Loud House featuring The Casagrandes, The [Season 4 Episodes 1-4]

In 2016, Nickelodeon premiered a show about a boy named Lincoln living with ten sisters, The Loud House and since then we have met some interesting side characters like Ronnie Anne. She is mentioned in Heavy Meddle and made an official appearance in Save the Date where we learn that she is Bobby's little sister. Lincoln has upset her which made Bobby break up with Lori, but everyone reconciled by the end of the episode. Since then, she had appeared in more episodes and became a supporting character. That is until season two, when her mom had planned for them to live with their relatives in the city in the half-hour special. Ronnie Anne struggles the most to adjust with all the changes. However, Lincoln does give her some advice that helps him when he feels overwhelmed living in a crowded house.

Ever since, I have been almost expecting Nickelodeon to announce a spin-off series. It was confirmed last year that The Loud House will be expanding by giving Ronnie Anne and her family a spin-off series. Even though The Casagrandes will debut in October the show is taking a bold approach by introducing us to the family ahead of time.

Season four of The Loud House premiered by featuring The Casagrandes in the first batch of episodes. The theme song is cut short and Ronnie Anne pops up to introduce her family. The title cards for each episode has papel picado, which is a neat detail since Ronnie Anne and her family are Mexican-American. The show seems to embrace their identity rather than to hide it or mock it. Lalo Alcaraz, a Chicano author, was hired as a consultant to ensure the culture and family is depicted well on screen and it does!

This is one of the rare times where a show has perfectly set up for a spin-off! It doesn't feel out of place, it is an addition to The Loud House universe. One of the things that stood out to me watching this was how different it is from The Loud House. It doesn't have much narration so don’t expect as many fourth wall breaks with Ronnie Anne.

The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos sets up for the spin-off,  andwe get one more set up in Friended: With The Casagrandes, where Ronnie Anne has kind of adjusted to her new life in the city until she meets a new friend whose family are looking to rent the apartment above hers. However, they worry someone else may rent it so they come up with plans to ensure no one else has a chance without realizing it would reflect badly on Ronnie Anne's abuela (grandmother), who is the building manager. Everything, of course works out in the end and her new friend, Sid, is moving in! Their friendship is one of my favorites from The Loud House because of how instantly they clicked and they compliment each other rather than overshadowing.

At this point, the show has set itself up to now stand on their own. Although there isn’t narration, it doesn’t take away the enjoyment of tagging along with Ronnie Anne on her adventures. It is a bit reminiscent of Hey, Arnold!, taking place in a multi-cultural city where everyone knows each other and the main character is down to earth and gets along with anyone she meets. What sets itself apart from The Loud House so far, are the family dynamics. There may not be a lot of siblings living under one roof but there still is one big family, with three generations of the Casagrandes living together you can expect a little craziness. The Loud House can sometimes fall into tropes and center the episodes on morals. Instead this arc with The Casagrandes, there is more focus on Ronnie Anne's relationship with her family.

In Prank for the Memories with The Casagrandes, Ronnie Anne attempts to connect with one of her cousins. She has connected with all her cousins except for Carlota. So Ronnie Anne makes some attempts to form a bond with her. Carlota struggles to babysit for the night with the others pulling pranks on her. Ronnie Anne takes the opportunity to start a prank war with Carlota. This episode stood out to me because it decided to throw tropes out the window and take a different approach. Instead of having two characters who are different from each other fight, it's about one character wanting to bond with another.

In Roll Model with The Casagrandes , Carl grows attached to Ronnie Anne and she struggles to deal with it. Ronnie Anne tries to hide from him or do things that will make him lose interest. She then learned that she had done the same thing with Bobby when she was younger. After talking to her brother about it, she accepts having Carl follow her around until he finds someone new.

Overall, this series is all about family getting to know each other and building relationships. Things might change when the series premiere in October but this route is better suited for The Casagrandes. This is a good example of expanding the world.

FORMAT: TV/Digital  FROM: Nickelodeon  RATING PG RUNNING TIME : 22 minutes x 4 Episodes