YMMV / K.C. Undercover

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • People who don't consider Ernie as The Woobie generally see him as an overly whiny idiot with few redeeming qualities.
  • With the constant Character Shilling K.C. gets, people are split on whether she deserves all the praise or not. Then there's the issue of her pride, which is either endearing or annoying.
• Cliché Storm: It pretty much uses every spy and Disney cliche that's been done to a pulp.
  • Disney: The overachieving main character, the mean younger sister with a caustic sassy streak, the ditzy best friend, and the Butt-Monkey nerdy brother.
  • Spy: A Generic Doomsday Villain, the teen hiding their secret being a spy, the defector from the villains due to The Power of Love, the villain posing as a love interest, and the higher up in an organization serving as The Mole.
• Designated Hero: KC sometimes beats up people with force bordering on Police Brutality without questioning whether she's beating up the right person or not. When she tries to keep undercover as a worker of some kind, she has the tendency to react with utmost contempt to patrons, the very people she is sworn to protect.
• Hollywood Homely: K.C.'s looks are consistently made fun of for being awkward and unable to get a date despite being played by Zendaya.
• Les Yay: In spades. Not helped by Marisa gazing adoringly at K.C. all the time, the truth serum induced speech about how much Marisa loves K.C., that time they were trapped in a box inches apart, what was essentially a break-up arc between the two, and them now being each other's prom dates thanks to Marisa's down on knee promposal.
• Narm: Kind of hard to take The Other Side's leader's family seriously with their first conversation together. The writers were trying too hard to make sure they're a Dysfunctional Family.
• Parental Bonus: The fact that Ernie's gorgeous new girlfriend ("Spy-Anoia Will Destroy Ya") is called Jolie - as in Angelina Jolie, who played a Russian spy in Salt. And in the episode, Jolie turns out to be... you guessed it.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • "Accidents Will Happen" and "Brainwashed" introduces Ethan Wacker, who later joined the main cast of Bizaardvark as Bernie.
  • White Josh and Debbie are spies wanting a code from Ernie in "Virtual Insanity."
  • Brent's apparently gone undercover as Reggie Mantle and Zach Dempsey.
• The Scrappy:
  • Judy is despised by the fans because of her Lack of Empathy. From outright being the cause of some of her family's problems, not activating possibly life-saving features to save them, and even defaulting to murder as the first solution to a problem all while trying to act as an adorable Deadpan Snarker. Let's not bring up her It's All About Me attitude. It speaks volume when even Zuri, who is considered The Scrappy of her own series, thinks she's mean.
• So Okay, It's Average: Fans of this show are hard to find, and what few fans it DOES have can't really say it's anything special or that memorable.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Zendaya overtly described the show as a throwback to Kim Possible and the "cool Disney Channel" of the early '00s. (Kim Possible did later get an official live-action movie.)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Brett Willis. As shown in “Operation: Other Side” he and KC still had feelings for each other, and thus were unwilling to hurt each other. If Brett had been a recurring character, with he and KC routinely failing to complete missions because of this, it would have built to him pulling a Heel–Face Turn far more effectively. Even after he defected from the Other Side, his story of a teenage boy trying to figure out who he his outside of his fathers toxic influence would have made a good foil to KC's unshakable self-confidence. Instead, we get one episode of Evil Brett, then he turns good, then he’s never seen again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In the two-parter "In Too Deep," KC and Ernie infiltrate an activism group called the Volunteens whose leader seems to have ulterior motives, but whose world outlook is very close to KC's. The idea of KC being right to the edge and getting pulled back by Ernie (who never falls for Jane Keller's pitch - not the only instance of Ernie actually being more professional than KC in season 2^note see "Sup Dawg?") could have been a good chance to make this the show's best episode. Instead, she snaps it out of it by herself, and even Ernie's would-be rescue gets cut off at the pass.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: KC, KC, and did I mention KC? She undergoes tons of Character Shilling, but once the possibility of her not being perfect comes up, she takes a level in jerkass from believing a teacher that gives her a less than stellar grade as an enemy agent to outright ignoring other spies who clearly know better than her. Then there is her behavior while undercover. She comes off as less of a person being undercover and more of an excuse to simply let out her sadism like attacking a person with hypoglycemia. Ironically, KC was jealous of another agent being too perfect in the Season 3 premiere.
  • Bizarrely enough, when this is brought up in-universe, KC goes around to being the opposite. "Web of Lies" directly addresses her Designated Heroism, but makes everyone pointing it out to be the most selfish and whiny human beings to ever exist. Sure, KC could have been much nicer about pointing out that Marissa wasn't ready to be a spy (which is what she even says in universe), but Marissa acts more like a bratty child throwing a tantrum when she calls out KC on being self-centered, rather than the moment feeling cathartic or deserved.
  • Speaking of Marissa in "Web of Lies", she comes off less as "innocent bystander being tricked into helping The Alternate" and more like a vindictive and bitter bitch who's trying to get back at KC.
• The Woobie: Ernie. It seems as if his family doesn't care about him that much. They even once forgot to bring him back from the hotel they were staying at. Ernie lampshades it in "Stakeout Takeout" in a round of Misery Poker with KC; she's upset that one thing didn't go right for her— their dad lying to her so that she wouldn't go on vacation— but he has to deal with things going wrong for him every day. Then there's the fact that all but one girl pretends to be interested in him just to kill his family.

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