When Worlds Collide: The Review
Once upon a time, Nickelodeon have 5 sitcoms. With the exception of Danger Force, none of them were connected or related to the Schneiderverse (though Side Hustle's creator previously worked with Schneider). And That Girl Lay Lay recently did a crossover with Young Dylan. So, what’s a better way to make a crossover with your current sitcoms? By making all of them collide in the same room. It turns out to be part of the series, Side Hustle. It aired during the middle of the second season, but in production order, it’s the final episode of the season. (You can tell it’s a later season 2 episode because Jayden Bartels has longer hair) Ok, so here’s what the crossover revolves on: Frankini (from the Dangerverse) wants to use some orb to turn everyone into backup dancers. That's the main conflict of the story, but how exactly did every show come to be? It turns out Lex, Presley, and Munchy are attending a convention, where Warped! happen to hold a panel there and that is how Milo and Ruby got involved with the plot. Lay Lay and Sadie are just attending the convention. And I almost forgot to mention this, but while Dylan is in it, he only appeared on the phone because his show is filmed at Atlanta as opposed to LA. The Danger Force are on a mission to search for Frankini, although they won't arrive at the convention towards the end.
Before we move on, I want to warn you guys - since I am a person of many unpopular opinions, which most of my reviews for NickJournals will revolve on, I am going to constantly comparing this crossover special to iParty with Victorious and why I actually considered When Worlds Collide the superior Nickelodeon sitcom crossover. So don't get mad at me, this is just my personal opinion and you must respect it. With that said, let me just say that this is the BEST Nick sitcom of all time. Sure, it should've been longer and it felt rushed in some moment, but I don't think longevity equals a good crossover. Look at iCarly x Victorious (don't feel like repeating the name "iParty with Victorious" over and over again tbh) - a waste of 90 minutes just to set up the two shows from crossing paths. Here, it took no less than 5 minutes to see the Side Hustlers interacting with other shows. While iCarly x Victorious underutilized characters (such as Cat), only Dylan felt the most useless due to his lack of ability to film the whole thing in person. And I'm not saying this just because I like his show the least, but he should've found a way to be used more instead of only being limited to just a phone call. Lay Lay and Sadie are the only characters to interact with him. Meanwhile, the rest of the other shows get to interact with each other in some way. The Danger Force gang does feel underused, but it's justified, they are on a mission. Not counting Frankini (of course, who is the main threat in this special), I feel like Warped! is the most interacted show due to the fact that the titular store has its own panel, leaving for plenty of scenes of both Side Hustle and Warped! kids interacting with each other and I love it. I mean, I'm biased cause they're the best Nick sitcoms currently airing. Unsurprisingly, out of the guest characters to show, my favorite has to be Ruby (it's what you expect when you consider Kate Godfrey the funniest kid actress in the past few years and her performance did not disappoint). Lay Lay was as funny as she was in her own show, which make sense considering John B Deck and Ron Hart produced both Side Hustle and TGLL (though it's written by the Side Hustle creator). And as much as I find Frankini a stereotypical gay villain, I actually enjoyed him as much as I did in the Henry Danger musical special. Before we get to the climax, let's continue gushing how awesome this special is. When you have 5 shows created by different producers vs 2 shows created by the same disgraced man, it's clear which one is better. Sorry, but if you think iParty with Victorious is the greatest Nick crossover of all time, I think you're crazy because that one was flawed as hell. This crossover, although from a couple nitpick I can easily ignore, is perfection. I can't recall any meta moments in iCarly x Victorious, but When Worlds Collide had a few of them. The word crossover was mentioned a couple times and they weren't in your face about it. Slight spoilers for though who hadn't watched it, but towards the very end, there's a moment where the kids addressed Fisher looking like Lil Dynimate from the Dangerverse (Mitchell Berg played both characters). Fisher doesn't see it and when they brought it up, he just stormed off. On an interesting note, it seems like the shows are aware of Danger Force because they were directly mentioned or referenced, hence their fanboy/girl moments when they came. I noticed that Franinki is the only adult character to guest appear in this crossover as the others are all kids. Most of the jokes landed here as they often relied on clever humor to make it work. Meanwhile, iCarly x Victorious came out at a time when Dan Schneider was losing his touch as a writer (mind you, the previous iCarly episode before this special was iOMG, the episode where Freddie and Sam became couples, and the next few episodes after this are torture to watch so, excuse me for my negative opinions on iCarly x Vicotrious). It's sad how a writer who used to work for Schneider did a better job at making a crossover with less screentime than the real deal. Ok, I'll stop slandering iParty with Victorious now because there's something this crossover mastered just as well as that special - the musical numbers. I was expecting a mashup of the show's theme songs (though Warped! doesn't have lyrics, it's just a short electronic piece and Danger Force theme song actually have lyrics unlike its successor but you can only hear it through the full version of the song or the end credits), but it's something different - worlds colliding. Yes, believe it or not, the special's title is called When Worlds Collide and it made me think of that SpongeBob song of the same name. It's a catchy song indeed. Only the Side Hustle and Lay Lay kids get to sing this, though. But yes, despite this, When Worlds Collide climax is still superior as it left me in a good mood whereas iCarly x Victorious left me disappointed after it ended. The special ended with a handshake. And I just described the entire special with my personal thoughts. Hope you enjoyed it.
I'll never get tired of boasting about Nick sitcoms being in a better position once Schneider left because it is goddamn true. You may let nostalgia blind you, but I feel like the work environment has improved very greatly as I feel like the producers actually gave a damn at writing good scripts instead of phoning in towards the end of your final years at Nickelodeon. With the exception of Young Dylan and Fairly Odder, these new kidcoms felt just as funny as old school kidcoms, especially with actors not shouting their lines as much as the Zarghami era kid actors did. And that's why I enjoyed this crossover special so much because it didn't came out at a dark era and I actually rewatch without feeling ashamed. Even if you haven't watched any of these shows, I recommend it. I hope Nick renews Side Hustle and Warped! so they could make another crossover. If not I'm going to be feel let down.
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