Featured TV on DVD Review: iCarly: Season Four
July 9, 2012
iCarly: Season Four - Buy from Amazon
It's a bittersweet time for fans of iCarly. On the positive side, Season Four is coming out this week. On the negative side, they wrapped up shooting of the fifth and final season. The show is officially over. However, kids shows rarely get past 65 episodes, while this show lasted to 100 episodes (if you count the two-part and three-part specials as separate episodes). That's a major milestone, but did the show outstay its welcome?
Episodes start with...
As for the actual extras, there are five episodes of How to Rock. In the show, Cymphonique Miller stars as Kacey Simon, queen of the Perfs. (That's short for Perfects, the most popular girls in school.) In the first episode, she has to get glasses and braces, which means she's no longer perfect and no longer can be part of the Perfs. She then joins the geeky band, Gravity 4, which they rename Gravity 5, and become the rivals of the Perfs. It is a little hard to judge the show after just five episodes, but from these episodes, it isn't as good as iCarly or Victorious, but it's better than Big Time Rush, at least in my opinion. Perhaps it gets better as the season goes on. That is often the case.
There's just one more season of iCarly after Season Four. For the most part, this season is a strong one, especially compared to the average show aimed at teens and tweens. There are no extras on the DVD for iCarly, but if you like How to Rock, there's five episodes of that show. And if you have never seen it, there's enough to get a taste.
The Show
Sam and Freddie's relationship gets off to a rocky start as they fight, about everything. Carly is able to defuse a few of these fights, but soon the pair rely on Carly every time they fight, no matter what time of day it is.
I like how the show actually cares about continuity and character development. This means it matters what order you watch the episodes. Which makes the next episode so frustrating.
This episode takes place before iDate Sam & Freddie. Why? Why would they mess up the order of the episodes on the DVD? At the end of iOMG, Sam kisses Freddie. Since Sam can't handle the fact that she likes Sam, she commits herself into a mental hospital. Carly and Freddie come to get her out, but when she tries, she learns she can't get out without her mother, who happens to be out of the country.
This is a very fun episode and feature a great balance between the humor and the more emotional aspects. It also has Jim Parsons playing a mental patient who thinks he's from the future.
Ever since Sam and Freddie started dating, the two have been acting differently. Freddie has been focusing more on Sam while making iCarly, while Sam has been being meaner to Gibby, because she can't be mean to Freddie anymore. When their relationship starts to adversely affect the show, Carly and Gibby decide to break up the happy couple. They decide to call in the big weapon: Freddie's mother (Mary Scheer).
The extended story arc continues. By this time it is clear things are going bad, but they mine some good jokes from the relationship problems.
Sam and Freddie are still dating, but they don't share any interests, so Carly suggests they should at least try to enjoy the other's hobbies. Meanwhile, Spencer meets his old babysitter while at Carly's school and they start dating; however, she continues to treat Spencer like he's a little kid and she's his babysitter. He really is just a little kid and really needs a babysitter, but that's not a good basis for a relationship.
The end of the Sam and Freddie storyline. It's not the best of the five episodes, but there's still a lot of jokes and good character development and it shows a lot of heart.
Carly sees a cute boy, Kyle, and tries to date him. However, Kyle is quite smart and Carly is worried he won't like her if she's not as smart as him. Her first plan is to study and become smarter. Her second plan is to cheat. Meanwhile, T-Bo is evicted from his place. (He was sleeping above his restaurant, which was a health violation.) So Sam and Freddie try and get him cleaned up enough so that he can rent the spare room in Freddie's apartment.
Back to normal episodes, or what passes for normal. It's quite a hectic episode and quite funny. Although, Carly trying to impress a guy has been done before.
Carly and Spencer's dad is coming home for his birthday and they are preparing for a party. However, when there's an emergency and his ship is called in, he can't make it. Carly is devastated, which is why her friends arranged a webchat, so they could have a virtual party with her father. It's a great idea, but it may have broken a few laws, since they were connecting with an overseas military base. This causes the gang to respond in their usual responsible way. They completely panic.
As the title of the episode would indicate, Michelle Obama makes an appearance as herself. It's a little strange to see a sitting first lady doing a random dance on a silly kids show, but she's got a lot of charisma and it fits.
It's the return of Nora Derschlit. As you may remember from iPsycho, which I reviewed here, Nora is an outcast that invited Carly, Sam, and Freddie to her party. She repaid them by kidnapping them. Now she's up for parole and the gang is asked to testify at her parole hearing. At first, Carly wants to make sure Nora never gets out, but Sam and Freddie convince her to give her a chance. Maybe she's changed. She hasn't. But the gang learns too late and they end up kidnapped by Nora, and her equally deranged mother.
This episode has the same strengths and weaknesses as the original. It's funny and its tone fits with the rest of the series, but I'm not sure it needed to be a double-length episode.
For not getting into trouble for ten full days, the gang gives Sam a tour of the Canadian Fat Cake factory. Sam, Freddie, Spencer, and Gibby head to Canada to go to the factory. Meanwhile, Carly prepares for a big date, only to get her big toe stuck in the faucet. (She was imitating a classic episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.) The tour goes a lot better, but when Sam tries to sneak Canadian Fat Cakes into the United States, she's busted by the border patrol.
This episode is actually not that outrageous. It's illegal to import Kinder Surprise Eggs into the United States. A woman was caught bringing one back from Canada into the States and threatened with a $300 fine. Irrelevant legalities aside, this is a fun episode and showcases the series's goofy nature very well.
The entire cast and crew of iCarly are featured in an interview, well, everyone except Freddie. Freddie then wants to prove he is creative and one of his plans is to shoot the show in 3-D. It doesn't go as well as he hoped.
One of the weaker episodes this season, but still better than most shows aimed at the same target demographic
The second clip show featuring lots of outtakes.
It's outtakes. Like I mentioned last time, it's not good for an episode, but it's great if you consider it an extra. The Extras
The Verdict
- Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Video Review