Common Sense Media Review
By Jenny Nixon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Time-traveling teens create a ruckus in the Old West.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Lost in the West
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In LOST IN THE WEST, stepbrothers Dave (Niko Guardado) and Chip (Caleb Thomas) are typical teenagers, looking forward to the Homecoming Dance and working on school science projects. One of those projects, Chip's high-endurance smartphone battery invention, has an unexpected side effect: It works as a time machine. The duo are bewildered to find themselves transported back to 1885, and they are soon mixed up with the locals and their attempt to stave off the land-grabbing machinations of their evil mayor, Doc Duvalier (Marc Schardan). This being a time travel story, Chip and Dave's misadventures in the past have long-range implications for the future, so they're forced to make a few more trips to set things right -- enlisting the help of their modern-day friend Lisa (Fallon Smythe), a bookish history buff, and their 1885-era pal Texas Jane (Morgan Higgins), a cranky cowgirl.
Is It Any Good?
Plotwise, the miniseries borrows heavily from 1980s classics Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future, but the cornball humor and stiff performances keep it from reaching the same comedic heights as those well-loved classics. The tone is incredibly cheesy, even for a series aimed at kids, and the jokes can be really repetitive. Dave, who is portrayed as the goofy airhead of the duo, is shown using the anachronistic slang word "awesome sauce" a good half-dozen times while hanging out among confused 1885-era townsfolk. We get it, guys.
On the plus side, they avoid the "damsel in distress" trope by showing the female characters to be among the smartest and most capable members of the group -- even if some take that strength a little too far at times, like the punch-happy Texas Jane. Older teens are likely to dismiss Lost in the West and its lack of grit, but younger kids may be drawn to the empowered characters, colorful backdrops, and silly jokes.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the time travel aspect of Lost in the West. If you could go back in time, would you be tempted to try to change certain things? What kind of an effect might that have?
Do you think the series' depiction of life in the Old West is accurate? How do you imagine a real circa-1885 cowboy might react to seeing a pair of modern-day teenagers appear out of thin air?
Did the characters in this series seem like real teenagers? Why or why not?
TV Details
- Premiere date : May 28, 2016
- Cast : Niko Guardado , Caleb Thomas , Fallon Smythe , Morgan Higgins
- Network : Nickelodeon
- Genre : Comedy
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 26, 2020
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