Phoebe must baby-sit President Kuckbutt’s trouble-making teen daughter as her latest superhero mission, but the assignment quickly gets out of control. Meanwhile, Billy and Nora want a pet, so Hank and Barb ask them to take care of Dr. Colosso.

There’s a rather inspired goofiness with this episode but I fear its a little repeat-y.  We’ve had a babysitting episode before (Phoebe babysitting Link’s younger brother) and we’ve had a “we want a pet” episode too (Nora and Billy and the cats).  But there’s enough new here to make this a pretty good episode.

First, you have to love Gideon, Oyster and Wolfgang.  Gideon’s line of the show: My love life is one night only.  Oyster’s response: Dude, it’s no night only.  I’m happy that the show has settled on these three as Max’s friends and bandmates.  That consistency helps.  However, we need some Phoebe friendship consistency.  Apparently, Cherry will be back tonight, but a consistent friendship with Evan, Tyler and Sara would be a nice on-going theme as well.

In this episode, Phoebe is double grounded and can go out if she “has a mission.”  She gins up a mission with Super President Kickbutt – to babysit her daughter Simone (its nice to see her back).  Meanwhile, Max and the band have decided to break up if they haven’t booked a gig.

Max has turned Splatburger into Club Splatz – complete with VIP Room.  Phoebe brings Simone to the club and Simone is fascinating by sending things up the garbage chute in the VIP Room.  Of course, Simone ends up going up the garbage chute and Max and Phoebe soon follow.  Phoebe learns a valuable lesson in responsibility – when she realizes she is channeling Barb, while Max is turned into a cube of trash.  Is it brilliant situational comedy?  No.  Was it funny? Yes.

In the B story, Nora and Billy want a pet (again).  Their little show is a riot as is Hank slurping coffee trying to “wait it out.”  But Hank and Barb are swayed by Chloe’s cuteness and agree to let Nora and Billy take care of Dr. Colosso for the weekend, stating that if they demonstrate they are responsible pet owners, they can have a pet.

Nora and Billy try feeding Dr. Colosso veggies but he wants pizza.  He bloats up and needs more “fart fuel” to release the gas.  Look carefully at the can of Chili Beans he is given.  The description on the label starts with “Lorem Ipsum.”  The beans bloat Dr. Colosso more and Nora and Billy admit they aren’t responsible pet owners.  Dr. Colosso releases his gas – and zings all over the house, finally stating “don’t light a match for at least an hour.”

This wasn’t the most original episode ever but it was fun.  Our players have been at it long enough that they inhabit their characters well.  Looking forward to a new episode.

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.

Yes I have blue hair. I am Jexica!

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.

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.

When Shelby’s adventurous Grandma Rita comes to visit, the girls learn time travelers were responsible for setting up Shelby’s grandparents and they jump to the 1950s to investigate.

I love BFW, but I fear it is getting into a rut.  How so?

1. Barry and Naldo are often in a separate storyline from Shelby and Cyd.  There’s often little crossover.
2. Many of the stories are “we need to go back in time to (a) fix something or (b) make sure something doesn’t happen.”
3. Naldo says something to Barry somewhat under his breath, Barry calls him on it thinking he said something else, and Naldo says “yea, let’s go with that.”

Here, Shelby’s grandmother Rita, played by Marion Ross (I believe has played every TV character’s grandmother at some point) is coming in for a visit.  Shelby feels that she isn’t close to her grandmother – but she is surprised when Grandma Rita arrives and tells her that it was two time travelers who brought together Grandma Rita and Grandpa Paul.  Shelby and Cyd decide to go back in time to make sure the meeting happens (which seems odd since we know Rita and Paul end up together – otherwise Shelby would be a different person).

Originally, Shelby and Cyd try to hook up Rita with a boar named Paul Barlow (not McAllister).  There’s a little Pretty Woman makeover and the realization that they have hooked up Rita with the wrong Paul.  We never do see Rita meet Paul McAllister = just that she shows up at the end and the opening scene is repeated.  There really was nothing interesting or surprising about the story or its resolution.

In the B story, Barry freaks out when he learns that his parents are selling the RV to buy glasses for his sister (who apparently Naldo has kissed).  Mr Vesper, the buyer, is actually a convicted criminal who has hidden gems in the RV.  Barry and Naldo realize if they can find the gems, they can buy the RV from Barry’s parents (why not just buy his sister’s glasses).  They end up moving the RV to the school to “hide it” but Mr Vesper finds them – with the jewels and, in the end, Mr Vesper is arrested.  What could have been a fun storyline is told in a clunky manner.

I fear that BFW is losing its momentum.  They need to move away from the repetitive storylines (jump to the 50s!, jump to the 70s!  find a decade and jump to it).  Shelby and Cyd found boyfriends in one episodes but they seem to have disappeared.  Barry was interested in Marci and that storyline has disappeared.  I would have spent more time on the Back to the Future Lab storyline.  Does Shelby’s dad still work at GloboDigiDyne?

Misadventures of Dewey Finn, a rocker who poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school as he teaches his unconventional and overachieving students to play and love rock ‘n’ roll.

Enough time has passed since the movie School of Rock that today’s tweens viewers are too young to remember it.  Now let’s say you’ve never seen School of Rock with Jack Black or School of Rock on Broadway. You’ll want to transfer to a new school after seeing this.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this show but there’s also nothing inherently great about it either.  The pilot establishes the scenario pretty quickly.  Tony Cavalero plays Dewey Finn, a graduate of the “look how hip I am, I’ll be a great teacher” school.  Teaching is not as easy as just showing up and writing on the blackboard (wait, there are still blackboards).  Want old school – look at the old white Mac Desktops in the back!

The kids in the school are ok as well.  We have the science nerd, the smart girl, the hip girl, the hip guy and the “I’m going to Yale” kid (surprise, surprise, he’s Asian!)  Add in the clueless principle and you have all the elements of a tween comedy.  Remember How to Rock on Nick?  A much better show.

So my pet peeves:

1. I hate it when TV teachers or TV students say they want to have fun – or school should be fun.  It shouldn’t.  It should be engaging.
2. Not every cool teacher needs to act like a doofus or a fool.
3. The show sends the message that if you fail at everything else, just go into teaching.
4. No one in the hallway hears them playing rock music?
5. Does Mr. Finn teach them every class or just English?  What about his other classes?
6. The kids seem pretty quick to jump on the rock band bandwagon.  A little resistance from them would have been nice.
7. The students sure picked up how to play rock music really fast.
8. Surprise, surprise!  Only the featured actors are in the band.  The rest of the class fill the role of background clappers.
9. I wonder how the students are assessed.
10. Should be interesting when Dewey has his formal observation.  I’m sure he will be commended for “innovative teaching!”

Hey, at least we got to see Vernee Watson back on TV (remember her from Fresh Prince of Bel Air).

I’d suggest not matriculating at the School of Rock.