All spoilers for the original TV series are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Ready in 5, 4, 3, 2…note
Carly: You think you can shoot me with a filter that makes my cheekbones all...? [puckers her lips]
Freddie: That filter that makes you look like an alien?
Carly: A sexy alien.
Freddie: That filter that makes you look like an alien?
Carly: A sexy alien.
iCarly is an American web television sitcom streaming on Paramount+. It is a revival of the Nickelodeon sitcom of the same name. Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress, and Jerry Trainor returned to reprise their roles as Carly Shay, Freddie Benson, and Spencer Shay respectively. Jennette McCurdy and Noah Munck did not reprise their roles as Sam Puckett and Gibby Gibson respectively due to the former's retirement from acting and the latter pursuing other projects, leading to their characters being excluded.
In this revival series, Carly and Freddie are all grown up and Spencer is now filthy rich after his half-meltednote marshmallow white house sculpture received lots of praise and sold for a ton of money. Carly has her own apartment right across from her brother, which she shares with her new best friend Harper Bettencourt (played by Laci Mosley), a pansexual barista who dreams of being a stylist. Carly's long-time boyfriend Beau dumps her during a livestream, and she falls into a deep depression. A month later, she encounters New Old Flame Luke at one of Spencer's parties and, to make Beau jealous, plans to launch a new web show with Luke, only for her to call things off after realizing she and Luke have no chemistry.
Carly really misses doing the iCarly web show and decides to resurrect it. But since Sam is no longer around after having joined a motorcycle gang called the Obliterators, Carly decides to host the show on her own, with Freddie once again behind the camera (actually a Pearphone this time) and Spencer providing assistance whenever needed. Freddie, meanwhile, has been through two failed marriages and a startup company that went under, so he's back living with his mother — only now he's joined by his adopted stepdaughter Millicent Mitchell (played by Jaidyn Triplett), a snarky, middling internet creator who views Carly as a rival.
The series premiered on June 17, 2021 for a 13-episode first season. The following month, it was renewed for a 10-episode second season. The second season premiered on Paramount+ on April 8, 2022. On July 27, 2022, it was renewed for a 10-episode third season which premiered on June 1, 2023.
In October 2023, Paramount+ announced the series's cancellation, ending the series with 3 seasons of 33 episodes and on a huge cliffhanger.
This series provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc:
- The season one finale "iReturn to Webicon" ended with both Beau and Wes professing their love for Carly, seemingly setting up a Love Triangle arc. The season two premiere "iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now" reveals that she dumped the both of them and is single again.
- The season one finale also featured Harper and Dutch getting a relationship upgrade. They break up in the season two premiere due to Dutch's busy schedule getting in the way and Harper is dating other people starting in the next episode.
- The Alleged Car: Carly's car "Vin Diesel" is in such bad shape that it would cost as much to fix it as it would to buy another one. Carly doesn't want to give the car up and tries to fix it herself, failing miserably. After swallowing her pride and letting Wes try to fix it, he tells her it can't be fixed and Carly breaks down. The reason why she's so attached to the car is because she and Sam bought it together and had many fun times together, with the car helps her feel connected to her old friend. Fortunately, Spencer keeps part of the remains and uses them to make a new seat for the iCarly studio.
- Alliterative Name: Millicent Mitchell. Also Prunella Pitz (later Papperman.) and Double Dutch.
- Artistic License – Law:
- In "iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now" Double Dutch says that phone sex is illegal in Germany. It isn't.
- "iObject, Lewbert!" contains many examples:
- The way that Trina obtains Carly's signature on the summons (pretending it's a petition against climate change) is illegal and Carly could have challenged it in court.
- Lewbert wouldn't have been able to sue Carly in real life due to the statute of limitations for personal injury, which is three years in Washington. Carly's offenses against him happened long before that.
- There is absolutely no judge in America that would've allowed for the shenanigans that went on in the courtroom during Sline v. Shay, such as Spencer and Carly's bad attitudes, Mrs. Benson and Lewbert openly making out on the stand, Chuck openly pelting cupcakes at Spencer from the stand or Lewbert's mental breakdown. Only Spencer is punished for his actions.
- Lewbert, in addition to demanding one million dollars in damages, also wants to be awarded the rights to the iCarly web show so that Carly can't produce it anymore. The judge correctly points out that Lewbert cannot legally do that.
- Basement-Dweller:
- After two divorces and a failed startup, Freddie is back living with his mom.
- Nora Dershlit still lives with her parents, which Freddie hypocritically chides her for.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Carly and Freddie's fight in "iMake New Memories," when Carly's recreation of their date night in Italy turns out to also be a recreation of what Freddie calls "the worst night of [his] life." Freddie reveals to Carly that that night, he had planned to ask her to be his girlfriend, only for her to laugh to a third person at the idea of her and Freddie being together. Carly doesn't like being made the "bad guy" just for not liking Freddie back—a fair point, except that kissing Freddie before she left for Europe very reasonably gave him the idea that she did. Carly's well-intentioned attempt at closure just made Freddie feel that she was stringing him along and Carly feels that Freddie is only friends with her as a "consolation prize".
- The Bus Came Back:
- "iM Cursed" brings back minor character Duke Lubberman, who hasn't appeared since the original iCarly season one episode "iHatch Chicks".
- Chuck Chambers was shipped off to military school (offscreen) in the final season of the original show (his final onscreen appearance was in "iBeat the Heat" two seasons prior), with his younger brother Chip tormenting Spencer in his stead. Chuck returns in "iObject, Lewbert!"
- Brand X: Zigzagged. This show does feature more real name brands than its predecessor, but still retains parodies such as Pear Products, Skybucks, and Blessed Buy in order to maintain continuity.
- Celebrity Paradox: Emily Ratajkowski is referenced in "iM a USA Bae". Ratajkowski previously played Gibby's girlfriend Tasha in the original iCarly.
- Character Aged with the Actor: Given the near-decade long gap between the original show and the revival, this show covers Carly and Freddie's young adulthood.
- Characterization Marches On: Beau, Carly's ex-boyfriend, never got much characterization in the first episode. In the season finale, he's established as a dim-witted and reckless free spirit who loves to have fun above all else.
- Cliffhanger: The season 2 final episode ends with a Love Triangle romantic cliffhanger between Freddie, Pearl and Carly.
- Continuity Nod: Both within the show itself and to the original.
- The return of various recurring and minor characters from the series, such as Marissa (aka, Mrs. Benson), Nora, Nevel, Principal Franklin, Griffin, and even Duke (who only ever appeared twice in the first season of the original series, in "iLike Jake" and "iHatch Chicks").
- Spencer still holds the Jonas World Record for Most Moving Pieces on a Sculpture and has apparently done so for eight years straight (or 14 years as of the episode's original air datenote .)
- While Sam is a no-show here, Carly does reference her being in a biker gang named the Obliterators. Sam still had the motorcycle that was gifted to her by Spencer at the end of the original series in Sam & Cat.
- All of the Brand X products from the original are still present, such as the aforementioned Skybucks and Pear Products.
- Millicent is given a fish named Donut by Freddie in "iMLM". She mentions still having it in the following episode.
- Freddie caught a penis parasite in season one finale, "iReturn to Webicon". It has cleared up in season two premiere "iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now".
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Harper to Sam as Carly's new best friend: the former is a Riches to Rags black girl working a dead-end job at Skybucks while working to achieve her dream as a fashion designer and has no involvement in iCarly. The latter was a middle-class white girl who never put effort into anything other than iCarly and grew up to pursue a life of crime in a biker gang. Harper's treatment of Freddie is also significantly better than that of Sam's, with the two being well-acquainted through Carly, but she still thinks of him as a dumbass.
- Cut Short: Paramount announced it cancellation after the Season 3 finale... right when Carly and Spencer's Missing Mom appeared for the first time in the franchise's history.
- Darker and Edgier: Due to being aimed at the kids who grew up with the original show who are now adults themselves (as well as airing on streaming service Paramount+), the revival has much more liberties, as such the characters can use profanity and drink alcohol. The jokes are also noticeably darker; one episode has Spencer accidentally hook Freddie up with a prostitute, and another one has a fortune teller die onscreen from an aneurysm. Both are Played for Laughs.
- Derailing Love Interests: Beau and Wes in the second season. In the first season, they were nice guys who Carly dated and who she had to choose between in the finale after they both declared their love for her. The season 2 premiere reveals that Carly chose neither and the two turned into petty and childish jerks who have created a webshow together just to humiliate Carly.
- Did They or Didn't They?: When the FaFuDa party is mistakenly told Carly is pregnant, Freddie has to ask if it's true and is visibly happy. So yes, they finally did.
- Dogged Nice Guy: This trope is deconstructed on both sides. In Season 2, Freddie starts to realize just how many times Carly was able to use his feelings for her to mooch him for favors or tolerate abuse he wouldn't have otherwise done had it not been for his unrequited feelings. Likewise, Carly wonders if Freddie is really her friend or just sees it as second place to being her boyfriend.
- Don't Tell Mama: Although Nora's not as bad as she used to be, she does stalk Carly and Freddie for a bit upon seeing them for the first time in years. When Nora realizes that she went too far by climbing into Carly's apartment, she begs Carly and Freddie not to tell her parents about her. Which is strange since Nora's parents helped her kidnap Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer and Gibby in "iStill Psycho". (Though Nora implies it's because she lied and told her parents that she went somewhere else.)
- Faked Kidnapping: "iTake a Girls' Trip" has Harper reunite with her cousin Maeve, who went missing years ago, claiming to have been kidnapped. The next episode reveals that Maeve was actually never kidnapped and only faked it to escape debt collectors and the paparazzi after her family went broke.
- Fake High: In "i'M Wild and Crazy", Carly asks Harper to take her out for a wild night, drugs, alcohol and so forth. Harper gives Carly a drug called "ACD" and Carly spends the night drinking and doing crazy stuff such as kissing a stranger and getting a tattoo. After they get placed in mall jail, Carly takes a breathalyzer test and her blood alcohol level is 0.0. Harper reveals that she ordered non-alcoholic drinks for Carly and the ACD pill was just a multivitamin. As a bonus, the guy she kissed was Harper's dentist, and the tattoo was temporary.
- Fake Relationship: Carly & Freddie fake a relationship in the first episode of season 2 to avoid a genderflipped Girlfriend in Canada situation when Carly blurts out that she does in fact have a boyfriend due to her two ex-boyfriends ragging on her for being an "Ice Queen". They go on a few fake dates, but it crashes down when Freddie 'cheats' on Carly with another woman, in public, at his new app's opening event.
- The Ghost: Sam may not appear anymore, but the show will not forget her. Carly will time and time again discuss memories she had with Sam.
- Growing Up Sucks: Carly and Freddie are now in their late twenties and must face new challenges in their lives. For Carly, she has difficulty moving on from her teen years since she no longer has Sam, her old fame as an Internet celebrity and is searching for new love. For Freddie, he has been divorced twice, is raising a stepchild and his startup tech firm failed so miserably that he had to move back in with his mother.
- Growing with the Audience: This revival is aimed more towards those who grew up watching the original show, and are now adults. It's even a general plot point In-Universe as well, with Carly trying to figure out how to revive her webshow and appeal to her now-adult audience.
- Hotter and Sexier: Since the characters and audience are now adults, they get to go beyond kissing, so much as discussing it. Also averted when they also discuss how Freddie has a "penis parasite", that is definitely not hot, or sexy.
- Ice Queen: This is how Carly's two ex-boyfriends describe her, to the point where the fans of their combined webshow start sending Carly boxes of ice by delivery.
- Jerkass: Millicent is an unpleasant and manipulative Little Miss Snarker who takes advantage of Freddie at every turn and tries to turn away every girl who approaches him. She does show Hidden Depths and Character Development however.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Reconstructed. Lewbert may be insufferable, but he's entirely right in that many of the gang's pranks actually hurt him. Carly thinks she can get off by showing Lewbert's true nature. While the court agrees Lewbert is an awful person, that doesn't make their abuse of him legal, so he still wins the case.
- Love Triangle: The Season 2 finale ends with one developing between Pearl, Freddie and Carly.
- The Mentor: Subverted with Millicent and Carly. Despite being a webhost for a decade and starting out the same age as her, Millicent doesn't look to Carly for guidance. In fact, her first scene was to tell Carly she should retire after not posting anything for a monthnote despite the older woman literally being one of her two subscribers.
- More Diverse Sequel: The original iCarly cast were primarily white and heterosexualnote . Although black characters Principal Franklin and T-Bo had expanded roles later on in the series, they were never truly main characters. Sam and Gibby's disappearance led to the creation of Harper, a pansexual black woman and Millicent, who's likely mixed race. Many side characters are also people of color and/or fall on the LGBT spectrum.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: When trying to demonstrate her limited knowledge of Italian to Wes in "iThrow a Flawless Dinner Party", Carly ends up saying she wants gelato scoops.
- Offscreen Breakup: The original series finale implied a Relationship Upgrade between Carly and Freddie since they shared one last smooch before parting ways. Unfortunately, they didn’t pursue a long distance relationship as they both went on to date other people and Freddie move on from his even got married and divorced twice. This series doesn't seem to focus much of their former romance, as they are still trying to move on from their recently failed relationship with their significant other. However, they seem to still have some old yet awkward lingering feelings for one another since Carly nervously reminisces about their previous romantic entanglement, as seen in "iTake a Girls' Trip".
- The decision Carly is faced with at the conclusion of season one is resolved offscreen, conveyed months later with Beau and Wes having started their own webshow in solidarity for each other over Carly rejecting both of them.
- One-Hour Work Week: Harper is the only character we see working on a regular basis and she quits her Skybucks job in "iMLM" so that she can pursue fashion full time. Carly's online content probably generates enough ad revenue and sponsorship money that she doesn't have to work a 9-to-5 job. Spencer is now insanely wealthy after his partially melted marshmallow white house sold for a ton of money, though he would later become a restauranteur after purchasing the former Groovy Smoothie and turning it into his own restaurant called Shay What? "iMLM" reveals that Freddie works from home in tech support, only for him to quit that job in order to sell sand. After finding out he was scammed, he realizes that he's an entrepreneur at heart and decides to start a new business.
- One-Steve Limit: The new character Harper is not the first character on the show with that name. "iCarly Saves TV" had a character named Harper who performed a song on Carly's web show. Both characters are even portrayed by black actors, with Leon Thomas III, the Harper on the original, going on to play main character Andre in Victorious.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Carly and Freddie haven't been in a relationship for nearly a decade and are still hanging out with each other. The duo even get Mistaken for Romance in "iTake a Girls' Trip". Freddie's girlfriend Pearl even gets worried about how she'll never be able to know Freddie like Carly does.
- Pushover Parents: Freddie is very bad at parenting his adopted stepdaughter Millicent, falling for her guilt trips, and failing to discipline her. He finally stands up to Millicent in "iMLM", saying no when she asks for a dog. Though he does get her a goldfish as a compromise.
- Put on a Bus: Sam is noticeably absent. Her disappearance is explained in universe by the returning main cast mentioning that she joined a biker gang called the Obliterators. Gibby is absent as well but his disappearance is not mentioned.
- Rearrange the Song: This show retains "Leave it All to Me" as the opening theme, albeit with some slight differences. The version used in the first episode had a different instrumental for the bridge (the one from the studio recording, in fact), while the subsequent episodes just use a shortened version.
- Riches to Rags: Harper's family used to be very rich until they lost their money. She had to get a job at a minimum-wage Starbucks Expy job to make ends meet. Though by "iMLM", her fashion business has become successful enough that she was able to quit her job.
- Ruder and Cruder: Compared to the original show, which leaned on Gosh Dang It to Heck! and Parental Bonus, this show has mild profanity and mature themes slotted in, with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Even Carly herself occasionally swears.Carly: Spencer, you know how cutthroat it is out here! All these new platforms and influencers getting younger and younger. It's like Harper always says, "You gotta switch it up on a bitch!"
- Serial Spouse: Freddie has been through two failed marriages and is currently raising a stepdaughter.
- Sequel Non-Entity:
- Sam is written out of the storyline due to Jennette McCurdy having retired from acting due in large part to having been forced to star in the show by her abusive mother. In-universe, her disappearance is due to her having joined a motorcycle gang.
- Gibby is absent as well, but unlike Sam, his absence and disappearance were not mentioned.
- Setting Update: Much of the technology featured is more modern and up to date, such as Pear Phones looking more like real-life iPhones, which Freddie uses to film iCarly rather than his old bulky camera.
- Ship Tease: Carly and Freddie continue to get a similar amount of ship tease that they got in the original. They even have another slow dance together in one episode. They have what is very near to an Almost Kiss in an early episode of Season 2, and the final episode of the Season ends on a heavy tease cliffhanger.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Mrs. Benson is 100% on board with Creddie during their Fake Relationship.
- Once that 'breaks up', she is immediately onboard the "Preddie" ship with Freddie & Pearl, supporting whatever relationship she thinks is or will make Freddie happy. In that same episode, there is also a trio of characters who track the pair down on a fake date to exclaim their support of them. Unfortunately, a few episodes later, she goes the exact opposite and tries to break them up.
- Mrs. Benson is 100% on board with Creddie during their Fake Relationship.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Millicent and Carly do this a lot.
- Status Quo Is God: By the end of the season two premiere Carly and Harper are both single, having ended the relationships they ended the previous season with, and with Freddie getting together with Pearl, Creddie is put on the backburner.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Downplayed with Griffin. While he is indeed a bad boy who stole Spencer's motorcycle when he was younger, he doesn't antagonize Carly and they broke up because Carly made fun of him for liking "Pee-Wee Babies". Now grown up, he is a Con Man who runs a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme who tricks Carly and Freddie to help him sell his product.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Spencer became a multi-millionaire after he accidentally melted a White House marshmallow sculpture and he let people assume it was some avant-garde political commentary rather than an accident.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Spencer and Maeve (Harper's cousin) fall in Love at First Sight and Spencer lets her move in with him until she can find her own place. They find out the hard way that these types of relationships don't work out. Things are great at first, but they quickly turn on each other and begin fighting all the time. They both realize that they aren't compatible and moved too fast, so they break up.
- In "iObject, Lewbert!" Lewbert sues Carly as payback for all the torture he was put through in the "Messin' With Lewbert" sketches. Unable to prove her innocence, Carly makes a last ditch effort to bait Lewbert into revealing his true, nasty self in court. While successful, it doesn't win her the case, since, as the judge points out, she did torture him and there's video proof. Whether Lewbert deserves it or not, it doesn't make Carly innocent. The judge ends up ruling in favor of Lewbert and Carly must pay him $250,000 (less than the $1,000,000 in the initial suit). Fortunately, Spencer foots the bill.
- The plot of "iObject, Lewbert!" deconstructs the Candid Camera Prank and Sketch Comedy that the iCarly webshow used to held. While mostly done for the sake of comedy, the person getting laughed at might not like that they are being embarrassed on the internet and sometimes they might get seriously injured such as Lewbert in "iHurt Lewbert." As such, Carly is very likely to be sued, which is what happened in the episode.
- On a more positive note in the same episode as above, even though the judge does rule in Lewbert's favor, she points out that he still legally cannot prevent Carly from making her webshow.
- Take That!:
- Downplayed. In the first few episodes, whenever Dan Schneider's name appears in the post-opening credits, a character is making a cringed or disgusted face.
- The season 1 finale, "iReturn to Webicon", is a parody of the infamous Fyre Festival, another large event that ended up being poorly planned.
- In "iHit Something", when Carly is letting out various frustrations while hitting a pillow, the final thing she vents about is Bran becoming the king at the end of Game of Thrones.
- "iMLM" is one big one towards multi-level marketing companies, which are portrayed as glorified pyramid schemes as Freddie gets sucked into one and loses all of his money.
- A Threesome Is Hot:
- In "iTake a Girls' Trip" Brooke propositions Freddie & Carly with one, that Freddie is obviously into but Carly is not.
- In "iHire a New Assistant" it looks like Harper & Pearl will have one with Freddie to figure out which of them is most "physically compatible" with Freddie, but after Freddie gets excited about the idea, it turns out the answer will be found via Salsa Dancing.
- Time Skip: There are a few:
- The series starts off several years after the original iCarly ended.
- The first episode, "iStart Over" has Beau break up with Carly. The next scene begins a month later, with Carly still grieving.
- There is a two month time skip between "iReturn to Webicon" and " iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now".
- There seems to be another month or so time skip between seasons two and three as well.
- Truncated Theme Tune: Only the first and last episodes of season 1 show the full opening credits.
- Twofer Token Minority: Harper is black and pansexual. Then there's Double Dutch, who's Asian and either gay, bi, or pansexual since she and Harper share a kiss in "iReturn to Webicon".
