REVIEW: ‘The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,’ Episode 4 – “Hockey Moms”

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The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers is a Disney+ Original show based on the classic movie series. Lauren Graham, Emilio Estévez, and a team of young actors star in this wholesome hockey show. In The Mighty Ducks Episode 4, Sofi (Swayam Bhatia) is trying to figure out how to tell her parents she’s quitting the Ducks to join the Don’t Bothers while Evan (Brady Noon) and Nick (Maxwell Simkins) are trying to break Koob (Luke Islam) out of his shell.

I think this was definitely the funniest episode so far. I laughed hysterically at least twice at some absolute zinger line deliveries from Simkins and Islam. My appreciation for the acting of most of the kids has really inched its way up since the first episode. Evan is still very one-tone to me, but the spotlight on Koob this week was great, and I loved seeing a new side of him that neither the audience nor his teammates had seen before. I also appreciate that as the fattest kid on this show and honestly on possibly any kids show I’ve seen, his weight is never once the butt of a joke or the defining factor of his character. I hope some of the other kids, all of whom are clearly built into specific archetypes, get to show their uniqueness over the rest of the season too.

I also like that the show puts a pretty big emphasis on the adults in the show. It adds a layer and dynamic to the kids’ sports genre that is typically just one-note. Like last week, the relationship between Alex and Gordon is strong, and I enjoy watching their awkwardly budding romance. This whole episode was honestly more about the adults than the kids, but it was nice to see Alex get to have her own victories and growth and not just via her son. Parents deserve to be their own people too. I just hope that the slew of parents introduced in this episode continue to have a role to play in both shaping their kids to be good people and learning and growing themselves as they did here.

I only wish perhaps this episode came a bit later in the season. It was odd to have only so many episodes about developing a team dynamic to suddenly take half the kids out of the episode and make it all about their parents. Unless those parents become important recurring characters, it feels too early in the season to completely abandon the focus on the main plot for something seemingly secondary. Hopefully, the show’s short episodes can find a good balance between kid and adult plots going forward. With so much focus on characters we’d never even met before, the corny meter was going through the roof this episode. Nearly every scene felt like a pastiche, and some of what I’ve found charming about its predictability felt almost worn out this time around. There were some surprising moments, too, though, so hopefully, more of those become the norm.

The Mighty Ducks Episode 4 offered a nice opportunity to meet the Don’t Bothers’ parents and give Alex and Gordon more growing time. But it felt a bit out of place in the season, and the corniness of it all got a bit abrasive by the end.

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers airs on Disney+ on Fridays.