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Review: ‘Henry Danger’ and ‘Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn’: Nick’s latest

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“Henry Danger” and “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn,” Nickelodeon’s latest petri dishes for J-14 pinup stars and Kids Choice Awards presenters, could easily be grouped under the title “The Adventures of Science Fact and Science Fiction.”

One is a pulp adventure with a weirdly 1960s bent, while the other is a modern variation of any number of classic family TV comedies, both airing back-to-back on Saturday nights. Not surprisingly, the tried-and-true model is the more successful of the two.

“Danger,” the science fiction half, comes with the more impressive credits. It was co-written and executive produced by Dan Schneider, the former-sitcom-actor-turned-tween-TV-powerhouse behind such hits as “All That,” “iCarly,” and “Zoey 101.” He has had at least one series on the air continuously since 1994.

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This one centers on 13-year-old Henry Hart (Jace Norman) who lucks into an after-school job as “Kid Danger,” the youthful sidekick to Captain Man (Cooper Barnes), the local costumed superhero. Together, they battle common street criminals and supervillains such as the Toddler, while Hart tries to maintain a normal teenage life.

Questions of child-labor laws and Captain Man’s creep factor aside (he hides in a secret room under a junk shop and asks the boy to keep their relationship secret from his parents), “Henry Danger’s” biggest problem comes from its reliance on outdated superhero tropes.

No one involved with “Henry Danger” appears to have seen a superhero movie or TV show since the Adam West “Batman” back in 1966. In an age when the show’s prime audience is rushing out to see the much hipper Marvel movies in droves, Captain Man and his retro hideout feel like the wish fulfillment of a previous generation.

More entertaining is the comedy with the title that’s nearly impossible to get right the first time. “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn,” is a family sitcom in the classic sense.

The main characters are siblings with very different personalities who get into all manner of high jinks to the loving exasperation of their parents. It could be Wally and the Beav or the Nelson brothers but for the fact that these siblings are quadruplets -- a more common occurrence these days, thanks to modern fertility treatments.

No, these quadruplets don’t look a thing alike, a joke touched on in the pilot, but that’s OK. Casey Simpson, Mace Coronel, Aidan Gallagher and Lizzy Greene do a fine job creating distinctive personalities -- the ladies kid, the nerd, the genius and Dawn, the presumed leader of the group -- and their interactions provide more than enough material to pass the time agreeably. No one is too shrill and the plot isn’t overly complex.

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Allison Munn and Brian Stepanek play the parents of the quartet as two adults on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The series may tread the same ground that reality TV has explored with the Duggars and the Gosselins, but at least we can kick back with this fictional family and laugh with them and not gawk at the tabloid fates their real-life counterparts have endured.

Follow me on Twitter: @patrickkevinday

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