Reviews Series / Lab Rats

Another Disney TV Sitcom

Lab Rats! has an interesting premise: superhuman teenagers raised apart from society, finally having the chance to integrate themselves. There is a lot of potential there, for both humor and adventure.

Sadly, the show is (intentionally) just like the rest of Disney's live action line-up: simplistic plots, jokes that are basically "say or do something silly and that's enough", and shallow characters. Worse, since the main characters are supposed to be heroic, the episode's aesops can come across quite twisted- for example, in the episode with the runaway train, Leo almost caused a catastrophe, but because his siblings couldn't yet be seen in public, he actually took the credit for saving the day! And I *hate* the talking computer.

There's also quite a bit of Fridge Logic from the very premise of children being raised just for the purpose of being heroes with no choice in the matter, justified only by the Rule Of Funny. This will bother some people more than others.

I wonder why Disney takes these approaches with their live action shows, when their animated shows (such as Phineas and Ferb) have MUCH better writing.

Things I like about the show: the fact that it's about a mixed-race family, yet no big deal is made of this. Also the special effects and props are pretty good (I guess that's where most of the budget goes.) The acting is good enough considering how young most of the cast is. It's too bad they don't have better scripts to work with. But then again, the show is still new. Maybe it will improve over time.