Summary: Max and Phoebe advance to the final tryout for a spot on an elite superhero squad, but a new super villain with a surprise connection to the Thunderman family may force them to sacrifice their crime fighting dream. (from imdb.com)

A satisfying end to a satisfying series.  Note: Spoilers ahead!

The last line of the Thundermans theme always set the stage for the series: Just your average family, trying to be normal, living a double life.

In its five years on the air and it its four seasons, the Thundermans have been nothing but consistent.  The writers never went for the lame joke, the stupid scene or the easy laugh.  A show about a family of superheroes always requires some suspension of belief but the through line was always there: are they a normal family or a normal family of superheroes?  The character flaws were consistent as well: Max’s battle between good and evil; Phoebe’s attention to detail while battling between being a normal teen and a superhero.  Hank and Barb’s realization that there days of being a superhero are probably over.  Nora and Billy’s desire to be superheros.

What happens in the series finale is somewhat predictable – except for the identity of Balfour’s father. What’s strange is this little tidbit is dropped into the conversation – there’s no warm and fuzzy reunion for Balfour and his dad.  Balfour, also in the Z force championships, was raised in foster homes without a family.  Contrast that to Max who has a family but is annoyed by them.

In the championships, Max and Phoebe, working as a team, avenge the competition, and finally Balfour.  However, because Max and Phoebe do not demonstrate any “twin power,” only one of them can be in the  Z force.  So they are forced to face off each other.  Max eventually wins (after Phoebe fakes an injury).

But Max’s place in the Z force is soon threatened when he receives a message from Balfour about the Thundermans being “kidnapped” in some weird riff on Super Mario Brothers.  Max arrives back at the house and the crew is now in a giant rabbit cage in Max’s lair.  Max and Phoebe discover they do have a twin power and vanquish Balfour, who is turned into a bunny.

Super President KickButt shows up and alerts the Thundermans that Z force commander Dirk Trumbo has been canned and Max and Phoebe are now in charge of the Z force.  They hire the family as the new Z force/T force.  Phoebe’s last line is “Now lets go save the world.”  Her last action is pushing down the penguin tray, turning the family picture back into the Thunder picture.  A nice touch back to episode one when the picture kept switching back and force.

One thing I always look for in a series ending is that the stories of the characters we have grown to love will continue.  All’s right with the world.  The Thundermans are a family of superheroes – not just a normal family.  Again, a satisfying end to the show.

My one nitpick for the final episode: I would have like to see Cherry at the goodbye scene as well as Mrs, Wong.  They’ve been a part of the show since Day 1(-ish).  So its so long Wong, so long Cherry and so long Thundermans.  We’ll miss you but we know you are out there somewhere keeping us safe.

Series description (from imdb): Star Falls follows teen Sophia who persuades a Hollywood star, Bo Brooks, and his family to live in her house while he shoots a movie in town, hoping that he’ll fall in love with her mom.

Episode description (from imdb): When Sophia rescues the dog of Hollywood star Craig Brooks, she seizes the opportunity to set her mother up with him; when that does not work, she takes things a step further and has the star and his three children move into her home.

Its nice to see Nick debut a show that does not involve magic, superheroes and special gifts and talents.  Star Falls does fall under the “fish out of water” genre.  The show has a pretty good pedigree – the writers and exec producers have worked on a variety of shows, including iCarly and the undervalued Max and Shred.  Its also nice to see Nickelodeon feature main characters who are of color.   Diversity has been sorely lacking on Nick as of late.

The show is beautifully shot.  I’m sure Star Falls is somewhere near Toronto but its nice to see a Nick show that gets out of the studio.

The premise is straight forward, even if we have seen it before.  Mega movie star, Craig Brooks, is filming for three months and brings his spoiled, Internet-famous daughter, philosophical son and scamp of a son to live with him.  Surprise, surprise, the town’s veterinarian (who’s animal rescue business is called Happy Tails) has seen every Craig Brooks movie.  Teenage daughter Sophie seeks to pair up her mom and Brooks.

Sophie, played by Siena Agudong, looks like Miranda Cosgrove.  She’s overly earnest and overly enthusiastic and has that quirky “I’ll say this, I’ll say that, I mean this, Did I mean that” way of acting.  It gets tiresome after a while.  That’s not to say she can’t act – she can – she just needs to tone it done a little.  And of course, she has a best buddy Nate, who fills the “I can’t believe she is doing that” role.

Brooks’s daughter Diamond is the stereotyped, spoiled, “I belong in LA” type; middle bro Phoenix walks around speaking philosophical truths and youngest brother Bo (did they run out of quirky names) is the typical troublemaker.

When the Brooks’ dog shows up at Happy Trails, Sophie sees this as a way to connect her mom and Craig.  It doesn’t exactly work; neither does trying to rent their house to the Brooks family (really?)  Sophie states her mom is her best friend and she wants her to be happy – and I believe that.  In the end, Sophie tries to make Diamond feel welcome in Star Falls by creating a mini LA.  Its cute and, all of sudden, everyone is happy to be there!  The show does smack of an Andi Mack rip-off though.  But I’m willing to give it a chance.

There’s a good premise here with solid acting and visuals.  And the potential for an interracial on a tween/teen show is interesting.  Lets hope Star Falls keeps rising.

From Wikipedia: The series features children contestants competing for cash prizes as they aim to keep themselves clean while they navigate and make their way around an obstacle course which is intentionally designed to get them messy.

Take Nickelodeon’s hallmark splat and messiness, add in a voiceover that sounds like the announcer on Minute to Win It, and you have Keep It Spotless.  I’d suggest a new title: Keep It Off the Air.

The show features two teams of tweens/teens, similar to Nick’s Paradise run, in which the teams mug it up for the cameras using phrases like “You’re going down,” “Let’s do it,” and “Which way to the gym (with accompanying arm flex).”  The odd thing about the show is there is no host.  Just the voiceover/announcer.  As a result, we just see teams in competition.  We never really get to know them; they don’t interact with the other team and they don’t interact with anyone else.

The episode I watched featured two competitions.  In the first one, teams had to push their partner on a cart, through a constant spray of “paint” so that the cart landed in the sweet zone – an area between a pre-established black line and the end of the course.  If they fell short, they went again; if they hit the end of the wall, they tried again.  After being successful, the two teammates went into a chamber, where they were scanned for messiness.  This percent was converted into a score.

The second challenge featured one teammate tossing paint filled balloons to their partner through a grid.  The partner had to catch the balloon and then break the ballon to fill up a container.  Whichever team filled the container the most apparently won.  Then it was back to the chamber to be scanned again.  The winning team then got to run an obstacle course to somehow win $10,000.  That’s a big chunk of change for a Nick show.  But by the time they got to the obstacle course, I could have cared less who won and if they won the 10k.

The show has zero rooting value and zero play along value – two key elements of a good game show.  The lack of host meant there was no one there to help create empathy and rooting value as well. I would have even taken that Paradise Run host here!  Its as if the higher ups at Nick said, “Lets come up with a game show where we squirt paint at people.”

Paramount has already rebooted Beat the Clock for kids.  So why not just reboot Double Dare or Figure It Out?  I see KIS going the same way as the short-lived Web Heads.  There are too many good game shows in the Nick stable for them to waste their time on this.

 

Episode Description from imdb.com: After their requests drive Kickbutt to quit, Max and Phoebe get what they want when Hank is named the new SuperPresident; being the First Family of the Hero League takes its toll on the family.

Now that the Thundermans has been on for almost five years (that’s an eternity for a Nickelodeon show), you pretty much know what you are going to get in an episode.  Either Max and Phoebe will squabble about something; Max and Phoebe will be on opposite sides of something but come together at the end to save the world; Max and Phoebe both want something and team up together to get what they want.  The B story usually involves Hank, Barb, Billy, Nora and Chloe.  This episode is a Max and Phoebe want something.

What they want seems rather silly.  Max wants a very expensive rocket car and Phoebe wants Cherry appointed to be her assistant.  All of their pestering of Super President Kickbutt has gotten to her, and when Chloe teleports Kickbutt to the Thundermans house (during her SuperState of the Union speech), Kickbutt declares that she has had enough and quits.

Max and Phoebe see this as a way to get what they want.  But to be honest, its pretty selfish and pretty shallow.  Their requests harken back to some season #1 episodes – and we would have hoped Max and Phoebe would have grown since then.

They convince Hank (we know his middle name is Tiberius) to accept the Super President position.  During the prelude to the inauguration, Hank eats all of the Super President cake (again, a weak excuse but true to Hank’s character).  Hank and Barb fear that the scandal will ruin his presidency.

Meanwhile, back in Hiddenville, the stress of being the first family is getting to Nora and Billy.  The “Secret Service” believes that Nora is a threat to Billy and they must remain 10 feet apart (the same distance Max and Phoebe need to stay apart in Going Wonkers!)  Eventually they are outfitted with electronic necklaces that zap when they get too close.

Max and Phoebe come to the realization that their selfishness is slowly pulling the family apart.  Meanwhile, Hank and Barb are being blackmailed – by Dr. Colosso, who wants to be the Secretary of Fashion (Huh?  At least if you are going to blackmail someone, ask for something good!)  Max and Phoebe find former SuperPresident Kickbutt working at Kickbutt travel.

This was a funny scene.  One traveler wants to go to Aruba, so Kickbutt superkicks him there.  When Max and Phoebe ask how the traveler will get home, Kickbutt’s response: “That’s his problem.”  Kickbutt has no apparent interest in returning to her former post – so she kickbutts Max and Phoebe back to Hiddenville.

They arrive back (Max: That was a lousy flight) to find their house full of goobers.  Hank is about to hold a press conference but decides to come clean about eating the cake. He resigns. Former SuperPresident Kickbutt shows up and decided to accept her former position.  All is well in the Thunderman house and all is well in Metroburg.

This episode seemed rather forced in the storyline department.  But thankfully Blobbin didnt make an appearance!

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.”

Episode Description: Booker enlists Levi and Tess to help him convince Nia of his newfound abilities to see into the future. Meanwhile, Raven’s latest vision involves a family disagreement that leads her to meddle in her kids’ life at school. (imdb.com)

With Boy Meets World, Full House, Roseanne, Gilmore Girls and a whole host of TV shows getting reboots, it comes as no surprise that That’s So Raven gets its own reboot.  I’m sure it won’t be long before we get a reboot of Cory in the House.

Here’s the premise: Best friends Raven and Chelsea, both divorced mothers, are now raising their children in an apartment together in Chicago. Their house is turned upside down when they realize one of Raven’s children, Booker, has inherited the same psychic abilities as his mother.

I went into watching this episode without a lot of high hopes but, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised.  The premise of TSR was Raven, with her psychic abilities, could “see into the future” and, in true sitcom fashion, would end up getting into some mess or situation trying to resolve it.  It’s nice to see that premise isn’t lost here as well.

Raven-Symone brings back all the winning characteristics of Raven and I find her to be a winsome role model for young women and young women of color.  Toss the psychic ability aside and you have a character who is smart, talented and determined.  I actually think you could tell compelling story without the psychic angle.

Anneliese van der Pol is back as best friend Chelsea and naturally, she and her kids are sharing an apartment (and as always, an urban apartment like I have never seen before) with Raven.  These arrangements are always done out of financial necessity – but please give characters their own apartments!

In the opener, Raven spends a lot of time working to make sure that her daughter Nia knows how much she is appreciated.  We get no inkling as to why Nia might feel like she is underappreciated.  I felt this to be a necessary plot point to distinguish her from Booker, who, miracle of miracles, has inherited Raven’s psychic abilities.  Booker even gets his own eyeball tunnel vision to show he is having a psychic moment.  Just like dear old me.  Yep, that’s me.

Chelsea’s son Levi adequately fills  the young wise-ass role (see Max Fuller on Fuller House).  There’s also a wise-cracking next door neighbor named Tess, who to me serves no purpose on the show at all.  I’d get rid of the character.

That said, the kids on this show know how to act and are devoid, for the most part, of the “cute TV sitcom kids.”

The main thesis of TSR was being accepted.  And that theme is evident here.  RH opened to some solid ratings and it will be interesting to see if the show maintains its momentum.  And it will be interesting if Orlando Brown, Kyle Massey or Rondell Sheridan show up as Eddie, Cory or Raven’s dad.  That’s when we will truly know if Raven’s Home.

When the children learn that Dr. Colosso ruined their parents’ wedding years earlier, they decide to recreate Hank and Barb’s dream day as their anniversary gift. (from imdb.com)

This is a funny episode but I think we have gone to the “birthday party/anniversary well” too many times.  Furthermore, we have had too many stories with Max trying to be an equal contributor to the Phoebe/Max Z Force application.

That said, we start off with Phoebe trying to arrange for an anniversary gift for Hank and Barb (the trick about using brownies to call a meeting is amusing).  When asked about wedding photos, Hank and Barb defer, but finally tell the story about how Dr. Colosso turned them into goats at their wedding.  Hence no pictures (although the could have taken some afterwards.)

Phoebe et al decide to recreate Hank and Barb’s wedding.  Hank and Barb are thrilled with the invitations – but Dr. Colosso is on the case to ruin this wedding as well.  He sneaks into the house and gets in where the Animalyzer is (wouldn’t you have moved it?).  Turning himself back into a human, he then turns the kids into animals.  In the end, Colosso is vanquished, the kids turn back into themselves and the wedding goes on.

Overall, I didn’t find this a thrilling episode and lost interest in the middle of it.  You can do better Thundermans!

Topanga is offered promotion at work to run her law firm’s London office. While Topanga tries to make the right decision for The Matthews family, Riley and her friend struggle with what may happen if Riley moves to London. (From imdb.com)

It’s time to say goodbye to Girl Meets World, as Topanga is faced with the difficult decision of moving the family to London for a position in the law firm’s office there.  This episode is a satisfying ending to a satisfying series that, I don’t think, gets the credit it deserves.

We are reintroduced to the Belgium 1831 story, which turns out to be much more important that we had originally realized.  Cory had planned to use this story as a way for our fearless group to off in the world on their own.  It’s just that, with Topanga’s choice, that time is a lot closer on the horizon.  In that this is the series finale, one might assume that Topanga will accept the offer and we will get a tearful goodbye as the family packs up, turns off the lights and off they go.

But what we get instead is a thoughtful consideration of how we interact with each other and with the world.  If I have one complaint about the series as a whole, its that, even thought Smackle and Zay were welcomed into the group, their interactions were so insular that they never had the chance to “meet world.”  But maybe the whole focus of the show was to bring them to the point where our core characters are ready to be Belgium 1831.

I also applaud the writers for not making the series finale about Riley but about Topanga.  This was her decision to make but she called on all of the people who have given her sage advice in her life to help with that decision (for some reason, Minkus never got a chance to share his thoughts and I could do without Eric’s nuttiness).  To see Shawn adopt Maya brought her the family she has always longed for; the adoption also completed Shawn’s quest for a family.  Interesting when Mr. Turner said he wished he had adopted Shawn as well.

And what else can you say about William Daniels.  In some ways, he is the core of the series.  Even after twenty years, he gives the best advice.  He is a teacher in so many ways – and not just in the classroom.

Topanga’s choice makes sense at the end.  While some may argue she did it for her family, she did it for herself.  Identifying “Topanga’s” as her quiet space was an interesting choice.  Furthermore, the parallel with the final episode of Boy Meets World (where Cory states, “boy meets world. I get it.”) is understanding and poignant as well when Riley also concludes “girl meets world. I get it.”

Two laugh out loud moments:

• Having both Morgans on.
• “I’m Kerri Abelson.”

Perhaps GMW will find a new home (apparently it won’t be on Netflix) and perhaps it will fade into the sunset, only to be reborn in fifteen years with Riley and Maya as young women in the world.  I’d argue, though, that GMW should not have been on Disney but Freeform.  The stories the writers told were deep dives into characters, not the typical sitcom fare found on DC.  This was not a Dcom.  It was great storytelling about interesting characters exploring their place in the world.

We will miss you Girl Meets World.

 

The Thundermans are forced to relocate to another city after their secret is revealed. However, when a new threat rises in Hiddenville, Phoebe and Max risk everything in order to save Hiddenville.

Now I’ll be honest, I’m a little biased with regard to this episode – in that the next door neighbor is named after me.

With Banished being the Season 4 premiere of the Thundermans, you basically know your characters and you know your storylines.  This is a good thing.  The writing in this episode is tight and the storyline arcs make sense to the long-time viewer.  The Thundermans would have written itself into a corner if every story revolved around one of the characters secretly svaing the world.  But now their secret is out!

But then how to deal with this moving forward.  Hank and Barb are tired of using their powers to solve their neighbors’ problems.  Billy and Nora start up ThunderCon to see who is on Team Billy or Team Nora.  Phoebe and Max “compete” to see who will be the new member of the Z Force (Max has rigged this, of course) and end up destroying Splatburger.  Super President Kickbutt arrives on the scene and eventually banishes the family to Antarctica.  Should they return home to Hiddenville, they will lose their powers.  Their home is given to a new family, including the annoying Candy Falconman.

Life in Antarctica is your typical hilarity for frozen jokes.  Chloe is missing Hiddenville so Billy and Nora decide recreate the experience for her, complete with Max’s slide.  However, Dr. Colosso gets through a message to Max and Phoebe that Candy is brainwashing everyone in Hiddenville to be her friend.  We don’t really know her motivation for doing this, but we will go along for the ride.

Max and Phoebe have two options: stay in Antarctica and let the brainwashing continue or risk losing their powers by heading back to Hiddenville to save their friends.  They decide to hitch a ride on Chloe back to Hiddenville.

They arrive back at the Thunderman house where Candy is having a party.  Oyster, Cherry, Wolfgang and Allison are all there (no Gideon?), repeating the phrase “Candy Falconman is my best friend.”  Max and Phoebe get everyone riled up by asking them how everyone can be Candy’s best friend.  Candy escapes to the roof, where Max and Phoebe (with some good action sequences) finally take down Candy.

The rest of the family teleports back to Hiddenville when they realize what Max and Phoebe have done.  As one might guess, Super President Kickbutt is not happy with the Thundermans and, as promised, takes away their powers in a very public ceremony – in their driveway.  I might have used that Hiddenville Park instead.

The family is a bit dejected but Nora is surprised when her zapping powers still work.  SPK has played a trick on them – she just wanted to make it appear the Thundermans had lost their powers.  Apparently mercy is one of her many talents!  So the Thundermans can stay in Hiddenville but no one knows they still have their powers.  This was a pretty genius move.  If there were to be no season 4, the show could have ended with the family losing their powers.  But since season 4 is a go, it allows for a reboot, if you will, that brings us back to the beginning.  Ironically, Cherry was in the bathroom so she knows the secret.

This episode was well plotted and tightly written!

Babe convinces Kenzie to teach Mason coding, but then gets jealous when Kenzie starts spending more and more time with him. (Imdb.com)

Now that the fall is here, its time for new episodes of almost every show.  So I decided to check back into Game Shakers to see how things are progressing with our favorite female coders.

This is a pretty standard fare, jealousy episode.  Mason Kendal shows up at Game Shakers wanting to learn how to code (he’s a young man of very few words, which we have seen before in almost every Nick and Disney tween-com).  Babe’s in love with him so she suggests Kenzie tutor him in coding.  Babe tries to make Mason jealous but her wild racket dance party with a fan sends the tutoring session to Mason’s house.  Babe even tries to make Mason jealous by having “Hot Bob” from school send her quite the flower and candy assortment.  In the end, Kenzie appears to be getting close to Mason.

Now in full-on jealousy mode, Babe outbids Kenzie on a towel using by Channing Tatum.  In the end, though, Mason just wanted to learn how to code so he could visually tell his girlfriend Layla, “I love you.”

In the B story, we have some dreck about Triple G and Hudson and Bass Milk (this funky product approach is common in Dan Schneider comedies).  There’s another story about Double G developing a super small arm because of all his game play.  I didn’t get it and I didn’t laugh.

I can’t see how Game Shakers lasts another season.  Schneider is too creative and too funny for this level of comedy.