Bizaardvark

The first season of this show is so bad, I honestly don't know how it got renewed. But if you stick with it, it actually gets better every season.

I only watched because it stars Olivia Rodrigo before she became one of the world's biggest pop stars. Obviously, Disney launched her career and this was the starting point. The show focuses around Olivia's character Paige and Madison Hu's character Frankie who are besties that make videos together and get enough attention to get to work with the big video production company known as Vuugle. While working on their videos they form friendships with people with other channels. The first two seasons of the show feature the now infamous YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul.

Like I said, season one is a complete mess. I can count on one hand the number of times I so much as smiled at the dialog. I almost stopped. But being an Olivia fan, I trudged on and I'm glad I did. I don't know if they changed writers or showrunners or what, but about a quarter of the way through season 2, something changed and some of the shows were actually funny. By season 3, most of the shows were funny and the finale was quite good. Overall, I give the series a 6 out of 10, but if season 1 didn't exist, it would be higher. Season 1 is 3/10, season 2 is 7/10 and season 3 is 8/10.

This is just a horrible ripoff of iCarly and has disgusting "viral videos". I can't believe it has a 6.5 rating. Don't watch it. Please don't watch it. The jokes aren't funny and Disney isn't taking a step forward with this..........they're falling down flights of steps with it. It's so pathetic, it is Bizarre. Even the theme song is just so bland and stupid. Back to the jokes for a second.......They repeat them over and over! Like this. "Hey guys" *bump into each other*. *bump into each other again and again.* The Blobfish song?? THAT ISN'T FUNNY. We don't care if you have a crush on a blobfish. It is exactly like that trash show "School of Rock" or "iCarly" on Nickelodeon. NOT FUNNY. It already has lots of rants on YouTube from like 8 YEAR OLDS. That's Disney's targeted audience. Remember good Disney Channel live-action shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, Phil of the Future, Life with Derek, Even Stevens...and now we have a show about making unfunny popular music videos on YouTube..I'm out

... this is also silly humor (and actually less stupid than Gilligan's Island!). Bizaardvark isn't Shakespeare. It IS really nice as a fun, goofy show to take our minds off things. Also, it's pretty positive.

A lot of good Disney and Nickelodeon Channels shows have been cancelled before they had an "as good or better" replacement ready. Bizaardvark is one of very few shows that I have been happy to see come along, and not just watch because they have nothing better on.

In iCarly's season 2, episode 21, Carly and Sam learns that a network called Dingo Channel is running a show called "Totally Ten" that steals ideas from iCarly. For instance, they have "Random Jumping" instead of "Random Dancing", etc. Just change the name of Dingo to Disney and "Totally Ten" to "Bizaardvark" and voila, you have another Disney "original" series. After watching two episodes (and I will watch no more), I can only say one thing: please, don't recommend this show to the kids, the eighth amendment does not permit to inflict such a cruel and unusual punishment. By the way, in that iCarly episode I mentioned, all the plagiarism finishes when Freddy and Spencer threatens to show the frozen head of Dingo's founder in the web. Well, that's curious, because a well known urban legend says that Walt Disney's body is cryogenically frozen somewhere. Maybe somebody should take old Walt from wherever he is and prevent this show from being renewed for a second season.

I'm almost 20 years old now, so my taste in television has changed over the years. I still enjoy most of the shows I loved as a child (mostly cartoons from Nick and Cartoon Network) and I still enjoy a lot of sitcoms my mom showed me when I was younger (Friends, Fraiser, Seinfeld, etc). But my love for television remains with shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Halt & Catch Fire. But I do like to tap in to my inner-child every once and awhile. I saw a promo for this show when I was watching an episodes of Star Wars: Rebels. I had NO idea what to make of it and I didn't care. But I was so bored one day and they were giving an episode of this show. The episode in question was Frankie Has a Hater. My only reaction was surprise, because of how many times I laughed. Here are some of the aspects of the show that work and don't work.

Work: 1. Madison Hu as Frankie Wong: Madison Hu (at least in my eyes) as a future in Hollywood. She's cute, talented, and incredibly funny. A large portion of the show's success and enjoyment comes from Hu's performance. The perfect cross between subtle, stoic nuances and a crazy and incredibly relatable outbursts, Madison Hu's Frankie Wong is one of the most memorable characters in recent Disney Channel history.

2. Paige & Amelia: While Madison Hu is the show's brightest show, the series' 2 other main actresses are also enjoyable. Oliva Rodrigo as Paige Olvera and DeVore Ledridge as Amelia Duckworth can best be described as teenage girl versions of Jason Bateman's Michael Bluth and Portia De Rossi's Lindsay Bluth from Arrested Development. One is more sarcastic and relies on her interactions with her environment and other characters. While the other is more self-involved, concerned with her looks, kinda mean, but never gets on your nerves. I also love that Amelia isn't your stereotypical dumb hot blond.

3. The Chemistry Between the Actors: All the actors (while not all great) all work very well together. Hu and Rodrigo especially.

4. No Over-Reliance on Social Media trends: The series could have easily just have been "LOOK, SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS! LOOK HOW HIP WE ARE!!!!". Instead they use SM as a way to show you how all the characters are different.

5. It's Just Plain Fun: The show isn't smart, original, or even great. But I'm glad that this show isn't just mindless or annoying. The show isn't concerned with teaching the audience a lesson (watch Girl Meets World and Andi Mack for that) but it is concerned with making you laugh. And if that was the show's sole goal, well they accomplished it.

Don't Work: 1. Jake Paul as Dirk Mann: This show would be EONS better if Jake Paul wasn't on this show. The difference between him and the 4 other series regulars is that Jake Paul sticks out like a sore thumb. Hu, Rodrigo, Ledridge, and Wacker are all ACTORS. Jake Paul was a viner, not an actor, and there are not the same thing. Paul only works when he doesn't talk. He gets on your nerves, he over does it, and sinks the show's quality very very very low. He should have stayed with Vine. Oh wait...

2. Ethan Wacker as Bernie Schotz: Wacker is not bad in the show, in fact he's actually quite funny. It's just that I hate the treatment of the character.

3. The Treatment of Male Characters: In traditional Disney Channel tradition (even from shows of my youth) the male characters are treated as idiots and jerks. Surprise surprise.

4. The Music: The Bizaardvark songs take up too much time and most of them aren't even funny. Some are, but most of them aren't.

5. A Severe Lack of Memorable (Or Good) Recurring Characters: When it comes to ANY sitcom (or even all kinds of TV shows) you need a memorable cast of characters. Not only series regulars, but recurring characters as well. This show has a few (Belissa, Liam, and others) but the problem is that NONE of them are memorable or even that good. They come and go without any sort of impact on the viewer. Hopefully this changes in Season 2 or in Season 3.

CONCLUSION: The show isn't perfect and has a lot of problems, but it has a lot of problems that can be easily fixed. With great lead actresses, interesting humor, and a relatable cast of characters, Bizaardvark is some of the most fun I've had on TV in a long time. B