Game Shakers

Game Shakers
Maybe it's time for Nick's original sitcoms to "Drop Dat" downfall and go back to being good again.
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 22–23 Minutes Country: United States Release Date: September 12, 2015 – June 8, 2019 Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Dan Schneider Starring: Cree Cicchino Madisyn Shipman Benjamin "Lil' P-Nut" Flores, Jr Thomas Kuc Kel Mitchell Seasons: 3 Episodes: 63

Game Shakers is an American gaming sitcom, created by Dan Schneider, that premiered on Nickelodeon on September 12, 2015. The series stars Cree Cicchino, Madisyn Shipman, Benjamin "Lil' P-Nut" Flores, Jr., Thomas Kuc, and Kel Mitchell. The show was abruptly canceled after Dan Schneider was fired from Nickelodeon in early 2018. Its last episode aired on June 8th, 2019.

Plot

Who knew a science project could be valuable? When Babe and Kenzie created the mobile game Sky Whale for a seventh-grade project, they were just hoping for a passing grade. What they got, however, was one of the most popular games of the year, which led them to create a successful business that makes millions of dollars. Not everyone is happy with the girls, though; popular rapper Double G threatens to sue them, when he finds out they have used one of his songs without his permission. To avoid any legal issues Babe and Kenzie decide to partner with the music star and hire his son, Triple G, as a gaming consultant. Game Shakers marks a return to Nickelodeon for Kel Mitchell (Double G), who first rose to fame in the '90s on the network's series All That and Kenan & Kel.

Why It Should Drop Dat

1. The show is just an excuse to purchase games, and rather than promoting awesome indie games, the show promotes crappy shovelware mobile games.
   • Aside from that, it also gives other people who never played video games a bad impression on how good games look like.
2. The Game Shakers are full criminals, and yet, we're supposed to root for them.
   • Like Peter Griffin, Dub doesn't get punished, from his evil, and selfish actions, such as cutting the giant cable wire at the ocean causing the internet from the entire world to shut down, and gets away scot-free.
3. The title is misleading, as it's barely about games. Instead, it focuses on the lives of the main characters.
   • The logo looks like it was slapped together, using MS Paint and Photoshop, with the letters, spelling, “GAME”, resembling those, of the train routes, used by the NYC Subway, but recolored, and, “Shakers”, being in a plain white, and generic-looking font.
4. Annoying, unlikable, stereotypical, and clichéd characters.
   • Babe Carano is the edgy girl.
   • Kenzie Bell is the flawless smart girl (she becomes a punching bag in season 3).
   • Triple G is a punching bag.
   • Hudson Gimble is the dumb blonde, and generic comic relief.
     • Hudson is so annoying, as he says stupid things, and giggles way too much.
   • Both Double G and Triple G are just spoiled celebrities and black rapper stereotypes.
   • Ruthless constant yelling will get on your last nerves.
5. Graphically dirty, and unfunny jokes, many of which are too inappropriate, for a show, meant for young children, such as Babe yelling, "what the duck?" and, "textual harassment". In addition, the show also relies on cruelty, for comedy.
6. It is very unrealistic at times, especially in the first episode, where Dub got to the classroom so fast, and how did he know what class they're in?
   • Realistically, the kids are way too young, to own a company.
7. No character development. In fact, it's more like character derailment, as the characters get worse, rather than better, as the show continues.
8. It basically worsened the bad reputation, of modern Nickelodeon sitcoms.
9. Bad and unsatisfying morals, and/or endings, in most episodes.
   • The ending of, "Baby Hater", is very disturbing.
   • The infamous, "Flavor City", especially the ending, where Dub tells Ruthless to throw a microwave at a guy who called one of Dub's albums, "garbage", thus killing him.
   • "Boy Band Cat Nose", is considered to be one of the laziest episodes, of the show, since the subplot, ends with Trip getting hurt, by one of Hudson's traps, and the main plot, ends with Dub's veterinarian, Dr. Smoontz, turning, and coloring, Kenzie's cat, Valentine, green.
   • "The One With The Coffee Shop", is a huge insult to Friends.
   • "Breaking Bad News", has two plot holes, that make no sense at all. How on earth would one toothbrush be able to destroy a giant expensive flat-screen TV? Whoever built the TV, did a terrible construction job, yet somehow it's Babe's fault for breaking it? What the heck?!
   • The ending of, "Bear Butt Laser Runner", rips off the South Park episode, "Over Logging".
   • In, "Byte Club", Trip bites off Hudson's ear, in a TV-Y7 rated show.
10. The characters never learn from their mistakes. They most likely either don't learn their lesson at all, or they do learn a lesson, as the episode ends, but end up forgetting about it, in the next episode. Once the lesson is learned, what happens? It's gone!
    • They scream way too much. Special mention to Babe, who screams whenever anything happens, inevitably ending in all four kids yelling at each other.
      • The game shakers are very rude, and despicable to each other, especially Trip and Hudson.
11. The show has way too many cameos of internet celebrities, like Glozell, ProJared, and Harley Morenstein.
    • It just shows that Nickelodeon is trying to be hip and cool.
12. It even has some crossover episodes with Henry Danger.
    • Both shows have nothing in common, to warrant a crossover, other than having the same creator.
    • Henry is even brought back onto the show, twice, in season 3.
13. Plot Hole:
    • It was revealed in Game Shippers, that iCarly is a TV show in their universe, but since it had three crossovers with Henry Danger, which had two Sam & Cat side characters appear, it would mean iCarly and Victorious are in the same universe, as Game Shakers. This is a major goof, by Dan Schneider.
14. There was an almost year-long hiatus, in season 3 between, the episodes, "Super Ugly Head", and, "Snoop Therapy".
15. Several bad episodes like:
    • "Why Tonya", is a really bad episode, with almost no plot at all. Basically, the episode is about a girl, named Tonya, who demands the Game Shakers, to make changes to one of their games, then later she demands Babe and Kenzie, to change the game, back to the way it was, which is really stupid. Tonya even later kidnaps Kenzie in the Game Shakers bathroom!
    • In, “Scared Tripless”, the show’s Halloween special, "Double G", is shown leaving his son alone, and unattended, for some period of time, in midst of a diaper change, in a family home video. That is a display of bad parenting, and babies should not be left unattended, during a diaper change, the baby could try to escape, and get injured.
16. The show ended on a cliffhanger. In, "He's Back", Henry comes to Babe, and tells her he wants to spend time with her, causing Babe to abandon her plans, with Blake and Mason, but the series ends right here, which is unnecessary, confusing, and also pointless. The story does not even continue in Henry Danger, and it never got brought up in, Danger Force.
    • Lots of fans were very disappointed in that ending. Some fans even expected a PART 2, due to that horrible ending!
    • In fact, it is implied that either Babe didn't choose Henry, or they broke up, as he is in a serious relationship with someone named Melanie in the Danger Force episode, Guardians of the Ponytail.
    • The promos completely spoiled Henry returning in the final episode, and it also made it look like he would be an important character in it, when he only appears, for a few seconds.
17. Overuse of characters saying what it isn't, then saying what it is, both of them effectively have the same meaning.
18. Overall, this series is a terrible replacement for Sam & Cat, just like how Knight Squad is a bad replacement for The Thundermans.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The theme song is catchy.
2. The show has an interesting premise, that was unfortunately wasted.
   • The concept is cool that the main characters are young game developers, but executed poorly, in terms of the show's theme.
3. The show does have some heartwarming moments.
4. A few good jokes here and there.
5. Seasons 2 and 3 are slight improvements over the first season. In fact, season 3 can be seen as watchable.
   • Speaking of Season 3, Hudson’s the only character to improve. While still having his idiotic nature, he’s become slightly more intelligent and a better comic-relief character.
6. Despite Henry not really belonging on this show, his guest appearances are still nice, to be fair, and, at least he was his likable self.
7. It is nice to see Kel Mitchell on a Nickelodeon show again, as he did a pretty good job as Double G, regardless of how bad the character is.
8. It might be debatable, but some of the games are actually kind of fun and amazing to download and play on Apple and Android mobile devices for free.
9. The episode, "Wedding Shower of Doom", artistically features a flashback in the footage quality of an 80s/90s-show, which is something Nickelodeon doesn't usually do.

Reception

Game Shakers received mixed to negative reviews from critics, and audiences alike. It currently sits at a 4.2/10 on IMDb. It is considered to be one of the worst Nickelodeon shows ever.

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