Hi Readers! It’s co-editor Gail here. I know this week is Christmas but I honestly need a break from writing about holidays. So this week I am going to talk about something kinda fun and nostalgic for me that is totally secular: The newly announced reboot of “iCarly”.
iCarly was a kids sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon from 2007-2012. It starred Miranda Cosgrove, Nathen Kress, Jeanette McCurdy, Jerry Trainor and Noah Munck. The plot revolved around teenager Carly Shay (Cosgrove) and her friends creating a weekly internet web show entitled iCarly. It introduced us to such things as soda bottle robots, random dancing, and of course, the spaghetti taco.
I really enjoyed this show growing up and it was probably the last live action Nickelodeon show I was really into and I still hold it as sentimental along with its predecessors All That, The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh. Unfortunately the legacy of these shows have been tainted by the abuse allegations about their creator Dan Schneider. Fortunately however, the reboot is being produced without Schneider by the Paramount network with much of the original cast returning.
It could be that the show is just being revived as nostalgia cash grab from my generation who grew up watching the show and are now adults who can buy streaming services, but I’d like to think that it is being brought back because it has the true potential to speak to important issues in our modern society.
While we do not know anything about the plot yet, I can imagine it will have something to do with Carly continuing to be an online content creator. The show originally aired in Youtube’s early days before we really knew what it meant to be a Youtuber and what the job truly entailed. Because of this, what I’d like to see in an iCarly reboot are the things real Youtubers deal with on a daily basis such as:
- Parasocial Relationships:
You may remember I wrote about this in one of my early blogs but it is still a topic that fascinates me. In the original series Carly and her friends did deal with dangerous superfans but in a way that was over the top, mostly played for laughs and was not very empathetic to the fan characters in question. It would be really interesting if an adult Carly was perhaps still dealing with the trauma of these events and navigating how to keep a healthy distance between herself and her fans as well as trying to empathize with them about any mental health issues they may have and encouraging them to seek help.
2.Youtube as a corporation: demonetization, algorithms, legislation etc.:
Something I hear the Youtuber’s I watch constantly talking about is the problems they face from Youtube itself. While an open and creative free platform, Youtube is still a major corporation and therefore often does things or is subject to things that ultimately screw over its users. I think it would be very relatable for viewers to see Carly deal with getting demonetized and how that can affect the income of a hardworking creator. Similarly, seeing Carly have to rework all of her content to fit a sudden and ridiculous new algorithm that messes up her viewership would also be realistic. I would even really like the show to explore what happens when government legislation from stuffy old politicians who don’t understand how the internet works forcibly ruins creators who had no voice in the matter.
3. Net Neutrality, Accessibility, Internet as a human right:
Since iCarly was such an internet age based show, I would like to see them discuss modern internet issues. They could have an episode exploring Net Neutrality and explain why it is so important. They could also have Carly need to travel to a less privileged area and see how accessibility of the internet is a struggle for so many. Ultimately I would want the show to advocate for the Internet as a human right since we now understand what an essential utility it is. This may be asking a lot for a reboot of a teeny bopper sitcom but I think it could be an excellent form of education and at the very least start the conversion by giving voice to these ideas.
4. Denouncing Problematic Colleagues:
Finally, this is an idea that makes me wish I was a writer for the reboot myself. Something I have been discussing with my friends a lot lately (and what inspired me to write the parasocial breakup blog in the first place) is how aggravated I am by certain Youtubers who I generally consider to be good people, refuse to fully publicly denounce problematic colleagues either because they are friends with them or that they value what they could lose in a blow back more than doing the right thing. Honestly it sometimes hard to tell if they are just ignorant about issues of anti-semitism, racism, sexism, homo/transphobia and how their collegue has a pattern of committing it, or if they just genuinely do not care enough to speak out and would instead defend their friend and continue to collaborate with them and others doing similar things.
I would LOVE and episode of the iCarly reboot to have Carly face facts that an old content creator friend and colleague of hers has done something (probably not for the first time) that for lack of a better word should get them “cancelled” and Carly must go through an emotional journey and realize that the right thing to do is to unequivocally denounce this person and their actions regardless of how it will negatively affect her own channel. If a fictional Youtuber can stand up to white supremacy, so can real Youtubers.
So yeah, those are my lofty ideas of what an iCarly reboot could be in the modern age. Most of it probably won’t happen but the fact that it exists in a world that has the potential to excites me. I mean just look at the full lyrics of the original theme song and tell me it isn’t an anthem of revolution!
We wish all our readers who celebrate a very merry Christmas! (And also a Happy Festivus!)
Gail Bello is a poet and playwright from Waltham, Massachusetts. She graduated in 2019 with a BFA in Creative Writing and a minor in Theatre from The University of Maine at Farmington. Find her previous publications at https://thaumaturgedramaturge.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @AquajadeGail