Victorious
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Victorious (stylized as VICTORiOUS) is an American comedy television series created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on teenager Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) in her adventures throughout the fictitious performing arts school of Hollywood Arts. Joining the series cast is Leon Thomas III, Matt Bennett, Elizabeth Gillies, Ariana Grande, Avan Jogia, and Daniella Monet.
The series was first released on March 27, 2010 after the Kids Choice Awards ceremony of the year, with holding four Emmy nominees. After the greenlight of Sam & Cat, Victoria Justice took to Twitter feed expressing its cancellation. Because of this, the series was not renewed for a fourth season and was split of the third season. The final episode âVictori-Yesâ premiered on February 2, 2013
Plot
The series follows Tori Vega, a teenage girl who is accepted into Hollywood Arts, a fictional elite performing arts high school for talented teens. Other students at Hollywood Arts (and the students who later make up Tori's group of friends) include the musical prodigy Andre Harris, the socially awkward Robbie Shapiro and his ventriloquist dummy Rex, the sweet but dim-witted red-head Cat Valentine, the sarcastic and mean Jade West (who serves as Tori's frenemy), Jade's handsome down-to-earth, actor boyfriend Beck Oliver, and Tori's very untalented and self-absorbed older sister Trina. Other characters include Erwin Sikowitz, the performing-arts teacher for Hollywood Arts; Lane Alexander, the school's guidance counselor; and Sinjin Van Cleef, an odd and often unsettling classmate that handles audiovisual.
Why It Shines
- A chock full of a like-able cast, including Tori, Beck, Andre, Robbie, Cat, Jade, Rex, and Sikowitz. Unlike its rival iCarly, they show a racial diversity with two half-latina girls, one African American male, a Canadian Indian male, and a Jewish nerd leaving Jade and Cat the only Caucasian characters in the core seven.
- The website the characters use, "The Slap" (a parody of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) is really cool, and It avoids product placements.
- Plenty of funny and hilarious moments.
- Creative storylines.
- The acting is pretty good.
- It had a crossover with iCarly in 2011, titled "iParty with Victorious". Not only that, but some of iCarly's cast members, specifically Jerry Trainor and Nathan Kress, make brief cameos as audience members.
- Even after the crossover, there was still room for references to iCarly to be made, such as having the logo pop up in certain places and even a cameo from Gibby in "Tori Goes Platinum". They even made a spin-off where Sam and Cat become friends. Although it wasn't very good, it was nice to see the characters return.
- The color scheme is decent.
- It shows kids what it's like to go to a performing arts school.
- Rex is a hilarious comic relief character with his snarky comments. Jake Farrow did an outstanding job playing him.
- Cat Valentine is a super-adorable character, who is a air-headed, but soft-hearted girl and you can count on her to make you smile. She was a fan-favorite and got a co-lead in Sam & Cat.
- Andre Harris and Beck Oliver are both great straight men to their friends' antics.
- Handful of good music such as:
- Make It Shine
- Give It Up
- Freak the Freak Out
- You're the Reason
- Take a Hint
- Song 2 You
- The relationship between Tori and Trina is good, with Tori's more sensible and down to earth personality playing off of Trina's narcissistic, rude, and desperate for fame attitude.
- Jade is a pretty good foil to Tori, the two constantly butting heads throughout the show's run.
- The show had one episode as a parody of the 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club, "The Breakfast Bunch" which is not only funny but also a nice tribute to the movie.
- Robbie sings the Drake & Josh theme song on the end credits of the episode "Jade Gets Crushed".
- It was super popular when it came out and considered one of the best Nickelodeon shows during the early 2010's.
- The Season 3 episode "Tori Goes Platinum" felt like it could've easily been the perfect choice for a finale.
Bad Qualities
- Shameless and blatant product placement, such as the Wii and Taco Bell, that feels out of place for a Nickelodeon show.
- Depending on your view, as the series went on, Cat was flanderized into an annoying and whiny idiot, that the majority of the fans of the show began to heavily dislike or even hate her.
- Some other characters are also unlikable, like Jade, Tori, and Trina, and their parents, David and Holly Vega.
- In the last three seasons, Jade has been flanderized from a mean girl with a softer side to a heartless bully who is rude to almost everyone around her and attacks people when things don't go her way.
- Some other characters are also unlikable, like Jade, Tori, and Trina, and their parents, David and Holly Vega.
- There are plenty episodes that aren't good at all, such as the pilot episode (which wasn't a good start to the series), The Bird Scene, The Great Ping Pong Scam, Tori Gets Stuck, and Brain Squeezers.
- The next show, Sam & Cat was a pretty big step-down.
- While Tori Vega is a good protagonist, compared to other characters in the show, she can often come off as the least interesting, or in some occasions, the least likeable.
- Due to the fact that it was meant to be a kid's show, the humor can be very random and stupid at times.
- The show can have some very inappropriate jokes, such as Sikowitz saying "Andre, nobody wants to see big nudes" and Cat's "Jade can't fit her boobs in the hamburger".
- As the show went on, it seemed like they ran out of ideas.
- Little to no character development despite having four seasons.
- When Jade West mimics Tori's voice in the style of Judy Garland, it gets pretty annoying.
- The final episode, "Victori-Yes" (it was the last in airing order, but "The Slap Fight" was the last one in production order), was a horrible way to end the show, as it unexpectedly got cancelled. "The Slap Fight" still wouldn't have been the best way to end the show, but it probably would've still be better than "Victori-Yes".
Reception
Like iCarly, Victorious received generally mixed-positive reviews, it received 7/10 on IMDB.