How Henry Danger improved without its creator
It all sort of happened…Nickelodeon’s longtime producer wanted to make a new sitcom that involves superheroes and thus Henry Danger was born. However, I always forget that the show had a second creator named Dana Olsen. He only worked on the first season, which may have something to do with the quality because the show was really bad early on. Which sucks since the show has some potential for being superhero themed (I hadn’t seen The Thundermans outside of a few clips, but surely it looks better than whatever mess HD was early on). When the show is good, it felt like an actual superhero show. When the show is bad, it felt like a parody of past superhero shows. After suffering a Dork Age, Dan Schneider’s final years at Nick were actually better than the Seddie arc of iCarly and the final season of Victorious as well as the entirely of Sam & Cat (a show that doesn’t deserved any positive opinions at all). Both Henry Danger and Game Shakers were becoming more tolerable to watch and then…on March 2018, it was announced that Schneider was fired by Nick due to being verbally abusive and had anger issues. This led to Game Shakers getting cancelled abruptly with no proper ending (Victorious fans say hi and they’re still begging for one to this day even though they need to move on). However, for Henry Danger, as it was their money maker in the live action department, instead of cancelling it, they decide to give it a fifth and final season, without Schneider. This journal will recap the differences between the episodes run by Dan and then final season which was run by someone else.
So the final season of Henry Danger was something special. It was run by someone named Christopher J Nowak, who previously worked with Schneider on Victorious and Sam & Cat (and was a writer/producer for According to Jim in the 2000’s). It was twice as long as other seasons, with a total of 40 episodes (and a clip show). Michael D. Cohen, who plays Schowz, was finally a series regular since he was already appearing in almost every episode since the second season (though, it’s hard to believe that he was barely in the first season). The composer for Dan’s shows stayed for another year but was let go towards the end of the run and was replaced by Niki and Zach Hexum who would later become composers for the sequel series, Danger Force and fellow Nick sitcom Side Hustle. The writers from the previous seasons were still there but only this time, they get to write the episodes by themselves. As you can see, from late 2011-2018, Dan would always co-write an episode no matter what and that’s what led to his downfall. But you’ll be amazed to see how much Henry Danger have evolved without him (even though season 4 was pretty damn good). It was once a really annoying show with characters I couldn’t root for (especially Piper), unfunny jokes galore, and plots that went nowhere. The action sequences were still fun to watch and they became even better as the show went on. But eventually, as they started introducing villains like the Time Traveler and Drex, I was starting to become invested with the story and how it was going to end. On August 2019, it was confirmed that the show would come to an end. Shortly before the finale, Nick announced Danger Force, but I’ll get to that show later. What I’m gonna say for this season speaks for itself - this is what Henry Danger should’ve been the whole time. But it was clear that Dan’s stale writing was holding it back since it didn’t captured the same charm as his previous shows since he went for a different approach. While it’s still a 7/10 for me, the episodes are bearable to watch for the most part, even if some of them are just filler. There’s more episodes where I was really glued in to the plot than the past few seasons and it would’ve been ruined has Dan still remained at Nick. (Examples: A New Hero saga, Knight and Danger, Henry Danger the Musical, Sister Twister, Holiday Punch, Theranos Boot, and the last 4 episodes) I’m not going to spoil much of the season, but Henry temporarily lost his powers after an outrage and it made for an interesting three parter. The Knight Squad crossover was a surprise since the show wasn’t as popular as HD. However, Danger and Thunder was the better crossover and that was all the way back in season 2. The musical special was a delight to watch. It showcased everyone’s singing talents. Sister Twister was another two parter that felt special to me because after 5 years of being worthless, Piper finally became…gasp, a likable character?! She’s still the weakest of the main cast, but I wonder what took them this long to be aware of Henry’s Kid Danger identity (her crushing on his superhero self didn’t helped matters at all). So for the rest of the show, just like with Charlotte and Jasper, Piper started working for the Man Cave in order to avoid getting her memories wiped. Holiday Punch is Christmas Danger done right. It didn’t thrived on mean spirited moments for the plot to work, they made it into an action packed episode that will definitely make you feel the holiday spirit. Theranos Boot was exciting to watch as the show start to become very much like a Marvel movie with the Avengers reference and all (except that it’s a boot rather than a gauntlet). Before I discuss the final episodes, let me go over the flaws season 5 still had. Dan Schneider might be gone but it doesn’t mean the pointless arguments between the characters didn’t stopped. It plagued the show for a while and unfortunately a few episodes ruined the good streak of good episodes it has going for (examples: Dangerous and Broken Arms, The Whole Bilsky Family, Escape Room, and Cave the Date). Yes the 100th episode of the series was just 22 minutes of endless fighting over a secret room and it didn’t set well for me if it was considered a milestone episode. Even with the character development and actually finding her likable, Piper still contributed nothing important. Sadly, Charlotte is still not taken seriously even with the new showrunner. There’s a couple of stinkers that doesn’t involved fighting but that’s because it contained really annoying one side characters who blurt out random bullshit (the moles in Holy Moley), a really forgettable plot that belonged in the earlier seasons (Massage Chair), and the usage of Mpreg especially on a live action show like this (Captain Mom, although it redeemed itself towards the end, but it’s still the worst season 5 episode). With that out of the way, let’s discuss how the show ends: so Drex came back from the past to get revenge on Captain Man. While this is happening, a lot of changes is going on around Henry’s circle group, and it turns out he missed out on school for a whole year that he’s not graduating with Charlotte, Jasper, and Piper (yes, you heard me right, even Piper). Because of how stressful his life has become, Henry decides to quit being Kid Danger, although it happened at the wrong time as what I mentioned earlier. So he and Ray stopped talking to each other for a little bit and it led to the most serious the DangerVerse will ever be. It’s also the franchise at its peak for that reason alone. The show was such a gagfest at first that you can’t believe it was the same show when Dan was the showrunner. I was uncertain about the show continuing after his termination, but the final season reached my exception higher than the rest of the show.
And so, Henry Danger came to an end on a fitting day - Jace Norman’s 20th birthday. It lasted 130 episodes, the most out of any Nick sitcoms, surpassing ICarly (lucky for them, both franchises are still alive in some form). So with HD ending, was it time for Jace to finally move on from Nickelodeon? Nope! With Danger Force announced, he’s staying as a producer for now (to be fair, he was already a producer for the final several episodes of HD, since he’s now an adult) with his character Henry occasionally appearing for the important episodes. And now he’s extending his contract with them so he can do that long awaited Henry Danger movie that has been in the works since it was still made when Schneider was still on the show. He’s also doing other projects that doesn’t pertain to his iconic role, so there’s something. But I fear, they’re going to burn him out quicker than JoJo Siwa who is already dissatisfied with the company now. That’s exactly why I think Danger Force comes off as unnecessary - it’s just an excuse to not give Jace the freedom he deserves (I mean freedom from Nickelodeon), especially when they occasionally call him to return as Henry. I don’t hate the show, but I feel like the superhero sitcom genre has been milked to death for Nick and they tend to be admired more than the others. But Henry Danger will be remembered as one of those show whose identity had a drastic change from beginning to end.
