iCarly Gets It

I could watch iCarly constantly and never get tired of it, which is weird to say about a children’s show but it’s the most honest thing on television about how the internet actually works. Every self-appointed guru selling the secret to online fame is full of shit. Three teenagers on Nickelodeon figured it out better than any consultant with a publishing deal ever will.

They’re making videos, they get famous, they’re suddenly dealing with stalkers and hackers and the constant pressure to just sell out and compromise themselves. The same choices that are always there, the same temptations that don’t stop. And they navigate it—they fail, they figure it out, they keep going. Then there’s pizza and chicken wings and smoothies. It’s crude and it works and it shouldn’t be this simple but it is.

The show has a weird energy sometimes, something that makes you uneasy, but the promise is clear: everyone makes it out okay. Nobody actually gets destroyed. Sam won’t show up at your place and raid your fridge no matter how real that threat feels. The show understands the internet in a way nothing else does and it keeps insisting you can survive it. That’s the only message I’ve ever heard that actually means anything.