  However, I can’t help that Nickelodeon needs to break into some solid dramedy like Disney’s Andi Mack if it wants to generate some success and buzz in the Saturday night teen sitcom space.  The show tries hard, I’ll give them credit for that.

The main character, Arc, played by Owen Joyner, is a thief who ends up attending a school for knights.  He agrees to keep the Princess’ secret that she is actually Ciara, who is also training to be a knight.  In these days of women’s empowerment, why not just let her be a princess training to be a knight.  Why not have Arc be a former thief trying to redeem himself by attending knight school?  The secret leads to a lot of those “Oh, I have to be in two places at the same time” scenes, which gets tiresome and which suggests the rest of the cast is too dumb to figure out Princess Ciara is never in the same place at the same time as Knight-in-Training Ciara.  Plus, no one ever figured out they look pretty much the same?

Lilimar fills the Elizabeth Gilles/Victorious evil adversary role and is actually pretty good at it.  Her sidekick Buttercup is a moron and I wish shows would stop playing sidekicks as idiots.  The rest of the Knight Squad is rounded out by Warwick, played by Amarr M Wooten, who has magical powers (that don’t exactly work) and Prudence, played Lexi DiBenedetto, who is battling the misconceptions of being a giant.

One thing that bothered about the show is the opening credits.  They feel like they were left over from one of those Nick telenovelas.  And why not give the actor credit under their appearance?  Seems odd.

I’ve watched a couple of episodes and decided to focus on the episode The Dork Knight Returns. Apparently, former Knight Squad member Jimbo (played by Tenzing Norgay Trainor, formerly of Liv and Maddie) has been trapped in the Cave of Farts for a long time.  The rest of the Knight Squad gave up looking for him, although it doesn’t seem like they tried very hard nor did anyone else in Astoria seem to miss him!  He’s freed (along with his friend Sheilda) and, because there is a rule that you can have no more than four people on your squad, Arc is out and Jimbo is in.

Miracle moment: Kripan, current member of the Kraken squad, played Kevin Acevedo, also appeared in Pair of Kings.  Kevin has been a background extra in a whole slew of Nick and Disney shows. He finally has dialogue!

Miracle moment #2: While the Squad tells Arc that they want him over Jimbo, in one of those standard “I’ve misinterpreted everything I’ve seen or heard” episodes, Arc thinks they like Jimbo more.  But the Knight Squad is really trying to get rid of Jimbo.  Hilarity ensues.

Someone please give Trainor his own show.  This kid is funny – and he was funny on Liv and Maddie.

Considering its Thundermans pedigree, I tried to like Knight Squad.  Its good for a luke warm laugh, but there’s only so many times you can play the “Oh, yea that” line of dialogue before it gets tiresome.  I have no doubt in the future we will be saying “good knight, squad.”