WakenPayne I joined the crowd of fans for this show older in chronological age, but too young to see it on television as a kid (no kidding, I was born halfway through this show's run) but the only DVD you can really get of it is the one for the first season because it has Jessica Alba in an early role, trust me though - whether you're a fan or not she is not the reason to revisit the show (I somehow managed to get a hold of all four seasons, in terms of buying DVD's that's actually an accomplishment, granted extremely minuscule accomplishment but an accomplishment nonetheless) I haven't watched the fourth season yet but the question would be if it holds up... Yes, actually.The plot is that an average teenage girl wants to break out of being average at everything from grades, popularity and everything else in her life, feeling in the shadow from her high-achieving older sister Annie. The town they live in seems like the boring, yet colorful suburbia that every person living in the suburbs wants it to be but underneath it is corporate greed as a plant for... science-y things seems to run everything in the entire town (the theory that a hidden message is to not let corporations dominate our lives is something I totally buy!). One day the transportation of their latest chemical goes haywire and Alex is caught in the middle which gives her superpowers. The plot of the show from then is to have them try and live life with Alex trying out different things, using her powers to her advantage from time to time in secret and trying to stop the schemes of the plant to find "the kid" and other fiendish things.This show has a fantastic sense of humour for it's time and genre. I was expecting either humour that would get dated to just have people like me go "What?" the entire time or really lame jokes that would be in a show like this (I mean, just look at what passes off as jokes on live action kid's shows today), but in all honesty - some jokes do get a legitimate laugh, stuff like how in kid's shows like this the parents being oblivious is something they do make fun of and that is refreshing in comparison to other shows like this.I'll also say the show has a charm to it that kind of makes it worth coming back to after all these years. I mean while some episodes do steep into the kid's show crap such as a situation being "She's made friend's with a goth AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" The show very rarely falls into that trap, with one episode each season with a crap premise or inconsistencies that I think would be called out on even by children watching it.The last thing I'll comment on is something which like the humour I was not expecting - evolution. What do I mean by that? Well Alex does get more powerful as the show goes on. The crush Alex starts having in the pilot isn't the crush she's too nervous to approach for the entire run of the show. A development is that the mother quits her job around the middle or so of Season 2 to go back to college and get another job. There might be more considering I haven't seen all of it but the effects do get better (even if her turning into water no matter which season you're looking at looks like she's the T-1000) and the show is surprisingly more timeless then most. Okay, Alex wears a cap on backwards and there's an episode where she gets a job at a video rental but honestly, that's probably all the "This is the 90's" stuff that doesn't get away with it slipping through and becoming timeless.This show is something to revisit for the 90's kids and if there are people looking for different kid's shows of that time then this would be a very good watch. Okay there are a few bad episodes but for every bad episode there are half a dozen good ones and half a dozen okay ones with maybe those one or two occasional episodes such as World Without Alex or The Other Side 2-Parter which actually exceed and turn from good to very good. I don't know if or how but the first season alone is not enough (and so far... honestly, it's the one season with no "very good" episodes), I mean while there are bad episodes and over-the-top performances, this honestly needs to be seen again as opposed to fading away.

T-Pain This show was fun. I'd completely forgotten about it until I looked up the profile for that girl from "Dark Angel." I think she was that girl that Alex hated because she was dating the guy Alex liked. Something like that. I remember specifically watching the last episode. Although, I didn't know, then, it was the last episode since they marketed it as the season finale, but it was a pretty good finale (which you could expect considering the gimicky concept.) Shows like this, "Clarissa", and "Salute Your Shorts" make me wonder whatever will happen with these shows. They seem like too much fun to just never show again, but there aren't really nearly enough of them to fill a network. Home video, maybe? I think they should show them on TV Land weekly as part of their regular schedual because it seems weird just to let some of these shows which are filled with rising stars just to sit on some shelf.

wishkah7 I understand why somebody would like a show like this. And that's okay by me. I find this show to be extremely unrealistic. Why? Well, it's about a girl named Alex who's a supposedly 'average' teen. On her first day on junior high a 'cool' girl embarrasses her in front of all the older guys and then she walks home feeling sorry for herself and then eventually gets dumped by a truck full of a secret chemical made by the power plant which gives her the power to morph into a rain-puddle, shoot electricity from her fingers, and telekenesis. (Sort of figures, don't it?)Alex has ultra-conservative parents who treat her like a three year old, and a genius sister. And the only people who knew about Alex's power were her annoying nerve-wrecking best friend (played by Darris Love) and her sister, they keep it a secret out of fear that she will become the plant's personal lab rat.If this would've happened in real life, Alex would've been sent to a hospital and her parents would've had to know. Another thing I found unrealistic about this was the way Alex and her friends talk. If you listen to the dialogue carefully, you would notice that Alex and her friends all talk like philosophers, lawyers from Pennsylvania, intellectuals, and Harvard graduates! Alex's wardrobe on this show was downright trendy and she and her friends all act like they're going on 25! And these are supposed to be 'average' teens?I only watched maybe 4 or 5 episodes when the show was in it's infancy. Then I saw how ridiculous it was and I never bothered with it again. If you like to be entertained with unrealistic teen behavior and fantasy, then watch this show or something like it. If not, watch something else. You would have to watch a movie like "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" if you want to see how kids and teenagers would really act!!!

Zack Bennett "The Secret World of Alex Mack" was, in my opinion, one of the best shows in the twenty-year history of the Nickelodeon television network. It was well-produced, well-written, and not at all corny (like most other Nick shows of its generation such as "All That" and "Kenan and Kel"). The show portrayed two very different ways of life in the same fictional town of Paradise Valley, California. The chemical plant (along with Danielle, Vince, and Lars) portrayed the dark, evil side of town while the Mack family, along with Alex's friends, showed the bright, cheerful side. When these two sides met, it made for some great dramatic scenes and sometimes hilarious dialogue (although the show was not a comedy). Another beauty of this show was that Alex's superpowers were completely scientific, not supernatural. We have seen so many shows in which the hero has supernatural powers, but the scientific aspect hasn't really been showcased since the days of Steve Austin on "The Six Million Dollar Man". The show could not have had a better cast with any more chemistry. I found myself at times believing that the Macks were a real family somewhere. What adds to this fact was that each child in the family was attached to one parent moreso than the other. Annie could relate with her brainy, scientific dad while Alex was closer to her down-to-earth, practical mother. All in all, the show was great in every aspect. 10/10