Now that three shows on Disney Channel have come to an end (two of those at the same time just this past weekend) and with Austin & Ally stretching out its remaining last episodes like it's in a lamaze class (oh, sorry, I just learned that it's "Lamaze®") it's going to be a little more quiet until at least Stuck in the Middle premieres, as it's currently scheduled, deep into Spring '16 (it will apparently pair with a DCOM later than Adventures in Babysitting). That leaves Bunk'd and Girl Meets World as the only shows standing on Friday other than the animated XD block (and Bunk'd is completely absent for the rest of the month other than in incessantly marathoning the same four damn episodes over and over and OVER again), plus Liv and Maddie, K.C. Undercover, Best Friends Whenever and the aforementioned single handful of A&A episodes left on Sunday. Speaking specifically for the upcoming week, Friday is going to be an all-Dove night with yet another showing of Descendants and the three current/past Monstober episodes of LaM which we've already seen before (one of which we've already reviewed) and are available for viewing whenever all month on Watch Disney/OnDemand, likewise for Descendants. Yay. The Friday after is the night before Halloween so it's likely going to be a sacrificial rerun night too (I should mention that Halloween is my favorite night of the whole year aside from my own birthday - when my birthday is going well enough to stay sober that is - but it's always a lame duck in terms of actual Disney Channel programming. It's probably the only night of the entire year where everybody in the nation not only actually has plans but, unlike Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, is actually happy about it). Sunday's got a new Best Friends Whenever and...LaM? KCU? I don't know. Disney Channel promotion has been utterly piss-poor lately as long as the episode isn't Girl Meets [insert bitter, jealous words about referring to network self-congratulatory circle-jerking in here].
At least it's not Nickelodeon. On Wednesday we've got something something Thundermans, something something Bella, something something Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn maybe. This coming Saturday looks like a clusterfuck with a mixture of new, potentially new, and rerun episodes. For which shows? I don't know. The person in charge of Nickelodeon promotion is making the person in charge of Disney Channel promotion look like friggin' P.T. Barnum. And of course we've got new WITS Academies every weekday until the season runs out around Halloween save for when it's pre-empted by whatever. Nick and Mike will cover the TFW (sigh, these networks really need to stop using meme-based marketing) shows, we'll cover what happens to be new on Saturday, and I'll have a massive blog entry for WITS Academy so far around, say, Saturday or so and again after the season's conclusion. Other than that, uh, that's pretty much it for new live-action kiddie network programming for the rest of the month.
Yes, there was a new KCU and LaM last night. I'll leave it up to Mike or Nick to start on that one, if they want. LaM has been a consistently good show and an excellent match with Girl Meets World to inherent the network crown from Good Luck Charlie and Jessie. KCU...eh. I believe it was Nick who called it a Disney XD show that just happens to premiere on Disney Channel, and there's probably more truth to that than he even realizes. For as much time as Chase, Adam and Bree spend on saving the world with their super-powers and sparring and training with an entire school of maturing bionic warriors, they spend even more time being stymied by mundane, everyday problems that would take Jessie Prescott or Riley Matthews (Jessie Prescott! Riley Matthews!) maybe six minutes to figure out. Hell, the type of mundane everyday problem that P.J. Duncan or Fletcher Quimby could solve in, like, half an hour. All the while, the Davenport kids will completely forget they even have superpowers. The same thing with Mighty Med, especially in Season 2: Kaz and Oliver will spend just as much time trying to figure out how to weasel out of some mundane barrier (the type of mundane barrier Gabe Duncan would figure out while eating a turkey club sandwich, and then shake his head and facepalm at how Kaz and Oliver are helpless in the face of it) as much as they will actually help or fight with superheroes. For as much as K.C. Cooper engages in adequately-choreographed combat with obvious stunt people the network can't afford giving speaking parts to, she spends just as much time being pre-occupied by the type of problems Rocky Blue would've literally just danced around.
Anyway, we've still got the actual Jessie finale review to finish, so that's immediately forthcoming. Mike in particular has some really interesting things to say about it that I have to agree with. I feel like there's still one more Jessie retrospective left in me, and I'll probably write a broad retrospective about IDDI too. I also have to say, the responses I've been getting about my previous Jessie retrospectives,especially on Twitter, are incredible, and in actually a good way no less. It's seriously turning my cheeks red. I have something planned in regards to that - it's not going to show up immediately, hell it might not even show up this year but I'll see what I can do for progress on it. You'll just have to sit tight until then, provided you're even excited about it. There will also be additional essays on the state of Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, kids' entertainment in general, the entertainment industry itself in terms of child programming/actors, and something I've been wanting to tear into for a good while - the fandom itself.
I'd also like to do a review of this coming Friday's Dr. Ken and Last Man Standing on ABC. It's always nice to see how the major networks handle "adult" or "family" multi-cams compared to Nick or Disney, especially considering ABC is Disney Channel's parent network (or the other way around, whatever). Dr. Ken is shaping up to be the surprise breakout sitcom hit of the season, and Last Man Standing...is bottom-scraping awful, and I'm amazed it's as popular and beloved as it is. I'd love to see how readers and contributors of this blog react to both shows.
Lastly, if you've read the title of this entry you'll know there's some "review challenge" in here. I'd like to challenge both Mike and Nick to review something they'd probably never touch otherwise. Here's the rules of the game: we each pick one episode of one series for all of us to review. That's it. There's all that's to it. Naturally I'll start first.
So my pick for this review challenge is....
Episode 1, Season 1 (the pilot, natch) of
At least it's not Nickelodeon. On Wednesday we've got something something Thundermans, something something Bella, something something Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn maybe. This coming Saturday looks like a clusterfuck with a mixture of new, potentially new, and rerun episodes. For which shows? I don't know. The person in charge of Nickelodeon promotion is making the person in charge of Disney Channel promotion look like friggin' P.T. Barnum. And of course we've got new WITS Academies every weekday until the season runs out around Halloween save for when it's pre-empted by whatever. Nick and Mike will cover the TFW (sigh, these networks really need to stop using meme-based marketing) shows, we'll cover what happens to be new on Saturday, and I'll have a massive blog entry for WITS Academy so far around, say, Saturday or so and again after the season's conclusion. Other than that, uh, that's pretty much it for new live-action kiddie network programming for the rest of the month.
Yes, there was a new KCU and LaM last night. I'll leave it up to Mike or Nick to start on that one, if they want. LaM has been a consistently good show and an excellent match with Girl Meets World to inherent the network crown from Good Luck Charlie and Jessie. KCU...eh. I believe it was Nick who called it a Disney XD show that just happens to premiere on Disney Channel, and there's probably more truth to that than he even realizes. For as much time as Chase, Adam and Bree spend on saving the world with their super-powers and sparring and training with an entire school of maturing bionic warriors, they spend even more time being stymied by mundane, everyday problems that would take Jessie Prescott or Riley Matthews (Jessie Prescott! Riley Matthews!) maybe six minutes to figure out. Hell, the type of mundane everyday problem that P.J. Duncan or Fletcher Quimby could solve in, like, half an hour. All the while, the Davenport kids will completely forget they even have superpowers. The same thing with Mighty Med, especially in Season 2: Kaz and Oliver will spend just as much time trying to figure out how to weasel out of some mundane barrier (the type of mundane barrier Gabe Duncan would figure out while eating a turkey club sandwich, and then shake his head and facepalm at how Kaz and Oliver are helpless in the face of it) as much as they will actually help or fight with superheroes. For as much as K.C. Cooper engages in adequately-choreographed combat with obvious stunt people the network can't afford giving speaking parts to, she spends just as much time being pre-occupied by the type of problems Rocky Blue would've literally just danced around.
Anyway, we've still got the actual Jessie finale review to finish, so that's immediately forthcoming. Mike in particular has some really interesting things to say about it that I have to agree with. I feel like there's still one more Jessie retrospective left in me, and I'll probably write a broad retrospective about IDDI too. I also have to say, the responses I've been getting about my previous Jessie retrospectives,especially on Twitter, are incredible, and in actually a good way no less. It's seriously turning my cheeks red. I have something planned in regards to that - it's not going to show up immediately, hell it might not even show up this year but I'll see what I can do for progress on it. You'll just have to sit tight until then, provided you're even excited about it. There will also be additional essays on the state of Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, kids' entertainment in general, the entertainment industry itself in terms of child programming/actors, and something I've been wanting to tear into for a good while - the fandom itself.
I'd also like to do a review of this coming Friday's Dr. Ken and Last Man Standing on ABC. It's always nice to see how the major networks handle "adult" or "family" multi-cams compared to Nick or Disney, especially considering ABC is Disney Channel's parent network (or the other way around, whatever). Dr. Ken is shaping up to be the surprise breakout sitcom hit of the season, and Last Man Standing...is bottom-scraping awful, and I'm amazed it's as popular and beloved as it is. I'd love to see how readers and contributors of this blog react to both shows.
Lastly, if you've read the title of this entry you'll know there's some "review challenge" in here. I'd like to challenge both Mike and Nick to review something they'd probably never touch otherwise. Here's the rules of the game: we each pick one episode of one series for all of us to review. That's it. There's all that's to it. Naturally I'll start first.
So my pick for this review challenge is....
ONE-PUNCH MAN!
Yes, that is seriously the show's name.
You can find it on Crunchyroll or Funimation if you happen to be subscribed to those services, or I can give you YouTube links if you can't. Also it turns out it's available on Hulu which was a bit of a surprise.
Oh, and you know what: a three-part weekend event like Meets Texas pretty much means a dry spell for Girl Meets World for a good while. I have to imagine Christian and Sean are probably trying to come up with something to keep their blog active during that time. So why the hell not, I'll call them out on the challenge too! I actually had previously challenged them to do See Dad Downsize but as I mentioned that episode is almost near-impossible to find. I also imagine I would have to pay them a small fortune to get then to do another Jessie episode. And it doesn't really seem fair to give out two separate challenges on two separate shows, not to mention the slightly added complication. I know Sean is a big fan of Trigun (the greatest cultural achievement of mankind - ok, that's an exaggeration, but it is an excellent series and if you somehow missed [adult swim]'s incessant airing of it years back you really owe yourself to see it) so, eh, it'd be a nice change of pace from the Matthews/Hart/Friar clan anyway.
Oh, and you know what: a three-part weekend event like Meets Texas pretty much means a dry spell for Girl Meets World for a good while. I have to imagine Christian and Sean are probably trying to come up with something to keep their blog active during that time. So why the hell not, I'll call them out on the challenge too! I actually had previously challenged them to do See Dad Downsize but as I mentioned that episode is almost near-impossible to find. I also imagine I would have to pay them a small fortune to get then to do another Jessie episode. And it doesn't really seem fair to give out two separate challenges on two separate shows, not to mention the slightly added complication. I know Sean is a big fan of Trigun (the greatest cultural achievement of mankind - ok, that's an exaggeration, but it is an excellent series and if you somehow missed [adult swim]'s incessant airing of it years back you really owe yourself to see it) so, eh, it'd be a nice change of pace from the Matthews/Hart/Friar clan anyway.
Mike, Nick, your turn :)
Oh, and in case anybody asks, my birthday is the exact same as Debby Ryan's. Honest to God this is true.
I'll review an episode at the end of this, but the Disney scheduling has really screwed up this year. I would want to change it to help ratings in fact. One of the worst decisions was BUNK'D in July. More horrible decisions included moving I Didn't Do It to Friday nights and always giving Dog With a Blog the worst time slots.
I love Girl Meets World, but it irritates me how its first priority ALWAYS. Especially when Liv & Maddie doesn't get their treatment. LAM is my favorite show on Disney Channel and it has been one of the best shows on Disney this year. It went from being an underdog to a frontrunner show this year. KC Undercover, too. These two shows deserve the promo GMW receives, but Disney cares about Sabrina and Rowan. Dove is more popular than them right now and is honestly the better actress than Sabrina (if not then, Rowan).
I've got some interesting news for you, Unknown.
Stuck In The Middle is premiering in March 2016.
Friday nights are going to be bland until then. BUNK'D reruns are SO SO SO ANNOYING. Especially the camp stick episode.
Sunday nights will stay packed with 4 shows until Austin & Ally concludes in January. Then, Liv & Maddie, Best Friends Whenever, and KC Undercover will remain with KC to premiere its second season either in late January of early February. Whenever is expected a season 2 renewal sometime early next year. Bizaardvark will join Sunday nights predictably in summer. It probably will be June premiering with the 2016 "summer movie". The "summer movie" is a term I like to use to refer to the first movie of Disney Channel Summer that airs on the last Friday night of June.
KC is a Disney XD on Disney Channel. Unknown, your points were very valid. And it got me thinking. If Disney wanted to kick out I Didn't Do It, they could've put them on Disney XD. Much worse ratings, but it would keep the cast and fans happier. And also the Larrett storyline would lengthen.
As on Nickelodeon, scheduling is OK. But they are giving us lots of programming. NRDD returns with a one hour special on Thanksgiving Day and will roll out its remaining episodes starting January. Season 2 will have 26 episodes, so 16 episodes will air in 2016 leaving the season to roll out until early April.
BUT I SWEAR IF THE THUNDERMANS DOESN'T GET MORE OR AS MUCH AS EPISODES FOR SEASON 3 THAN NICKY, RICKY, DICKY, AND DAWN'S 26 EPISODES, I'M GOING TO LOSE IT.
Now, time for my review. I chose the Mutt & Stuff episode, "Hip Hop Dogs" (1.02).
I don't know why I chose this but it I'd never touch so.
Not much today. I couldn't watch the whole episode because of my age. But it seems good for little children.
It's Mike's turn.
I will definitely take the challenge, but it has to be something I can realistically review. Probably something on Disney XD that I have never seen before and will never see again. So.......Pickle & Peanut? That should be loads of fun. I've seen the reviews, and.......yeah, why not?
You can't realistically review ONE-PUNCH MAN, the most awesomely-titled show in history? I can give you viewing links if you need to!
Just to be clear, the rules state that all of us need to watch and review the show (also please pick a specific episode!) so yeah you guys are going to experience the awesomeness of ONE-PUNCH MAN. And, uh, I guess I'll see about Mutt & Stuff and Pickle and Peanut - which actually brings up a specific point: I don't have Disney XD, so since Spongey444 brought it up I'm strictly limited to what happens to be on the Disney Channel block.
Oh, and in case anybody asks, my birthday is the exact same as Debby Ryan's. Honest to God this is true.
I'll review an episode at the end of this, but the Disney scheduling has really screwed up this year. I would want to change it to help ratings in fact. One of the worst decisions was BUNK'D in July. More horrible decisions included moving I Didn't Do It to Friday nights and always giving Dog With a Blog the worst time slots.
I love Girl Meets World, but it irritates me how its first priority ALWAYS. Especially when Liv & Maddie doesn't get their treatment. LAM is my favorite show on Disney Channel and it has been one of the best shows on Disney this year. It went from being an underdog to a frontrunner show this year. KC Undercover, too. These two shows deserve the promo GMW receives, but Disney cares about Sabrina and Rowan. Dove is more popular than them right now and is honestly the better actress than Sabrina (if not then, Rowan).
I've got some interesting news for you, Unknown.
Stuck In The Middle is premiering in March 2016.
Friday nights are going to be bland until then. BUNK'D reruns are SO SO SO ANNOYING. Especially the camp stick episode.
Sunday nights will stay packed with 4 shows until Austin & Ally concludes in January. Then, Liv & Maddie, Best Friends Whenever, and KC Undercover will remain with KC to premiere its second season either in late January of early February. Whenever is expected a season 2 renewal sometime early next year. Bizaardvark will join Sunday nights predictably in summer. It probably will be June premiering with the 2016 "summer movie". The "summer movie" is a term I like to use to refer to the first movie of Disney Channel Summer that airs on the last Friday night of June.
KC is a Disney XD on Disney Channel. Unknown, your points were very valid. And it got me thinking. If Disney wanted to kick out I Didn't Do It, they could've put them on Disney XD. Much worse ratings, but it would keep the cast and fans happier. And also the Larrett storyline would lengthen.
As on Nickelodeon, scheduling is OK. But they are giving us lots of programming. NRDD returns with a one hour special on Thanksgiving Day and will roll out its remaining episodes starting January. Season 2 will have 26 episodes, so 16 episodes will air in 2016 leaving the season to roll out until early April.
BUT I SWEAR IF THE THUNDERMANS DOESN'T GET MORE OR AS MUCH AS EPISODES FOR SEASON 3 THAN NICKY, RICKY, DICKY, AND DAWN'S 26 EPISODES, I'M GOING TO LOSE IT.
Now, time for my review. I chose the Mutt & Stuff episode, "Hip Hop Dogs" (1.02).
Not much today. I couldn't watch the whole episode because of my age. But it seems good for little children.
It's Mike's turn.
I will definitely take the challenge, but it has to be something I can realistically review. Probably something on Disney XD that I have never seen before and will never see again. So.......Pickle & Peanut? That should be loads of fun. I've seen the reviews, and.......yeah, why not?
You can't realistically review ONE-PUNCH MAN, the most awesomely-titled show in history? I can give you viewing links if you need to!
Just to be clear, the rules state that all of us need to watch and review the show (also please pick a specific episode!) so yeah you guys are going to experience the awesomeness of ONE-PUNCH MAN. And, uh, I guess I'll see about Mutt & Stuff and Pickle and Peanut - which actually brings up a specific point: I don't have Disney XD, so since Spongey444 brought it up I'm strictly limited to what happens to be on the Disney Channel block.
I swear Disney just wanted to get rid of most of their friday line up. I think sometime before Stuck in the middle pops up, they'll move a sunday show to friday, which they have done twice before.
ReplyDeleteDisney Channel promotion seems to be good to me. I tend to see a promo for each new episode coming out the follow week, even if certain shows may get more than others. You can always look at the programming highlights for a reminder of what it is coming.
(This sunday is Liv and Maddie and BFW.which are the last new episodes of the month. Then come november it's about Bun'd and a BFW one hour special.)
As for the KC Undercover XD thing, i did say that back when it came out and with all the specials that have story to them, it's still true. ...But it still is very much a disney chanel how, with it's sassy main female character that has a quirky best friend and loser brother/ .
Best Friends Whenever is also kind of like an XD show with it's storyline. I think DC realize XD is way better and is trying to emulate it. ...I'm fine with this.
Although you are slightly wrong about your two example, since those shows actually have running storylines, at least at the moment. (Especially Mighty Med Season 2, where the first and last few episodes were for the storyline.
And I'd say most of the episodes tend to use magical/sci fi elements in some way, even if it's for the sake of more comedy antics. They also set time aside for more serious story episodes, and while they won't get deep as some other shows, when they do this, they tend to be kind of amazing.
It's clear these mostly shows, at least at first, mostly just used their premise for comedy. There's plenty of plots caused by them doing something with the hero/davenport invention of the week.
Pair of kings was the same thing, only with less mundane stuff to being set on an island with no school or whatever.
Huh, i went on a bit there. I consider myself to be a bit of an Xd expert, mostly since there are even fewer people analyzing that stuff than with disney channel stuff, even though it's well worth looking at it.
Since you seem to be running out of stuff for the month, yu can always cover Disney XD stuff to the time when there is some. They actually have Halloween stuff this week. You could lso look into animated stuff if you wanted to.
The two shows moved from Sunday to Friday were DWAB and IDDI right? Both canceled and ended this past month. LAM and GMW on the same night would be amazing. But DC would never budge their two most successful shows on their successful nights.
ReplyDeleteAnd I get your points on XD. Also very valid and I'm excited for the Halloween XD episodes.
To be fair, DWAB had 3 seasons, a proper ending, and was never a heavy hitter to begin with. it ws always gonna be a 3 seasons show.
DeleteIt sadly kind of makes sense why Girl Meets World gets more attention. It's the only disney channel show "normal" people/reviewers actually like. Even people who hate every disney sitcom with the burning passion of a thousand suns. And i mean people hwo won't give the fine stuff like liv and maddie a fair chance.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you have a show even haters like, you're gonna treat it way better than others. That's why Good luck charlie was given decent treatment back when it was on. It's just how it works.
Eh, that is very true. I don't know if I've made this clear but I actually do really like Best Friends Whenever and....
Delete