Wednesday, February 6, 2019

The Thundermans (Season 3–4)

The Thundermans; fantasy comedy series, USA, 2016-2018; D: Jonathan Judge, Eric Dean Seaton, Trevor Kirschner, Robbie Countryman, S: Kira Kosarin, Jack Griffo, Chris Tallman, Rosa Blasi, Diego Velazquez, Addison Riecke, Audrey Whitby


After the tumultuous previous events, the Thunderman family is out on a limb: their secret superhero identities are revealed when Phoebe battles villain Dark Mayhem who stormed the school's prom night. But this encounter changed Max, who abandoned his plans of evil and decided to become good and cooperate with his Thunderman family. In order to get them back to normal, the superhero League tricks the people of Hiddenville into thinking that the Thunderman''s powers were taken away from them, when in reality they were still allowed to keep them. Phoebe and Max train to enter the Z-Force. During the final tournament, an recruit turns evil and captures the Thundermans at their home, but Phoebe and Max are able to apprehend him. Phoebe and Max join the Z-Force, but rename it into T-Force and recruit their entire family to become superheroes again.

Even though seasons 3 and 4 are not as consistently fresh or well written as the previous seasons, "The Thundermans" were still tied up into a satisfying finale while also offering several good jokes along the way. Unlike the first two seasons, which were focused more on daily life routines of the superhero family, the last two embraced their superhero identity more and allowed it to be imbibed into the storyline. It is noticeable that a certain number of episodes are just routine-schematic 'filler', without inspiration, yet the authors led by Jed Spingarn didn't allow this routine to take over completely, since they still offered a few surprises. Episode 4.2, titled "Banished!", has one of the best jokes in the show: Nora and Billy attend a "Thundercon", a convention of Thunderman fans, but are perplexed that Nora's fans and Billy's fans cannot stand each other. Finally, in an effort to reconcile them, Nora says: "Can't we all just agree that Billy and I are both great?" Cue to a kid from Billy's group saying: "She thinks she is as good as Billy! Charge!", as pandemonium erupts when the two fan groups start attacking each other. Episode 3.9 also rises to the occasion: Phoebe has to babysit Link's little brother and greets him with a 'cool' fist bump—but the kid is afraid she wants to hit him. Later on, while trying to impress him, she presents a raven in her home, but the bird flies off and the scared kid embraces Phoebe from fear—and she immediately goes: "We are already hugging. Yeaaahh..."

A large part of the series' charm lies in the excellent leading actress, brilliant Kira Kosarin, who displays a staggering level of creativity with her gestures, stylistic moves or line delivery. In episode 4.15, for instance, titled "Save the Past Dance", she wants to show in front of the people that she can dance and that she isn't called "crazy legs Thunderman for nothing"—what follows is one of the most hilarious set of dance moves ever, a highlight which has to be seen, a one which offers those typical examples of "kosarianisms". Kosarin truly gave a soul to the show and enriched it way more than any of the producers actually expected. Even small sight gags, such as the dinosaur park episode 4.6, where she and her family are wearing T-shirts with her face on it, have small crumbs of delight. Another underrated contribution to the show is Chris Tallman as the lazy, but lovable father Hank, who often tries to charm his wife Barb in order to get out of trouble ("You better start talking, Hank!" - "You look wonderful tonight..." - "I didn't mean that, Hank!"). The finale is only one-half of greatness, though: the weak link is the villain in the last episode who appears out of nowhere and is an unworthy adversary, equipped with a silly video game trap. However, the final three minutes give a worthy, even slightly emotional conclusion to the storyline, and also give a key to understanding its symbolism: Hank and Barb gave up on their talents and dreams to raise their kids, and to protect them from its dangers, but as Phoebe puts it, this is part of their identity and they should thus embrace it. The way Phoebe neatly pays homage to her family's superhero abilities is a crowning achievement to their legacy, and neatly concludes the show.

Grade:++

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