The Thundermans Reviewed: The Thunder Games

The time has come.

No. If you're looking at this review, you don't need to adjust your eyes. The review of the Thundermans series finale has finally arrived after months of delays and anticipation. You wanted it, you prayed for it, you demanded it. And now, in the final days of 2018, you're getting it.

Okay, none of that actually happened but you know where I'm going with this. This review has been a long time coming. You might recall back in May that I announced that I was going to review the last five episodes of The Thundermans, including the series finale right here. The other four episodes preceding it would become mini-reviews. Because Nickelodeon needed to get this show off the air as quickly as possible, they decided to burn off the remaining episodes in one night on May 25, and the one-hour series finale didn't even air at 8:00, but at 8:30. I mocked this decision at the time, especially since all these episodes were coming on Friday night, and Thundermans episodes traditionally aired on Saturday nights. To make matters worse, Nickelodeon aired all the final episodes in reruns the very next night, using the same model I suggested with "The Thunder Games" starting at 8:00 like it should have. So, yeah. The scheduling here will always be ridiculous in my mind.

Anyway, my plan was to write a review of the series finale first and then a further review about the current state of Nickelodeon since the show was leaving. That further review is definitely more necessary now than it was in May. However, I started putting it on hold for no apparent reason. Procrastination took control of me, days became weeks, weeks became months, and now, we're here. One thing I wanted to do sooner rather than later was to review this episode before it was too late. I'm just happy it aired on TeenNick the other day and I was scrolling through channels at just the right time to record it. Since the episode came a week ago, you could call it a Christmas miracle.

By the way, happy new year, everybody. Maybe 2019 will be less disgusting than the last couple years.

I decided not to review the last four episodes and just focus on the series finale. In May, it would have been a nice tie-in. Now, I don't really see the point, especially since this show is not serialized. Anyway, here we go. "The Thunder Games" review is underway.

So, the main story here is that Phoebe and Max have reached the final round of Z-Force training and end up winning a spot. However, the Z-Force commander Dirk Trumbo doesn't want both of them because they don't share a twin power, making them the exact same superhero. Dirk makes the two compete against each other for the spot. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Dr. Colosso has a long-lost son competing for a Z-Force spot named Balfour, otherwise known as "The Gamer" (played by Joey Bragg from Liv & Maddie). When he loses to Phoebe and Max, Balfour seeks revenge on the Thundermans for turning his father into a bunny.

Okay, now what can I really say here? The one thing I liked about The Thundermans is that unlike a lot of other live-action kids shows, it was able to have genuinely dramatic moments without it feeling jarring or out of place. Emotional scenes actually had an impact when they needed to. However, in this episode, I feel like the drama the show usually brings to the table isn't here. Balfour isn't a convincing villain at all, and I almost feel like that's the point. This episode should be about Phoebe and Max, and by extension, the entire Thunderman family. But having to create a new character, give him a backstory, tie him in with the family somehow, and then have him get his revenge while Phoebe and Max are trying to get into the Z-Force feels like too much for one episode, even if it is two parts. A storyline like that could have been its own episode, and it's not like "The Thunder Games" needed it. It feels contrived and a little forced. Like I said, The Thundermans has succeeded with drama before, but this time, it felt unnecessary to have when the main story was enough to justify it.

Another thing that brought this episode down was the clash of different tones. At least until the end, it felt like I couldn't take anything seriously. Balfour was so comical, so cartoonish with what he was doing that none of it really struck a chord with me. Like I said, a story about Dr. Colosso teaming up with his long-lost son to destroy the Thundermans, and Colosso having trouble with taking out Max because he felt like more of a son than Balfour did, could have been its own one-hour episode. Maybe it has to do with who was cast. Joey Bragg is funny here to an extent, but you can tell that they wanted him to be silly when the episode should have called for him to be more serious. Now, I'm over here thinking that this is how Joey normally acted on Liv & Maddie.

However, if I can give this episode any credit, it's to the scene where Phoebe and Max discover their twin power. The scene is dramatic in a way that some of the best Thundermans episodes have been, and the actors really sell the horrors of being lobotomized. Chris Tallman normally had to be comedic in the series, but some of his best moments as Hank were when things got serious. Like when he told Max that there was no turning back if he went down the villainous path, or right here in this episode when he tells his family that they're all going down together. It becomes genuinely emotional for a moment. It finally feels like the characters were taking the situation seriously, and from that point forward, the episode became much better. Unfortunately, it was near the end so it improved a little bit too late.

In the end, the episode was satisfying enough that I feel like the series went out strong. Phoebe and Max were chosen to lead the Z-Force (renamed as the T-Force for Thunderman) after Dirk was fired and turned into a coffee gofer. The entire Thunderman family gets hired by Phoebe and Max to join the T-Force, officially making them all superheroes. The ending actually brings the series full-circle: The family moved to Hiddenville for a normal life, but five years later, their normal life was what they were trying to run away from the whole time.

The Thundermans arrived at a time when Nickelodeon was in a transitional period. iCarly, Victorious, and Big Time Rush had all ended within a year, and those shows had anchored the network in the early 2010s. Shows like How to Rock barely lasted a minute on the network. This was around the time where Nickelodeon was treating its live-action programming like a fire sale, getting rid of any shows that were breathing. The Thundermans was able to avoid that mentality and become the top show on Nickelodeon in less than a year, mostly because of mediocre competition and other potential shows not even being given a chance to survive. You could say that it helped anchor the network in the mid-2010s the same way its predecessors did a few years prior. In the end, it was able to maintain a consistent quality and entertain me, so while it was far from what Nickelodeon made in its glory days, or even a few years before its premiere, it might be the last decent live-action show that the network produces for quite some time.

Then again, I Am Frankie is still taking up space on my DVR and I might want to review it at some point, so we'll see how much my previous statement holds up.

Episode Grade: B-
Episode MVP: Kira Kosarin and Jack Griffo. The series started with them, and ended with them. It was their show from the beginning, and they were the ones that gave Phoebe and Max their own little charm as a contrast to other characters Nickelodeon has had in the last few years. I'm not going to be emotional, but it was a damn good run from these two.
Series MVP: Kira Kosarin and Jack Griffo

EXTRA THOUGHTS 
-I always wondered why they never changed the intro, even after Billy and Nora got noticeably older. Phoebe and Max also look slightly older than they did in the pilot episode, but I guess they were easier to get away with.

-Now that I mention Billy, Diego Velazquez's voice sounded like it went through reverse puberty in this episode. I say this because Billy sounds closer to what he sounded like in the earlier seasons than he has in season four. Did the producers digitally alter his voice? He definitely sounds younger here.

-I always thought it was funny how the characters made such a big deal about Max's "swoosh" haircut. Like it was a part of his identity.

-Now that the series is over, the theme song is gone as well. One of the best theme songs in the last couple years is no longer around which creates another problem: The last decent show on Nick is taking the network's last really good theme song away. Not named The Loud House.

-Again, it's just weird how the Balfour storyline is treated so comedically, especially when it could have made a great episode on its own. Dr. Colosso finds out he has a son, and doesn't seem to give that much of a damn about him or the situation. Also, Balfour gets turned into a bunny so I guess he can bond with his father over making fun of the family.

-I don't think I'm breaking new ground by saying this, but The Thundermans was never a really funny show. It was always just kinda amusing in terms of comedy. That mentality also appears in this episode because there was a lack of really good jokes. There were two in particular that I thought were great: Phoebe and Max are ahead of Balfour in the Z-Force challenges, but they just stand there and watch Balfour catch up to them. They then wonder why they're letting this happen and continue the challenges. Later on, with both of them being bunnies, Dr. Colosso tries to get Balfour to say something sarcastic towards the twins, but he just tells Max to die in a stern voice. Max's disturbed expression was fantastic.

-A great way to wrap everything up as the Thundermans go to fight some crime at the end of the episode. Phoebe breaks the fourth wall and changes the family photo from the opening sequence into them as superheroes, symbolizing who they will always be.