Story: Max is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past,  Present and  Future on Christmas Eve, in hopes of putting him in the holiday spirit.

Well, at least its not A Wonderful Theme, but the other standard A Christmas Carol variation. We quickly learn that the #1 rule of supervillians is to hate Christmas.  Max seems pretty evil in the opening of this episode.  Max often takes one step forward into goodness and then two steps backward.

Here’s the question though: Would Max really be that evil to Nora?  His evil-ness seems misplaced.  I could see him focusing that evil on Phoebe, but Nora, no.

Max is first visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past who notes: “All your lame ideas to ruin Christmas have failed.”  This sets up an interesting premise as I hope we are going to be getting some backstory here – and we are.

Christmas Past #1: as a baby, Max barfs on Barb, who thinks she has said her name.  Her conclusion – this is the best Christmas ever.

Christmas Past #2: the last Christmas in Metroburg.  Max gives coal to everyone (now that’s evil).  Hank takes all the coal and turns it into a huge diamond, which means Hank can now retire (I wonder how he gets paid to begin with) and the family can move to Hiddenville.

As “Phoeba” notes, “Killing the Christmas spirit will always turn your bad gifts into good gifts.”

Note of hilarity: Watch Jack Griffo play the nerdy supervillian.

Christmas present soon arrives (Max: Let’s wrap this up.)  Max gives Nora an empty box (again, I doubt he’d be this cruel to Nora).  We also learn Max’s full name: Maximus Octavius Thunderman.

Max decides to ruin everyone’s Christmas.

Christmas future arrives next.  We get some good throwbacks to previous episodes.  We had the “future pump” and Max’s line: “I’m going to mind text you LOL.”

What interesting here is the role Billy assumes after the family goes bad.  He has control of the lair and hangs with Dr. Colosso/Max because “her has no one else to hang out with.”  Nice parallel to Max and Dr. Colosso’s existing relationship.

When Max sees that future Nora still forgives him for ruining their family (she even gives Doll Max her last bow), he decides to bring Christmas back.  We do get the Christmas Carol line: “Sorry, Max Thunderman, it’s too late.”

In the end, Christmas is back, but Nora still receives an empty box (nice connection to the previous Christmas present scene).  But there’s a note inside – “Look outside, love Max.” Outside its snowing.  And as Max tells Phoebe, “It is so bad being good once a year.”

Overall, I enjoyed the episode – we got some nice back story and we got some more humanizing of Max.

Story: When the twins’ sibling rivalry peaks during holiday festivities, Logan wishes that he never had a sister.  An angel grants his wish and he experiences life without Lindy.

Prediction: Everyone will be the opposite as they usually are.

I’ll give the writers credit for a cute title.

Lindy and Logan remind me of Oscar and Felix of The Odd Couple.  They are true opposites.  At the beginning of the episode, Lindy is in prime do-gooder mode.  Logan’s mad because Lindy ratted him out about putting a skateboard in the wall – as such, no ski trip for him (oddly enough, no one else seems to be going on the ski trip).

I like the writing on I Didn’t Do It.  It’s very play-on-word-y.  For example, the invites to Lindy’s Christmas Open House are called “Lind-evites.”

The first act gives us a review of each characters strengths and foibles.  Delia is unique; Jasmine is interested in a bad boy; Garrett is a germophobe.  Long term watchers of the show already know this.

Lindy completely takes over the holidays with her bossiness and controlling nature.  Then Logan utters those magic words: “I wish I didn’t have a sister.”  Thanks to Angel from Guardian Plumbing (get it?), Logan experiences life sans Lindy.

Here comes the opposites:

• Delia is now a cheerleader.
• Jasmine is a bad girl.
• Garrett is just weird.

Surprise, surprise: Lindy had a positive effect on all of them.  Surprise, surprise #2: Lindy had the biggest effect on Logan.  Surprise, surprise #3: Logan wants Lindy back (but he must recreate the exact scenario to get her back.

Question: Where’d Logan find the ugly Christmas sweater is Lindy wasn’t part of his family?

Line of the episode: Buy one, get one tree.

Overall, I’d have hoped the writers created something more unique.

 

Now that the holiday season has come and gone, it’s time to take a look back at some of the Christmas/holiday episodes of some of my favorite shows.  More often than not, they take on a similar storyline to It’s a Wonderful Life.

Here’s how things go:

• Character A has a long-standing relationship of animosity with Character B.
• Character A wishes Character B never existed.
• Through some magic, Character A sees his/her life without Character B.
• Character A realizes how much Character B means to him/her.

The problem with these episodes is that they often do not move story forward.  By the following episode, the animosity has returned.

I’ll be doing three reviews:

• I Didn’t Do It
• The Thundermans
• Girl Meets World

I give credit to GMW for some inventive storytelling that gives us some deeper understanding of the current slate of characters (except for poor Lucas).  The Thundermans gave us some key back story in their Christmas episode while I Didn’t Do It went for the standard “characters acting opposite as they usually do” route.

Air Date: November 22, 2014

A story: Phoebe seeks to outsell Max at the school art auction.

B story: Max is concerned about losing followers on Evilgram.

Any episode with the nutty Sarah is ok with me!

Line of the episode #1: What’s that on her face?  A whole lot of crazy!

In this episode, we get another visit to the world of competition between Max and Phoebe.  Max is apparently very talented in art (or as Ms. Madsen states, “Funny and talented”) while Phoebe is lacking talent in artistic endeavors (or “always on time”).  Phoebe can’t understand why, as twins, she shouldn’t be equally as talented as Max when it comes to art.  She soon finds out that Max has been having Billy steal artwork from the dumpster behind the art school.

Phoebe’s masterpiece: Mt. Suckamanjaro.

Phoebe has Billy acquire a piece of artwork for her.  The vase comes from the Hiddenville Art Museum (who knew they had an Egyptian wing!)  In the end, the vase is safely returned to the museum – and Max builds additional cred on Evilgram. We do get a couple of cliches:

• The battle of the bidders (twice!)
• The funky dancing oblivious security guard.

What I appreciated about this episode were some of the tie-ins to the previous experiences by the characters.

• Dr. Colosso notes that Max had his edge when he was shooting rockets to take down satellites (from Report Card)
• Phoebe is still woeful at art.  In Report Card, she tells Tyler and Ashley “Art’s kind of my thing.”  Tyler’s response “No its not!”

Line of the episode #2: Yea, I snuck in here, but don’t tell your mummy.

Number of Thunder-twin screams: 0

Overall, not a bad episode.

 

Kirby Buckets is a (relatively) new show on Disney XD.  According to the Disney XD press release,

• “A young boy’s vivid imagination bursts onto screen.”
• “Outrageous adventures of a young aspiring animator.”
• “Joined by his animated characters each with their own vibrant personality.”

Kirby, played by Jacob Bertrand (formerly of Marvin, Marvin; he’s a lot better here!) is surrounded by the usual oddball friends Fish and Eli.  He’s seemingly in constant competition with sister Dawn, and her trusty sidekick, Belinda (played by Tiffany Esperson, formerly of Bucket & Skinner, she’s a lot better here!).

The show is created by Gabe Snyder and Mike Aber (who created Supah Ninjas!, one of my favorites) and executive produced by Kirstofor Brown (of Beavis and Butthead fame; you can see shades of B&BH in many of Kirby’s animations).

The discourse between Kirby and Dawn reminds me of Max and Phoebe of the Thundermans, or Phil and Pim on Phil of the Future.  Its typical pre-teen/teen brother/sister angst.

I watched the episode “Happy Prank Williams, Jr Day,” the annual celebration of pranking in the town.  Apparently Mr. Williams (who founded the town) biggest prank was the Geoffrey, “the funniest, most outrageous prank ever.”  No one has been ever been able to figure out that Williams last words “at 115 on 11.29.48” means the combination to the only locker left from the original school.  Apparently they had combination locks back in the day … back in the 1800s.  Fortunately, Kirby figures it out (or we wouldn’t have an episode).  A series of coincidences leads Dawn to uncover the prank, which we never see.  As Kirby states “it was just one big trick.”

Kirby Buckets has the same vibe as many of the other Disney XD/Disney/Nick shows that have preceded it.  What I didn’t understand was the role of the animations.  Kirby doesn’t appear to interact with them at all and they don’t appear to serve any additional purpose other than comic relief.  I’d like to see the animations take a more active role in future shows.

That said, considering the target audience, Kirby Buckets isn’t too bad.  It was funny (I’m a big fan of inside jokes and witty ways of phrasing things – Pranks? No thanks!)  The characters seem genuine and Bertrand et al certainly didn’t graduate from the teen school of overacting.  If you have kids pre-teen and early teen, KB is worth more than a drop in the bucket.

Air Date: November 1, 2014

A story: Phoebe and Max work together to win tickets to a MKTO concert, but a mishap with the paper-shredder at home appears to destroy the tickets. (Source: IMDB)

B story: Hank brings home a super shredder for Thunder Purge, which Billy welcomes to the family and Nora sees as competition.

Line of the episode: “I don’t need your pity poultry.”

Number of ThunderTwin Screams: Zero.

So, apparently, someone thought it was time for the “Very Special Guest Star” episode of the Thundermans.  Hence the appearance of MKTO.  And someone thought it was Max’s turn to have a crush on someone.  Oyster makes another appearance (Max’s best line: Clam it, Oyster!)

A well-constructed sitcom episode deftly weaves the A and B stories and the writer’s have done an admirable job here.  Phoebe is crushing on MKTO (yes, another Phoebe crush) and is trying to win concert tickets.  Max is crushing on a girl at school, Cassandra, who just happens to be a big fan of MKTO.  Max offers to help Phoebe win the tickets if he can have one ticket.

Max’s deception earns him payback – he gets pooped on in line (earning him the nickname “Birdturd”), and through a series of misfortunate events, never makes it into the concert.  Meanwhile, Phoebe, who believes the tickets have been shredded, ends up at Splatburger alone when MKTO arrive for a pre-concert meal.  She’s treated to a private concert.

Powers are barely used to advance the A story here and that’s ok.  It reflects Phoebe’s desire to be a “normal teenager.”  And once again, Max’s duplicity comes back to bite him on the butt.

On the down side, Billy’s obsession with Shreddy is a bit creepy.  The Max or Phoebe has a crush stories have gotten repetitive.  And Cherry would undoubtedly had a crush on MKTO as well.

 

Air Date: October 4, 2014

A story: Phoebe has a new crush, Oyster.

B story: Billy blabs that his dad, the “superhero,” will appear at his school’s career day.

 

If you’ve seen the iCarly episode “iDate a Bad Boy,” then you have the general idea of this episode.  In that episode, Carly was crushing on neighbor Griffin, who’s secret was his collection of Beanie Babies.  Here, Phoebe is crushing on Max’s bandmate, Oyster, while Max’s other bandmate, Gideon, crushes on Barb (that’s just weird).  This is also a flip of the episode “Dinner Party,” where Max crushed on bad girl Tara (Cole Campbell’s sister).  The crush storyline is getting a little bit repetitive.

The episode continues the theme as Phoebe continues her “transformation” into a normal teenager.  She barely uses here superpowers here – once in a duel with Max over a bag of potato chips and later, to have Peggy the guitar “choose Max.”  In the end, though, as hard as she wants to be a bad girl, Phoebe comes clean and tells Oyster that they aren’t a good match.

The B story – where Billy tells his classmate his dad is a superhero to impress her – is somewhat standard issue.  There are some kooky parents at Career Day – alligator wrestler and rodeo clown to name a few; and Hank finally appears as a plumber (to flush out crime).  In the end, Billy’s proud of his dad – “You’re my hero just for showing up” – while Hank’s plumbing douses bad girl Morgan.

A few little quibbles:

• Why not have Evan and Tyler in the band – the show is accumulating too many second-stringers as Max/Phoebe friends and classmates.
• The band formation timeline is a little bit off.
• Billy and Nora’s clothes do not change for the entire episode – even tho the day changes.

And a few little nuggets:

• Mrs. Wong makes a couple of appearances (I love Mrs. Wong!)
• The potential names of Max’s band are amusing – Maxford and Sons, Bruno Max and Max-Eyed Peas.
• Oyster has two nifty catchphrases: Sweeches and Awesedelic.

I have no doubt we will see Oyster again.  But lets end the Phoebe crush storylines!

 

Air Date: September 27, 2014

A/B story: Max needs minions to help him take over the school (and the world).  Phoebe needs minions to help her complete her chores before she goes to a new teen dance club.

Cherry alert!  And Club Ooh!  Ooh!  ( a nice throwback to episode #1)

This is one of the few times I remember that Max and Phoebe were in parallel plots but not involved in the same plot.

Marymount School had the idea first award: The Mariachi Band (circa 2009).

After pulling a prank of Principal Bradford (played with gleeful snarkiness by Jeff Meacham, Max is named “Public School Enemy #1.”  This, of course, attracts the attention of three castoffs from nerdland (or central casting) who implore Max to “teach us your pranky ways.”  Max turns this request into having minions to take over the world.  Little does he know they will turn against him.

At about the same time, while excited by the opportunity to go to the new “teen dance club,” Phoebe is challenged by the fact she must complete two pages of chores before Saturday.  (Bad parenting alert – maybe Hank and Barb could have given her a heads up early; Bad planning alert – between a dress, shoes, hair and makeup, its going to take Phoebe all week to get ready).  She coerces her siblings to “do her chores” by framing it as superhero training.

I like that Phoebe isn’t too afraid to take a step into the dark side and Max does deeply care for his siblings.

The Max as motivational scene cracked me up.  I’m not sure I’d buy the DVD, “Prank you, Max Thunderman.  You’re Welcome!” But you know trouble is abrewing when Max says to his minions “You wanna be the best, you have to take on the top dog.”  Eventually his minions are fully maximized and the tables are turned.

In true sitcom fashion, every scheme falls apart.  Billy and Nora find Phoebe’s chore list (which closed captioning kept calling the “choir list”) and they rig her vacuum cleaner (the vacuum-fu) to blow the dust out.

Max gets his revenge at the Bradford Special Assembly and takes down his minions.  My only complaints …

• We’ve seen the crap from the ceiling route before.
• Ahh, the old “we can’t walk on high heels” gag.
• Its the second episode where Max’s prankiness has been featured.

The scene with Dr. Colosso was the kind of zaniness I approve.  Not at the same level as Arithmo-tic, but still inspired zaniness.

Waiting on the next episode!

Air date: September 27, 2014

A story: Captain Man loses his powers of invulnerability.  Can he get them back?

B Story: Jasper tries skinny jeans.

First things first.  We learn that State Route 99 goes through Swellview!

In this episode, Captain Man is hit in the face by a box thrown by Jasper.  He starts bleeding, which means he is now vulnerable.  Captain Man, Henry and Charlotte, along with Gooch, seek to find the cause of the vulnerability and a “cure.”

Props to Dan Schneider for his ability to weave inside jokes into his shows.  The can of meat eaten by Captain Man is “Shia’s LeBeef”; the jolly beetles are at Rigby’s Cannery on Abbey Road.  Schneider is also very deft at bringing in scenes and characters from his previous shows.  Tonight’s featured Scheider-com: Drake and Josh.

The team of Charlotte, Henry and Captain Man work together well as a team.  With each episode, we see a deepening relationship between Henry and Captain Man.  Its pretty clear Henry would endanger himself to save Captain Man.  Sign us up for the mutual admiration society.  Charlotte has evolved into a smarter, less sassy sidekick.  She’s almost the brains of the operation.

But lets talk about Jasper.  He’s the one bud who doesn’t know Henry’s secret – and since Henry only seems to have two friends – its still 50/50.  But Jasper’s in danger of being exiled to B story land.  The scene with him trying to put on skinny jeans with the help of the “A&F-ish” male employee and a giant shoehorn was downright creepy.  Moreover, Jasper’s buds told him that the skinny jeans would help him get a girl.  In the end, the jeans just precluded him from going to the bathroom.  I’d bring Jasper into the super hero clan.

Jace Norman – as Henry – does a great job with the snark.  I’m a big fan of snark in a show – so lines like “Seriously, they’re playing me off,” “Captain Man to the Man Cave,” and “Let’s not stereotype all the tigers” worked for me.

I said before I’d be willing to invest more time in Henry Danger.  Its not iCarly – yet – and it may never be, but for its intended audience, its an amusing half hour.

The premise: The story of a 10-year-old girl Dawn Harper (Lizzy Greene) whose sibling rivalry with her three brothers Nicky (Aidan Gallagher), Ricky (Casey Simpson) and Dicky (Mace Coronel) is heightened by the fact that they are quadruplets. (Source: Wikipedia)

First, hats off to the return of Brian Stepanek to the world of teen television.  We all remember him as Arwin on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody!  Unfortunately, the excitement for NRD&D ends there.

NRD&D is clearly aimed at children of maybe the age of 10 – maybe, if they were clueless.  Showrunner and writer Matt Fleckenstein has quite a pedigree – Family Guy and a slew of Dan Schneider teen-coms – but even he shouldn’t be proud of this show.

We know Dawn is the girl.  Nicky, Ricky and Dicky are interchangeable – during the first episode, I couldn’t figure out which one was which (and I didn’t really care) so I called them Nerdy Boy, Sunglasses, and Neuroses.  All stereotypes.  Nerdy Boy was focused on his grades and school work (that’s not a bad thing); Neuroses seemed to live in fear of being hurt (even once when he gets hit in the face, he says “I deserved that.”  Really?); and Sunglasses was quite the ladies man (Do you know any 10 year old who acts that way).  But since the show is focused on the pre-tween audience, I suppose having somewhat identifiable characters might be a good thing…I think.

The parents – played by Stepanek and Munn – seem either surprised still that they have quadruplets – or dismayed.  Naturally, NRD&D’s “unique personalities” lead to conflict and, at the end of the pilot episode, we have the quintessential, “we can work as a team” moment.  That earns a big “Awwww” from the studio audience.

Let’s talk about the pilot. No name dad receives his sought-after signed Brownie Wilson football jersey – which is the highlight of his life (even more than his wedding or the birth of his kids).  Local pet adoption person enters the store and NRD&D adopt a dog.  Could anyone possibly guess that the dog would somehow ruin the shirt?  Could anyone possibly guess that, in their attempt to fix the problem, NRD&D would make it worse?  Heck no, never saw that one coming at all.

Treat kids like the mature individuals they are.  Thirteen weeks may be too generous of an order for NRD&D.