Legendary Dudas

Sweet, charming, and with finely drawn yet amusingly over-the-top characters, this middle school-set sitcom is a winner for tween viewers. It'll grab them from Legendary Duda's very first lines, wherein Sam Duda shows off the app he invented over the summer, which has a school map, a pep-talk button, and an alarm to tell you how long it is before school starts. Just the thing for a nervous young lad about to start middle school, and yet on a lesser show, confident big brother Tyler, who's famous because he was in an Extreme Flakes commercial, would have sent Sam's school-dominating hopes right into the ash heap. But that's not this show. On this show, Tyler rolls his eyes a little at his brother's nerdery: "Is this what you stayed home all summer to do?" he demands, before melting and giving his brother his support with a fist bump.

The dilemmas are silly yet grounded in real tween fears: Sam ruins the seventh grade mural in front of everyone with an ill-fated splash of paint; Sam's geeky best friend has a tough time getting his locker open: "It's his kryptonite," sighs Sam. Funny, and played for laughs. Yet new middle schoolers really do fear mastering their lockers, getting lost at school, and doing something dumb and babyish in front of their classes. Someone who remembers middle school well is guiding the action here, and they've found adorable actors to put things over, too. This is a fine show to put on for your children, and it's so lovable you may find yourself watching, too.