Big Time Rush

 

TV Show, 2009-2013, TV-G; Movie, 2012, G

Premise - Four hockey-playing teenage boys from Minnesota get the opportunity of a lifetime to work with big time record producer from the '90s Gustavo Rocque, who is trying to revive his career in managing boy bands. With no singing or dance experience, the four must shape up to heartthrob material when they move to Hollywood to start their career.

 

Review - This is a Nickelodeon show by Scott Fellows, who created Ned's Declassified, a children's show known for its cheese and excessive corny sound effects that are so wrong they are right. Big Time Rush follows a very similar over-the-top cheesy style, compounded by the overdone "normal teenagers are actually pop stars" so often executed by Disney and Nick. When the show was first advertised in 2009, even my teenage self thought the concept was too corny, cringy, and cliche. I honestly watched the first episode as a joke.

 

And you know what happened? I laughed, not at it, but with it. I thought the jokes were genuinely funny and the characters endearing. The four main stars are so unrealistically goofy and reckless that you know it's just trying to have fun. There's also a surprising amount of heart (albeit cheesy heart, rather than anything with emotional depth). I fell in love with this show from the pilot.

The best examples of the show poking fun at itself are all the industry jokes - the full mockery of capitalism, marketing, and the treatment of boy bands like a manufactured product rather than real human beings. We know full well that, behind the scenes, this is exactly what's happening to the real members of Big Time Rush. But as fictional characters, we can laugh at their pain of being clogs in the machine. The jokes on capitalism and monetization of human beings also ages very well in today's era of social media and influencers.

Unfortunately there is a lot of humor that does not age well, particularly around boy/girl dynamics that are uncomfortably heteronormative, sexist, and offensive. But what can I say - it's a 2000's children's comedy.

 

The cheese also can sometimes be highly oversaturated for me. I enjoy when the show is firmly rooted in the reality (albeit an exaggerated reality) of Hollywood. However, when the show crosses territory into supernatural or science fiction (like the HORRID Big Time Rush movie where the four of them become spies in London and fight an evil scientist who makes an anti-gravity machine, or the disappointing finale in which a mac n' cheese CEO hypnotizes people into loving mac n' cheese so they buy his product, and Big Time Rush has to become spies again and save the day), it becomes too childish for my taste. I'd much rather enjoy the sophisticated, self-aware industry jokes than the out-of-this-world kid adventures.

 

And, honestly, I watch this show for the music. Again, the show is self-aware about how the songs are highly manufactured pop, but goddammit they are CATCHY songs. I still listen to Big Time Rush albums all the time. (78/100)

 

Quote - There are SOOO many good songs... my goodness... here's an excerpt from a favorite:

"Dance hard, laugh more
Turn the music up now
Party like a rockstar
Can I get a what now?
I swear I'll do anything that I have to
'Til I forget about you

 

Jump up, fall down
Gonna play it loud now
Don't care
My head's spinning all around now
I swear I'll do
Anything that I have to
'Til I forget about you"

 

What to watch for - The four main characters - Kendall, James, Logan, and Carlos (which are also their real-lief names). All four of them are highly talented and I'm happy to see that they still all get along in real life and sing together because it makes them happy.

 

If you liked this series, I'd recommend Victorious!

 

Created by Scott Fellows

Aired on Nickelodeon