Villains of Valley View

"The Villains of Valley View" is a sitcom about this family of supervillains who now have to live out an "ordinary lifestyle" I'll be honest, I somehow randomly saw an ad for this show. I decided to check out the show, and I actually enjoyed it! A lot of people have been comparing this show to Nickelodeon's "The Thundermans" but reversed. I can definetly see why they are. The jokes are actually pretty good. Not every joke hits, but there were some surprisingly funny jokes. If you like supervillains, or a quick laugh, I'd check out "Villains of Valley View."

The Villains of Valley View has a lot of flat jokes and exaggerated acting that remind me of bad sitcoms from the 80s-90s. It feels like Disney saw Lab Rats and The Thundermans and decided to mix them, but they made the main characters evil.

I'm very confused as to what Disney is trying to get across with this show. For example, The Thundermans and Lab Rats taught kids about making good decisions and that you should cherise your family. But since the characters in this show are villains, those positive messages aren't showing. These characters are extremely unlikable. They barely make good decisions and they never suffer the consequences of their actions. Not to mention the family acts like they hate eachother majority of the time, the only episode where it seemed like they genuinely cared for one another was episode four: "Belt, Bulls & Superfans." This entire show just looks like a jumble of The Thundermans and Lab Rats but with bad guys. This show is just Disney attemtping to recreate shows from the early 2010s. Specifically shows that centered around superheroes living in the the suburbs. The whole reason those shows worked were because the main characters were good people. When you turn them bad, it throws the entire show off balance.

I still find the show relatively endearing though. If you turn it on in the background and don't pay too much attention, you might find it good. But if you want to be genuinely entertained, go watch something else.

It's on par with shows like Henry Dranger and the Thundermans. They all have similar ratings which should be no surprise.

Like them, this show has quirky ideas and potentially fun scenes and stories. The only thing in the way is the profound lack of nuance that all these shows have.

Comedy is best paired with a little bit of seriousness. These characters need to be fleshed out more and in ways logical to the story. For example, "the overly friendly do gooder becomes best friends with the punk rock villain next door" is extremely intriguing. But they don't do it well. Its rushed over and forced. This could've been something that develops over the course of the show but they rush it in favor of easily forgettable gag plots.

I want that intriguing situation.

Let me just say that I was definitely one of the skeptics when it came to this show. I thought it would be bad considering how Disney Channel (at least in the last 7-10 years) has had a track record of releasing really bad shows that last no longer than 2 seasons. For example Coop and Cami Ask The World, Shake It Up, So Random, etc. Villains Of Valley View seriously surprised me. The jokes were funny, the characters were interesting, and the costuming was a major step up for Disney Channel. People say this show is a shameless rip-off of The Thundermans (which wasn't that good of a show to begin with) but as someone who's watched both, they certainly have similar premises but VERY different executions. Villains Of Valley View, to me, just seems like a nice callback to older shows people have loved before and repurposing it for the newer generation. Give Villains Of Valley View a try if you want a feel of old Disney Channel, it may surprise you.

I am so totally not the audience for this show, I'm not a kid and haven't watched any of the precedents. I'm just watching it because I subscribe to Disney Plus, it isn't about punching people and I thought the premise sounded cute. The humor is predictable and snarky but what strikes me most is the art direction -- both costuming and set decoration are just weird. Do kids really dress like that? Why would villains bring abstract art sculptures to Texas? I watch people on sitcoms behave incomprehensibly badly to one another all the time but in this one the writing gives them an excuse to be a-holes, they're villains. Overcoming their villainy could offer a very powerful message to the right group of youngsters but can't they do it without the horribly ugly presentation?