All Rise...

Judge David Johnson had an internet TV show but it was shut down by the Parmistan government.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of The i<3 iCarly Collection (published July 17th, 2011), iCarly: The Complete Fourth Season (published August 5th, 2012), iCarly: iSaved Your Life (published June 10th, 2010), iCarly: iSpace Out (published September 11th, 2010), and iCarly: Season 2, Volume 1 (published September 2nd, 2009) are also available.

The Charge

iDon'tcare.

The Case

The Nickelodeon star factory continues to do what it can to pump out The Next Big Thing and maybe, just maybe, beat out those bastards over on the Disney Channel.

Miranda Cosgrove, who got her burn on the mind-numbing Drake and Josh, is the latest to pop out of the EZ Bake Star-Making Oven, with this half-hour teeny bop comedy that just sort of exists.

She plays Carly, the host of a hit internet show called iCarly and episodes document the series of misadventures she gets into with her friends, both in the real world of high school society and in Carly's hyperactive home life. She's got a spunky best friend, pathetic camera man and a ditzy older brother. This set brings them to us for 15 episodes, plus an extended episode, plus two made-for-TV movies.

That's a lot of iCarly.

Good news for the kids in your house; probably not-so-good news for you. It's not that iCarly is bad. It's just canned and mediocre, obviously custom built to churn out an adolescent star with draw power that could approach Hannah Montana.

The comedy is vanilla, but inoffensive. The laugh track might drive you to drink, but the jokes are sanitized and the plotlines are a lot more palatable than something you'd find in Jersey Shore. Park your kid in front of Carly and the gang—you won't have to fear them leaving the living room spouting profanity or talking about tramp stamps.

Still, wholesome or not, the show is corny, lacking the wit and energy of something like Big Time Rush, another Nick product and, yes, another cash grab—but at least it's well-written and amusing. iCarly outputs low-amp gags, set against the backdrop of two girls making a dumb Internet show that no one in the real world would actually watch.

Okay, enough cynicism. Fans will get a lot of bang for their buck with this set, each disc heaping with episodes and/or TV movies. Unfortunately, as is typically the standard operating procedure with Nick releases, the technical merits are severely lacking. Episodes receive dull, full-frame transfers (even worse, they're in fake widescreen), supported by 2.0 stereo mixes. Extras: a couple of shorts and a pilot episode of something called T.U.F.F. Puppy.

The Verdict

Eh, Not Guilty. I'm bored, but no one involved with the show cares about a dude in his 30s.

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