If you're a member of a family containing girls from ages 8-13 (at some point), chances are you'll have heard of the Next Step, the well...reality (I guess?) show heavily littering the schedules of the Family Channel and CBBC. And I take pity on you. This show is a turd in so many fundamental areas and has little to redeem its unrelenting awfulness throughout (I only barely gave it 2/10 as you see above).
Diving into the show itself, its chief issue lies in the general tone of the show. It's a weird specimen. The Next Step considers itself to be a reality/mockumentary-style show on a surface level, but behind that shallow exterior, you can tell it is also experiencing an identity crisis. It rejects its own concept of being a mockumentary show because of its writing style (due to the cheesy dialogue noted below, particularly during dramatic moments such as the season 3 Internationals arc - is realism/common sense over random contrivance too much to ask for, considering that this is basically a reality mockumentary that treats all of its content as 'serious' and realistic?. I know reality shows are often cheesy and unrealistic due to their intent to purely entertain, but the clash between the unreal-ism of the universe and the sudden shift towards 'dark' character drama in subsequent scenes causes the 'realistic' drama to heavily lose its impact, rendering it ridiculous instead when we are clearly meant to take, say, the Amanda wallet sabotage from season 2 seriously) and a surprising number of conflicts (relationship dramas included) are unrealistic to a cartoonish degree, particularly Lucian's overly ridiculous and elaborate schemes to 'take down the Next Step' (creative team, please stop using that term and actually consult a thesaurus while writing) which once again exceed the point of believability and stick the show's mockumentary premise into invalidity) while also limiting itself based on its premise (therefore the only scenarios it can achieve on a recurring basis are bland relationship dramas, the same few conflicts repeatedly and the obligatory competitions in the final episodes of each season, rendering the show tedious, which is exactly what you NEED to avoid when pulling this kind of show off successfully) to create a lazy, dull, confusedly semi-unrealistic world filled with mean-spirited, unnecessary caricatures of real life personalities. Isn't this meant to be about dancing, and, you know, inspiring? Furthermore, the dancing that the show heavily emphasizes is more minor than a first-time viewer might think and is often redundant when it finally does appear. If you're going to have characters randomly drivel pretentiously about how important dancing is to them, this has to be justified, and here it isn't.
And the dialogue. Good God, the dialogue. This is some of the worst writing I have ever seen in any TV series. It's poorly written, redundant and even hilariously campy when delivered as poorly as it is by the show's actors (only a small percentage manage to deliver even adequate performances, which causes the show's drama to lose even more weight). I understand the show is meant for a young pre-teen audience and that teenagers can be dumb sometimes (most likely the effect the writers were aiming for) but every single character recites the same stale form of dialogue (indicating the objective here is actually to emotionally manipulate the audience) and it becomes tiring and ridiculous after only a short time, particularly with a show that has somehow run for five (going on six) seasons without any sign of stopping.
Ultimately though, the greatest crime the Next Step commits in its brainless reality is its lack of improvement. It never learns from its own mistakes, and new issues crop up every season to add to the old for the sake of cheap, brainless drama and lazy conflict. The first season had a dull, overused 'alpha b*tch' conflict and an insufferably conspicuous Mary Sue in Michelle, the second season added further unreal-ism on top of the first season and added a needlessly complex romantic conflict that was poorly written and ate up way more of the show's runtime that it deserved to), the third season gave virtually no defining traits to its new troupe members (can anyone name me some actual character traits for Cierra?) and reduced the writing quality even further, the fourth season added another insufferable Mary Sue in Alfie (who is halfway between 'intentionally' and 'accidentally' unlikeable) just to manipulate the audience's emotions over James and Riley's relationship (the only reason I gave this show two stars instead of one, because it seems to be the only area where the show writers actually invest the work to develop it), threw in numerous bland new characters for no justified reason (all rehashes of the old cast with even less personality and less acting ability) and the fifth season shamelessly retcons the first season to return Emily to a random narcissistic totalitarian and Michelle to a gullible moron for the sake of lazily manufacturing some form of conflict to fill the episode quota, while adding some the worst, most forced and most time-consuming 'romantic' subplots in the show's history. See how not a single mistake is actually improved upon? The show writers have become indulged enough by the show's success to not fix a single aspect of this wreckage, therefore operating on this law the show will continue to worsen with every passing season while most likely never being cancelled (because it is legitimately the only thing keeping the Family Channel afloat. It's SpongeBob Syndrome all over again. Networks never learn unless a huge uproar breaks out, do they?). The Next Step is ultimately for no one but the writers (who need to keep their jobs afloat) and the Family Channel. We all deserve better.
Diving into the show itself, its chief issue lies in the general tone of the show. It's a weird specimen. The Next Step considers itself to be a reality/mockumentary-style show on a surface level, but behind that shallow exterior, you can tell it is also experiencing an identity crisis. It rejects its own concept of being a mockumentary show because of its writing style (due to the cheesy dialogue noted below, particularly during dramatic moments such as the season 3 Internationals arc - is realism/common sense over random contrivance too much to ask for, considering that this is basically a reality mockumentary that treats all of its content as 'serious' and realistic?. I know reality shows are often cheesy and unrealistic due to their intent to purely entertain, but the clash between the unreal-ism of the universe and the sudden shift towards 'dark' character drama in subsequent scenes causes the 'realistic' drama to heavily lose its impact, rendering it ridiculous instead when we are clearly meant to take, say, the Amanda wallet sabotage from season 2 seriously) and a surprising number of conflicts (relationship dramas included) are unrealistic to a cartoonish degree, particularly Lucian's overly ridiculous and elaborate schemes to 'take down the Next Step' (creative team, please stop using that term and actually consult a thesaurus while writing) which once again exceed the point of believability and stick the show's mockumentary premise into invalidity) while also limiting itself based on its premise (therefore the only scenarios it can achieve on a recurring basis are bland relationship dramas, the same few conflicts repeatedly and the obligatory competitions in the final episodes of each season, rendering the show tedious, which is exactly what you NEED to avoid when pulling this kind of show off successfully) to create a lazy, dull, confusedly semi-unrealistic world filled with mean-spirited, unnecessary caricatures of real life personalities. Isn't this meant to be about dancing, and, you know, inspiring? Furthermore, the dancing that the show heavily emphasizes is more minor than a first-time viewer might think and is often redundant when it finally does appear. If you're going to have characters randomly drivel pretentiously about how important dancing is to them, this has to be justified, and here it isn't.
And the dialogue. Good God, the dialogue. This is some of the worst writing I have ever seen in any TV series. It's poorly written, redundant and even hilariously campy when delivered as poorly as it is by the show's actors (only a small percentage manage to deliver even adequate performances, which causes the show's drama to lose even more weight). I understand the show is meant for a young pre-teen audience and that teenagers can be dumb sometimes (most likely the effect the writers were aiming for) but every single character recites the same stale form of dialogue (indicating the objective here is actually to emotionally manipulate the audience) and it becomes tiring and ridiculous after only a short time, particularly with a show that has somehow run for five (going on six) seasons without any sign of stopping.
Ultimately though, the greatest crime the Next Step commits in its brainless reality is its lack of improvement. It never learns from its own mistakes, and new issues crop up every season to add to the old for the sake of cheap, brainless drama and lazy conflict. The first season had a dull, overused 'alpha b*tch' conflict and an insufferably conspicuous Mary Sue in Michelle, the second season added further unreal-ism on top of the first season and added a needlessly complex romantic conflict that was poorly written and ate up way more of the show's runtime that it deserved to), the third season gave virtually no defining traits to its new troupe members (can anyone name me some actual character traits for Cierra?) and reduced the writing quality even further, the fourth season added another insufferable Mary Sue in Alfie (who is halfway between 'intentionally' and 'accidentally' unlikeable) just to manipulate the audience's emotions over James and Riley's relationship (the only reason I gave this show two stars instead of one, because it seems to be the only area where the show writers actually invest the work to develop it), threw in numerous bland new characters for no justified reason (all rehashes of the old cast with even less personality and less acting ability) and the fifth season shamelessly retcons the first season to return Emily to a random narcissistic totalitarian and Michelle to a gullible moron for the sake of lazily manufacturing some form of conflict to fill the episode quota, while adding some the worst, most forced and most time-consuming 'romantic' subplots in the show's history. See how not a single mistake is actually improved upon? The show writers have become indulged enough by the show's success to not fix a single aspect of this wreckage, therefore operating on this law the show will continue to worsen with every passing season while most likely never being cancelled (because it is legitimately the only thing keeping the Family Channel afloat. It's SpongeBob Syndrome all over again. Networks never learn unless a huge uproar breaks out, do they?). The Next Step is ultimately for no one but the writers (who need to keep their jobs afloat) and the Family Channel. We all deserve better.