Review: The Loud House “Present Danger/Stressed for the Part”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Present Danger

Dressed as David Steele, Lincoln goes on the hunt for his stolen birthday present.

Stressed for the Part

Luan lands a role for a play in Dairyland but keeps it a secret when she discovers Mrs. Bernardo wanted that similar role. 

Our Take:

In the first episode, the story has the Loud family celebrating Lincoln’s twelfth birthday. Unfortunately, one of Lincoln’s presents has gone missing, so it’s up to Lincoln to find it and the person responsible for stealing it. As David Steele, Lincoln must use every spy trick in the book to catch the thief.

With the fifth and sixth seasons of The Loud House taking place one year later, it was only a matter of time before we saw Lincoln celebrate one of his new milestones. First, we’ve seen him take on middle school in the show’s hour-long special “Schooled!”. Now, he’s celebrating being 12 before dealing with life as a teenager. This episode has been teased as a special event for quite some time as if the other special episodes weren’t exciting enough. Unfortunately, it didn’t offer enough specialness to fit its 10-minute runtime, but it’s a fun celebration regardless. Despite its predictable plot, mainly the thief’s reveal, “Present Danger” offers an amusing callback to the spy tropes, including Lincoln as a James Bond knock-off and Lisa as the tech genius.

The second episode is a Luan-focused storyline that sees her landing the role of Heidi Heifer in a Dairyland presentation. However, it turns out that her teacher, Mrs. Bernardo, has been dreaming of playing the role for quite some time. So, Luan and Benny struggle to hide it from their teacher while preparing for the role of a lifetime. It’s no surprise that this is another episode that consists of Luan’s obnoxious puns because you can’t have too many of those when Luan’s in the picture. The humor also includes Luan and Benny’s attempts to get her script back from Mrs. Bernardo without her noticing and Mrs. B’s “screaming therapy”. Once you get past its pun overload, it’s a mildly entertaining episode where Luan takes her acting skills to the dairy-themed amusement park.

Overall, both episodes are enjoyable enough to continue the show’s sixth season. Its first episode, “Present Danger”, felt overhyped as another “special event”, and the thief’s reveal is far from surprising. However, it’s still entertaining for its spy references and Lincoln celebrating his twelfth birthday. The second episode, “Stressed for the Part”, is another suitable Luan-focused plot that has her hiding her biggest role yet from her mentor despite its overuse of dairy puns. In short, these two episodes are at their best when they’re shaken, not stirred.