Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Nickelodeon's iCarly




Bibliography
Catania, J. (Producer). (2007). iPilot. [iCarly]. Los Angeles: Nickelodeon Network.

Running Time: 27 minutes

Plot
13 year old Carly Shay is living in Seattle with her older brother. She and her best friend Sam Puckett are tech savvy tweens who are recently assigned detention at their junior high school when they Photoshop one of their teachers as a rhino. For their punishment they are asked to host and record the applicants for the school’s Talent Show. At the talent show, though, Carly’s friend, Freddie ends up taping them making fun of the teacher in addition to the applicants. After posting the video online, Sam and Carly get more hits than the actual talent show. While they have to answer to the consequences, this sparks a new idea to the tweens, and their new web show, iCarly is created.

Review
The iCarly pilot is typical of tween representations and stereotypes. The adults represented in the show are either inept, overbearing or immature. The tweens seem to have more responsibility than the adults, however the representation of their characters are that of students who don’t feel bad about doing bad things unless they get caught. However, the show does promote tween identity. Carly supports her growth through her use of web shows. The first broadcast promotes weird human tricks amongst their peers who did not make the cut in the school’s talent show. Ultimately, the show is not great but it will appeal to tweens who want to escape reality for a bit.

Genre
Television Show

Reading Level/Interest Level
Should appeal to tweens in grades 5th – 8th.

Similar Content
Other shows on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel such as Hannah Montana and Drake & Josh.

Personal thoughts
I wasn’t a huge fan of this show, but I can understand why tweens would like it.

Subjects/themes
School
Friendship
Identity
Web Shows

Awards
No known awards.

Series information
This show has so far filmed 5 seasons.

Character names/descriptions
Carly (Played by Miranda Cosgrove): Main character and host of the iCarly Show. Lives with her brother Spencer

Sam (Played by Jennette McCurdy): Carly’s best friend. Helps to host Carly’s show. Does not get along with Freddie.

Freddie (Played by Nathan Kress): The boy who lives next door to Carly. Enamored with Carly and agrees to help her with her show since he knows a lot about cameras and videography.

Spencer (Played by Jerry Trainor): Carly’s 26 year-old brother, an artist who really doesn’t have a mature bone in his body.

Annotation
See how the hottest web show on Nickelodeon got its start.

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