For a show that's supposed to be about an everyday, average, and all-around-normal American family, this series has a whole lot going on. But with a pair of eccentric parents, four children, and a host of neighbors and friends, how could there not be? It's refreshing to see that there aren't any supernatural emergencies to divert the plot lines or big Hollywood problems to solve, as there have been on almost all of Disney's latest ventures. It's nice to get back to the “normal” events that can provide for great comedy, a la one of the network's classic series, Lizzie McGuire. And not all that surprisingly, it works. The show is both entertaining and funny.

Now, in all honesty, this show was envisioned as a launching point for Bridgit Mendler's career with Disney. Yes, she's had guest spots in some of their other series, but this is supposed to be the show that makes her a bona fide star. And, hopefully, it will. Because Bridgit is obviously very talented. She's got a good voice (she sings the show's theme song), she's a good actress (unlike a lot of the other young actors on the network, she did movies before making it to Disney), and she's got great comedic timing (see her guest spots on other shows for evidence). In fact, based on her performance in the first few episodes, she's got a similar comedic style to that of Selena Gomez, who she worked with on Wizards of Waverly Place. A lot of the mannerisms and the expressions she uses when employing every teenage girl's most popular weapon, sarcasm, are very reminiscent of Alex on Wizards. Not a bad comedic actress to be compared to.

Another Disney channel veteran who appears as a regular cast member is Jason Dolley. Jason stars as PJ, the lovable, if not altogether intelligent, oldest sibling in the family. Jason Dolley is a good actor. And I think anyone who has ever seen him in his previous Disney roles (Corey in the House, Read it and Weep, Hatching Pete) knows this, but I think here he gets the short end of the stick. We're seeing him play almost the exact same role, though slightly older, that he had as Newt in the short lived spin-off of That's So Raven opposite Kyle Massey. He's ditzy, he doesn't get the jokes, and he's largely on the series to provide comic relief. I think this character is a trap Disney has fallen into. Almost all of their shows feature someone who just isn't as intelligent as the rest of the cast, someone the audience can watch and wonder just how they made it out of elementary school. Hannah Montana has Jason Earles as Jackson. Wizards of Waverly Place has Jake T. Austin as Max (though, admittedly, the writers have been working on him more in the third season). The Suite Life on Deck has Brenda Song as London. Even going back a few years, That's So Raven had Annaleise Van Der Pol as Chelsea and Lizzie McGuire had Clayton Snyder as Ethan Craft. And the real problem is that it takes a lot of talent to play someone who is that brain dead, but a lot of people don't realize it. The shtick just becomes very old when it's something that's been present in all of the Disney comedy shows for several years now.

The one thing that I do wonder about the series is just how long it can last. In the first episode, Charlie is already several months old, and the little girl that plays her is listed in the opening credits, making her a main cast member before she can even talk. The premise, though, is that Teddy is creating videos for Charlie to learn from. So, once Charlie is stringing sentences together and understanding other people's instructions, presumably the series will be done because there is no longer a need for the videos to be employed to teach her—that is, if the show makes it past the first season, which it should. Of course, given that Disney normally does three seasons of a show at the most (Hannah Montana being the only exception so far, and just barely—though Wizards of Waverly Place is likely to get a fourth season as well), longevity probably won't be that big of a problem.