REVIEW: ‘iCarly’ Season 2 Looks at Life and Love on the Internet

iCarly Season 2 wastes no time in picking up after the events of the first season, with a doubleheader premiere that features Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) still attempting to navigate her twenties while also trying to run a web show. The Season 2 premiere, “iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now,” shows how difficult that is as Carly faces blowback from her fans over a decision she made concerning her love life. In an attempt to fix said decision, she ends up roping her tech producer/best friend Freddie (Nathan Kress) into the mix, which proves to be a disaster as Freddie is working on his new start-up business. Meanwhile, Carly’s BFF/roommate Harper (Laci Mosley) is also dealing with her own romantic problems and Carly’s brother Spencer (Jerry Trainor) sews chaos as usual.

One of the things that helped the original iCarly series stand out what how it managed to predict future internet trends such as live streaming and fandom – the revival is more in-tune with current trends, especially the rise and fall of Internet fame. “iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now” tackles how women creators are treated online. Carly made a personal decision concerning her love life but she’s vilified to the point where people call her an “ice queen” and send her literal boxes of ice. And there’s even an example of doxxing. Clearly, showrunner Ali Schouten and the writers’ room have put some thought into how much of a double-edged sword Internet fandom can be.

It also helps that the cast has the kind of chemistry that you can’t fake. Cosgrove, Kress, and Trainor slip back into their roles with ease. Trainor, in particular, gets to show off more of the energetic and rubber-limbed physicality that made Spencer a fan-favorite character on the original iCarly. But the real standout of the series is Mosley. She gets some great lines as Harper, including calling someone “such a douche that he makes Chet Hanks look like Tom Hanks.” Her interactions with Cosgrove are also a highlight of iCarly Season 2. Both Carly and Harper are dealing with similar issues, and they resolve said issues in different ways because they’re different people. The original iCarly thrived due to the connection between its cast, and thankfully that’s an element that continues to power the revival.

It wouldn’t be a revival without episodes that bring back characters and/or plotlines from the original series, and the second episode “iObject, Lewbert!” fulfills that in spades. The doorman of Carly’s old apartment building, Lewbert (Jeremy Rowley), sues her for all the pranks that Carly and her friends pulled while they were filming iCarly as kids. This episode not only brings back some surprising guest stars but it also brings up the very good point that what may seem like harmless pranks as kids aren’t that funny when you look at it from the other side. And it also shows that there are consequences to one’s actions, even if you don’t mean to do someone harm. My one criticism is that the subplot featuring a would-be friendship between Harper and Freddie’s daughter Millicent (Jaidyn Triplett) feels a little undercooked.

iCarly Season 2 continues to prove that the series is one of the better revivals out there thanks to a mix of genuine chemistry among its cast and sharp writing that addresses modern-day issues. Paramount+ is slowly but surely starting to build out its library of original projects; between this and Halo there may come a day soon where it isn’t just “The Star Trek Service.”

The first two episodes of iCarly Season 2 premiere on Paramount+ on Friday, April 8. New episodes premiere weekly on Fridays.