NickSchedules Review of iCarly

iCarly (2007–2012)

iReview a Show With a Great Beginning and A Huge Bump in the Road During the Middle

[7/10 · 15 January 2020]

In 5...4...3...2...live from Felix in the Future Productions, I'm here to do the review of a highly praised show, but my opinions will be interesting. If you were watching Nickelodeon a lot throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, you'd know that ICarly was their most favored sitcom. It was so inescapable that you couldn't went 30 minutes without seeing Miranda Cosgrove in some way (music videos or promotion for the show). True story, I couldn't get into the show because of that reason. Cool concept but Nick kept shoving it down my throats while I was busy watching SpongeBob and other animated shows at the time. I felt like it was never going to end, and so it did after 5 years with a record breaking 109 episodes (including specials) something that no other Nick sitcom achieved until 2019. The show got so mainstream that I considered it the Simpsons of Schneider's Bakery (clever comedy, decent characters, and forced celebrity guests). The longer it went on, the more they became gimmicky. It was already a gimmicky show to begin with since it does has the "Famous teen sensation" formula that Disney loved abusing at the time. However it's different this time in that it was mostly about the Internet and not a singing star. People claimed Carly was a bland character, but honestly she's not that bad (at least early seasons, anyway). Miranda Cosgrove still does a decent job even if the directing has gotten more louder forcing her to shout her lines when possible compared to her snarky and mischievous character from Drake and Josh. Sam is a love or hate character. Personally I'm neutral to her but yeah her abusive behavior to Freddie was unwanted (don't get me started with that one gimmick I'll tackle later in the review). Freddie is the Squidward of the show meaning that he's always suffering abuse and misfortune from everyone he interact with. And let's face it, while we enjoyed most of the ICarly Sketches, we mostly watched just for Spencer alone. Jerry Trainor will always delivery his lines flawlessly no matter what character he's playing. I don't recalled a Spencer plot while the other main characters had at least one bad episode under their belts. Oh and Gibby somehow became the main character in season 4 and became part of the ICarly cast, because promoted fanboy or something. He used to take off his shirt all the time but then he matured and usually utter his name in a surfer dude accent. If I'm being honest, once I finally sat down and watch the entire show, I wasn't expecting much but it was better than I thought. Of course, it's not consistent in quality because I got a lot of pros and cons to talk about especially the cons. Let get the positives out of the way first: the show's humor and storytelling g was at its peak in season 1 and parts of season 2. Not all of them were winners, but this is what I defined ICarly: a show with teenagers making a webshow and hijack ensures. I also think the character development were at its best in this era because they were more tolerable and weren't spoiled brats because the plots demand it. It also had a great finale and while I hate to say that so soon, it's true. The middle seasons were a step down (at least the last season was half-good). This is not the ICarly everyone knows and loves. The ICarly everyone knows from late 2010-early 2012 become a pandering piece of garbage because Nick and Dan got too cocky with the show's success. I can't blame myself for avoiding the show like the plague at the time because we wouldn't even had Fred Figglehorn on Nickelodeon or One Direction widely known if it wasn't for ICarly. The Victorious crossover was praised by most fans, but I'm just going to confess right now: I didn't cared for it. While it's far from the worst crossover ever, I just thought it was overhyped to the extreme. The character interactions between the ICarly and Victorious was nonexistence and it took forever for both shows to collide. At least Kenan Thompson and the theme song mashup bumped it up to a 5/10 rather than a 3/10. But let's bring the elephant in the room, which is the whole stupid Creddie vs Seddie love triangle plot that plagued the show during 2011. This is when I feel like Dan Schneider started to pander to the fans (this includes references to his older shows because he's too egotistical to reference other TV shows) and his works started to go downhill as a result. If you're a person that wants to be entertained but have no time for these love stories, I suggest you to skip season 5 altogether. Trust me it's not worth your time. Shipping wars like this are the reason why people can't have nice things. It's a shame to see this show last like 100 episodes and see it go downhill because of the gimmicks they kept churning out to please the fan base. Overall, stick to seasons 1-3 and 6, and just avoid seasons 4-5 altogether if you don't want to fight with the fandom over ships.