School of Rock (2016)

School of Rock (2016)
Alvin and the Chipmunks wasn't the only botched reboot Nickelodeon got.
Genre: Musical-comedy Running Time: 21-22 minutes Country: United States Release Date: March 12, 2016 – April 8, 2018 Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Jim Armogida & Steve Armogida Distributed by: Armogida Brothers Productions Paramount Television Nickelodeon Productions Starring: Breanna Yde Ricardo Hurtado Jade Pettyjohn Lance Lim Aidan Miner Tony Cavalero Jama Williamson Seasons: 3 Episodes: 45 Previous show: School of Rock (2003)

School of Rock is an American musical-comedy television series on Nickelodeon released in 2016. The series is based on the 2003 film of the same name.

Plot

Dewey Finn is a down-on-his-luck musician who gets a job as a substitute teacher at a prep school, where he must take over a teacher's class who had an accident while skateboarding. Luckily, for his new pupils, Finn doesn't forget his rock 'n' roll roots when he educates them, inspiring students to form a secret rock band, and allowing them to live like rock stars. During the school year, middle school classmates learn lessons about loyalty and friendships as they continue to discover their unknown talents.

Why It Doesn’t Rock

1. The grasp of the source material is extremely poor for the following reasons:
   • The show failed to stay true to the original School of Rock movie. Dewey Finn, who was supposed to be a substitute teacher pretending to be his roommate Schneebly, does not take on this persona in the series. Instead, Dewey is portrayed as an immature man still living with his parents, which is a stark contrast to his character in the movie.
     • Even though a lot of the students from the movie appear, they have their personalities reversed and/or switched.
       • Summer is now portrayed as your stereotypical dumb blonde rather than a smart girl, who Dewey said might become the president of the United States one day in the movie. For some reason, despite being the band manager, she also plays tambourine in the band for some reason.
       • Tomika is now portrayed as a pint-sized skater, yet in the movie she was portrayed as a shy girl who had stage fright; then, when she performed at the end of the movie, she overcame her fear. Additionally in the movie, she was black, while in this series, she became white, which is another example of whitewashing.
       • Lawrence for some reason looks more like Zack and Zack for some reason is played by an Asian instead of the other way around.
       • Katie who was the bass player in the movie, is not in the show, and now Tomika plays bass.
     • Misleading title: Much like How to Rock, despite the show being called School of Rock, none of the songs in this show sound like rock songs. Instead, they sound more like pop songs. There's a ton of compression, reverb, layering, and pitching, the guitars have no edge to them, and the vocals are ultra clean.
       • Even with that, couldn't they just make rock covers of pop songs to have the show live up to its name?
       • Most of the soundtrack are just generic 2010s pop songs, as usual for most Nickcoms of mid-2010s onwards, such as:
         • Pharrel Williams - Happy
         • Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
         • Imagine Dragons - Believer
         • Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
2. All the students in the class are just school stereotypes, such as the perfectionist, the cool guy, etc.
   • Lawrence, Zack, Tomika, Clark and Principale Mullins are all unlikable characters.
3. The acting, especially by Tony Cavalero as Dewey Finn, was widely criticized. Cavalero's portrayal was nowhere near as engaging or charismatic as Jack Black's iconic performance in the movie. Additionally, none of the original child actors from the film returned to reprise their roles, which contributed to the lack of authenticity and connection with the original material.
4. The overall acting quality in the show was criticized, with many of the performances feeling forced or unconvincing.
5. The movie on which this show is based is rated PG-13 for crude humor, mild profanity, and mild drug and alcohol references. Because of that, Nickelodeon dumbed down this show to TV-Y7 to make it kid-friendly.
6. The only reason it was made was to capitalize on the success of the original movie, which died out way before this show was even made. Adding to the fact that Paramount Pictures hasn't even announced a sequel to the original movie makes this show even more pointless.
7. Nowadays, all the show has going for it is its ships. The ships are the show's main selling points on Nickelodeon's social media.
8. The show only exists to cash in on pop music and Disney Channel trends.
9. In the episode "I Put a Spell on You", there is a scene when everyone gets mad at Lawrence because he brought fruit and called it candy, which is extremely insulting and hypocritical since they did that to the people who loved the actual movie. Plus, it teaches the wrong moral that fruit is bad, and candy is better.

Redeeming Qualities That Rock

1. Despite the bad soundtrack, some of the music is great such as: the theme song and "I Love Rock and Roll".
2. Some funny moments here and there.
3. Some School of Rock fans might enjoy it.
4. There are some moments that the show stays faithful to the original film, like how Dewey meets the students.
5. Freddy and Summer's relationship is wholesome and is the only reason to watch this show.
6. Some good/decent episodes such as its finale "I Love Rock and Roll", which was a heartwarming and good send-off to the series.
7. Despite that most of the acting is bad, Tony Cavalero does a decent job as Dewey Finn but is nowhere near as funny as Jack Black.
8. Freddie, Summer, and Dewey Finn are the only likable characters in the series.

Reception

School of Rock (2016) received mixed to negative reviews. Currently sitting at a 4.2/10 on IMDb.

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