51) VicTORIous: Season 3

Bibliography: Schneider, D. (Creator); Schneider, D., Bell, W., & Weiner, R. (Producers); VicTORIous; Nickelodeon; Original Run Date March 27, 2010 to Present.

Plot: Teenager, Tori Vega has recently been accepted to the Hollywood Arts High School, a high school for teens interested in the various performing arts fields.  The show follows Tori as she finds her place at Hollywood Arts.  The show shows Tori’s various crazy adventures and interactions with the different students at Hollywood Arts.  Tori’s friends include Andre, a musical prodigy, Robbie, a ventriloquist, Jade, a mean girl who has a love hate relationship with Tori, Cat, a naïve and sweet spirited girl, and Beck, a musician.  In season three, the friends have all found their place in their social group and they must also deal with the breakup of Jade and Beck’s relationship. 

Review:  In the third season, the group is older and has been friends for some time now.  Even though Jade and Beck breakup in the third episode, the group dynamic does not change or even shows that the breakup has any effect on them.  Tori is the leader of the group and I wonder if any of them would be friends if she had not come to Hollywood Arts.  The characters are all very different, which is refreshing to see teens being friends despite these differences, but there are still the stereotypes.  Jade is extremely mean spirited and even though she hangs around the group, she treats Tori and Cat as if they are no more than minions that she deals with regularly.  Cat is portrayed as nothing more than a dumb pretty girl.  I wish that producers would stop casting this character.  It does nothing to promote teen and tween girl’s self worth.

Tweens and teens love this show.  While it is humorous to see the different situations that the group gets into, I feel that the main pull of this show is the music.  Both Tori and Andre are very driven in their desire to be singers and the show highlights this in several episodes.  Otherwise, the show does nothing to inspire girls’ to be more than the popular one, the dumb one, or the mean one.

Genre: Humor/Coming of Age/Musical

Interest Level: age 10 and up

Related Shows: iCarly; Victorious; Shake it Up; How to Rock

Characters:

Victoria Justice as Tori Vega – the main character

Leon Thomas III as Andre Harris

Matt Bennett as Robbie Shapiro

Elizabeth Giles as Jade West

Ariana Grande as Cat Valentine

Avan Jogia as Beck Oliver

Daniella Monet as Trina Vega

Awards: Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite TV Show in 2012 

Official Website: http://www.nick.com/shows/victorious