The opening credits for Disney XD's first ever cross-over merger would have you believe that it has brought together the best parts of both; Lab Rats' action and Mighty Med's half decent plot for children's television shows. Unfortunately it is presently a sitcom about spoiled supers who bicker in a penthouse.
Mighty Med and Lab Rats were "bad TV" in that innocent and endearing way Disney have mastered to create shows endurable enough for mum & dad to stick with. Now with Elite Force the actors have grown (even in their craft, with some visibly muting their skills to keep it camp) and these 16-18 year old characters are constantly at odds, not with an enemy but with each other, and mum & dad are getting a headache. Entitlement seems to seep from their pores. Pausing to note that the casting has fallen to "passably whites" and anyone without the right waist-line is a joke, the most noticeable let-down is the upgraded awkward. The sweetness of "boy likes girl" is long gone, "boy films girl without her consent" has arrived, and it has got to stop. The actors deserve better and so does the audience.
It seems to have been the plan to inject the Kaz and Oliver characters into the formula where Adam and Leo would be. What they haven't counted on are trait similarities battling for space. With Skylar and Bree occupying essentially the same character, Oliver and Chase reduced to idiots in one another's world, and Kaz having his usually on-point cheek overcast by the constantly snarky dialogue, something's got to give for this merger to work.
I'm happy to see this come together, I'm glad they're giving this a go. It still has potential but I don't see it holding the attention of fans for much longer with this kind of forced character conflict replacing story and lack of plot-driving nemesis that would even call for the existence of an "Elite Force".
