iCarly

iCarly

Episode 11: iRue the Day

Episode 12: iPromise Not to Tell

By: Carlos Uribe

iCarly is a show about a girl who does a weekly webcast with her two best friends. It runs on Nickelodeon.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The first episode I'm reviewing this week is “iRue the Day”. This is an episode that had the inevitable: where the webcasts start to go wrong. The advanced and expensive equipment that Freddie has somehow acquired has started to go wrong during the shows. It isn't until after the webcast goes down that they discover the source: Nevel has hacked Freddie's computer and has thus taken over the technology. The rest of the episode is dedicated to the characters trying to regain their show back. The show didn't feel that there wasn't enough at stake as it decided to add another layer. That layer being that the Plain White Ts offered to perform on iCarly, but only on a specific date. This gave the characters a deadline. This is an escapist show and this means that Nevel is defeated by the end of the episode. The episode itself isn't funny but this is an episode that does show a sign of serialization. This is a continuation of a previous episode and it even references it.

This was a predictable episode but it is a surprise on how long the show decided to take before using the “things go wrong in the webshow” plot-line. This could have easily fit in an earlier episode, where a character is being shown how to use the equipment but does something wrong. It even makes sense that Freddie would be learning some of what is necessary along the way. The way he is packaged, where he knows almost everything about technology, is a bit unrealistic. It is therefore a surprise to see that Nevel is able to best him in technology. The day isn't saved because Freddie's nerd skills but because Carly called in the authorities. As it turns out, hacking is indeed against the law and there could be serious ramifications for it. The lesson here for any would-be hacker is that it's wrong. You'd think our characters would have learned this lesson especially since this show managed to hint at serialization in this episode.

You'd think. In the very next episode “iPromise Not To Tell”, Freddie and Carly decide to hack the school. They had a good reason to do so. When Sam manages to get into the school system, she changed their grades for the better. Since this is cheating, Freddie and Carly have a problem with this. The two hack into the system only to get caught by the school's computer security company's team. Since the school has employed this security company, it would make perfect sense for iCarly.com to hire them. The popularity of the website suggests that it could easily cover the cost of the security and it would protect them from future attacks. That is unless the website doesn't have any ads, which would lead me to believe that Freddie is a secret millionaire. All of that equipment and paying for the necessary server costs? There's no way that the characters aren't making money from their own webshow to pay for it all.

Their failure at getting away with hacking goes without comment. The characters eventually decide to come out and reveal the truth to the school administration. The only thing that had stopped them in the first place was because they made a promise to Sam. The lesson this episode is that breaking a promise to do the right thing is perfectly fine. I'm not going to argue with this lesson, but it is a bit diluted since all of the characters didn't actually tell the truth. There is also another lesson that placing your friends in that kind of situation is wrong. This episode was simply full of lessons, but the question is if the characters will remember it and show some growth in future episodes. Considering that they couldn't even remember how hacking was illegal in the previous episode, that is doubtful.