So, how did Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh go? It’s been half a week since it premiered, but it’s as if the stepbrothers never really left. I’ve been watching Drake & Josh reruns for quite a while now, and they still never fail to crack me up, although eventually it slowly feels a little awkward—Drake (Drake Bell) growing up, Josh (Josh Peck) growing up (and, let’s face it, becoming thinner than the Josh we first met), and Megan (Miranda Cosgrove) making you wonder, “isn’t she the girl from iCarly?”
It’s what we expected, really. Despite the fact that the main stars of the show have obviously grown up—this is, after all, the first new Drake & Josh anything to hit screens for over a year—it’s the same things that we’ve expected from the show. The plot’s simple yet complicated: Drake finds himself going miles to keep a promise he made to a kid (Bailee Madison) while trying to get away from a maniacal parole officer (David Pressman) and a prison sentence looming. Oh, classic Drake & Josh plot.
But I haven’t any complaints. I think these stories, which sometimes border on silly, isn’t exactly the focal point of the show. It’s the chemistry between the stepbrothers, one bumbling and the other dashing, or supposedly. I think I’ve learned to disregard whatever problem the right side of me would usually nitpick—it’s funny. There. We had the classic Josh-against-the-big-guy thing (Kimbo Slice this time). We had the classic Drake-against-himself thing (Mary Alice, the kid, this time). And there’s the plain silly but still funny thing—a GPS device that gives instructions when you’re really, really close to doing them?
I guess Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh was there to, although unintentionally, remind us of the things that we miss all along. Soon we’ll get tired of the reruns, and nothing beats something new every once in a while, even if it feels a bit awkward seeing guys in their early 20s act like teens. It’s not a far off possibility, really. “I would, definitely [be open to work on something together that isn’t Drake & Josh],” Bell said in an interview for a local morning show in New York City. “I don’t know about him, it’s probably the same though. I’m really comfortable working with [Peck] and it really just felt like getting back into a groove. It’s like a big high school reunion.”
Hopefully we don’t have to miss them so much. Or, if you haven’t caught them the first time, you can catch them again this Friday at 8:30pm ET, and again on Sunday at 7pm ET, on Nickelodeon.
-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Nickelodeon, Just Jared
(Image courtesy of Nickelodeon)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
