The Thundermans
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The Thundermans is an American comedy television series created by Jed Spingarn that premiered on Nickelodeon on October 14, 2013, and ended on May 25th, 2018. The series stars Kira Kosarin, Jack Griffo, Addison Riecke, Diego Velazquez, Chris Tallman, Rosa Blasi, and Maya Le Clark.
Plot
Phoebe and Max Thunderman are twins who, although they have opposite personalities, share a common secret. The teens, along with their parents and younger siblings, are superheroes. But the family must keep the superpowers under wraps and live a normal life. Phoebe and Max have the same powers - freeze breath and the ability to move objects via telekinesis - but use them in opposite ways. Good-natured Phoebe tries to do the right thing, while troublemaker Max wants to become a supervillain. Little brother, Billy, can move at superspeed while little sis, Nora, has laser beam eyes. Dad, Hank, can fly and has extraordinary strength, but mom, Barb, can generate lightning from her hands. Does this family want to lead a normal life? Good luck with that.
Why It's Not Considered Thunderous
- Its premise, while somewhat interesting, just feels bland and generic in general.
- The concept of a superhero family with one family member wanting to be a villain is an incredible concept on paper. The main problem is that the show barely goes anywhere with this premise, and most of Max's "evil acts" tend to be minor mischief or pranks at best, and his villainy tends to be very standard, making him hard to take seriously most of the time. This is especially the case when the rest of the family treats him as a punching bag to the point where viewers actually feel sympathy for Max more than anything.
- The Thundermans have very one-dimensional, argumentative, and generic personalities that we've already seen thousands of times before. Not to mention they're very abusive to each other, and the show relies on cruelty for comedy.:
- Phoebe, a nerdy teenager who loves things such as fashion and school, is always set up as the "good guy," but most of the time she acts selfishly to get what she wants at the expense of others, especially Max. She also always has to scream or be loud whenever something happens.
- Max is the rebellious teenage boy.
- The twins are supposed to set good examples for Billy and Nora, but they're just as bratty and obnoxious as they are... if not worse.
- Hank is the bumbling idiotic father who is the Nickelodeon version of modern Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin.
- Barb is the mom that wants to forget their hero life and she also wants to be the woman of the house to the point of threatening her husband.
- The parents play favorites with their kids, showing a clear preference for Phoebe over Max, That’s not saying much, though, since they treat Phoebe like absolute crap as well.
- Nora is the manipulative spoiled brat who constantly manipulates people into doing something that they aren't supposed to do and usually ends up with what she wants and minimal consequences.
- Likewise, Billy is the clueless and stupid idiot who always gets manipulated (usually by his own siblings). Though he's arguably the most likable member of the family, due to his consistent kindness.
- Chloe is just a generic baby with a bossy personality. Her habit of saying "baby" after every statement also gets irritating pretty quickly and it feels like a poor attempt to be like Michelle Tanner from Full House, who was a rather charming character.
- The writing is mostly poor, as it consists mostly of cringy and lame attempts at humor.
- Every character must be so hypocritical. For example, they tell someone not to do a certain thing...before they do that same thing. This could make them bad influences.
- Lots of bad episodes, such as:
- Parks and T-Rex
- Orange is the New Max (which is the worst of the entire episode).
- A lot of the episode titles are overly reliant on pop-culture references ("Parks and T-Rex", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "May Z-Force Be With You", "Orange is the New Max", etc.)
- The acting, while not completely awfu1, can range from sub-par and even terrible. Kira Kosarin and Jack Griffo do a good enough job, but some of the other main actors like Addison Riecke, Diego Velázquez, and some others, are pretty much unbearable.
- Wasted potential: The episode "Thundersense" has Phoebe and later Max gain the titular superpower, which allows the user to sense danger and be able to quickly react to it. (It's clearly based on the famous Spidey-Sense) This would have been a very useful power that could have gotten Phoebe and Max out of a lot of tough times, and helped them predict villains' actions and counter them. But thanks to the show's questionable continuity, the power never gets used outside of the the episode when they need it, not even in the TV specials. What's the point of introducing a new superpower if it's never going to be used?
- The promos spoiled the last 4 episodes from the show, including the series finale, "The Thunder Games".
- It tries way too hard to be hip and current as it has references to twerking, internet lingo, roasts, selfies, social media, bottle-flipping, the floor is lava and even dabbing.
- Chloe rapidly aging from birth to a 5 year old makes no sense, and being a superhuman is not a good explanation as many superhero franchises depict characters aging normally. So, Chloe should’ve aged normally.
- There are lots of mean-spirited moments such as: Chloe, Billy and Nora taking away the TV because their parents took away their phone, only for the parents to give it back and not learning from their mistake.
- That racist Asian stereotype Mrs. Wong who is a very mean-spirited character.
- It overuses so much unnecessary and out-of-place dating drama.
- The laugh track plays at the unfunniest lines, which is a recurring theme in lots of bad sitcoms.
- Bad and cheaply-made special effects that look like it was made with a low budget.
- It even had a less than memorable crossover with Henry Danger.
- The show has many bad morals, such as:
- Bullying
- Violence
- Lying
- Breaking rules
- Sibling rivalry
- Committing crimes (breaking, vandalism, and theft), despite the fact that the main characters are supposed to be SUPERHEROES
- Impersonation
- Cheating
- Wiping out people's memories
- Manipulation
- Ditching school
- Not being yourself
- Starting drama
- Not learning from your mistakes
- Can't live without technology
- False advertising: The teasers, trailers, and promos say the show is a superhero show, but that would also be at the heart of the belief that there is crime fighting, but the show has little to no crime-fighting at all!
- Max's relationship with Dr. Colosso is sometimes kind of creepy, considering Colosso is a grown man in a rabbit's body.
- The flash animated scene in the episode "The Thundreth" by Elliott Animation Inc. looks terrible as its stilted and choppy, the character designs also look uncanny similar to Total Drama Island (which Elliott Animation Inc. also worked on, except that it looks better there).
- The concept of Splatburger is gross, and somehow Ms. Wong ended up taking over Splatburger from JJ with no explanation of what happened to the pizza parlor.
- As the series goes on, the family becomes obvious when they use their superpowers, but somehow they never get caught, creating a major plothole.
- Even before then, considering Hank's superhero name is "Thunder Man", which just so happens to be the family's last name, it makes you wonder how on Earth nobody in town raised some eyebrows earlier, or never got the family exposed.
- The series would later get a movie called The Thundermans Return, which is completely unnecessary.
Redeeming Qualities
- The theme song is admitted catchy with an upbeat cheerful, that establishes what the family's like.
- The fourth and final season was a minimal improvement in terms of the writing and characterization, but not by much.
- The TV specials are typically improvements over the regular episodes, considering the unnecessary teenage drama is toned down, there's more of an attempt to tell an actual story with lore, and there's actual crime fighting with supervillains involved. If the entire series had more crime fighting like in the specials, people would likely be willing to overlook the family's more questionable moments.
- Occasional good episodes, like:
- "A Hero Is Born"
- "Thundermans: Secret Revealed"
- "Thundermans: Banished"
- "Looperheroes"
- "Rhythm n' Shoes"
- "21 Dump Street"
- "Come What Mayhem"
- "Thunder in Paradise"
- "The Thunder Games" (which was a good way to end the series)
- Usually, the kids do get punished for their actions and usually attempt an apology.
- The episode "Are You Afraid of the Park?" has Nora and Billy calling out Phoebe and Max for their selfish behavior. So does the one where they go to the game convention, as they choose to go into the game room with Fifi and Matt over Phoebe and Max because they were unhappy with the selfish way that Phoebe and Max had been treating them.
- The idea of a superhero family is an interesting concept for a show, but was poorly executed. The Incredibles is a great example of this concept done much better.
- Carlos PenaVega from Big Time Rush guest-starred in the episode "No Country for Old Mentors".
- There are some funny and heartwarming moments.
- It is filmed in front of a live studio audience, so it has genuine laughs from a real audience.
- Dr. Colosso, Blobbin and Phoebe's best friend Cherry are likable characters. The Thundermans are also likable at times, especially in Season 4.
- Billy Thunderman, in particular, is the most consistently friendly and kind member of the family, even during the earlier seasons, despite being an idiot. He may just be the most likable member of the family.
Reception
The Thundermans received mixed to negative reception, it holds a 5.8/10 on IMDb, on Metacritic it holds a score of 43 based on 17 critics as well as a score of 4.6/10.
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