Sharknado Series Overview: Remember Kids, Sharks Are Everywhere And Want To Eat You

Since "Sharknado 4" aired on Sunday, I thought now might be a good time to review the show. There as four entries in the franchise to date-- "Sharknado", "Sharknado 2", Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No" and "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens". I assume a fifth is in the works due to the show's popularity.

The series is produced by The Asylum. They're the fine folks that bring us "Z Nation". That should give ya an idea of what is about to happen. In fact, Roberta Warren (Kelitta Smith) from "Z Nation" is in "Sharknado 3" and "Sharknado 4".

"Lavalantula" is another "Sharknado" spinoff. Fin makes a brief cameo. It's sequel "2 Lava 2 Lantua2" also aired last week. While "Sharknado" has sharks, "Lavalantua" has giant volcanic tarantulas. It's sounds great but I wont be watching it due to my severe immobilizing fear of spiders (even horrible CGI ones).

"Sharknado" begins as any other disaster saga. It's a quiet day on the Santa Monica beach. Several sharks begin to attack people. Everyone eventually gets out of the water (but not till after the sharks chomp on a few). Then a freak cyclone/tornado/hurricane hits the coast of California. Newscasters assert it's due to global warming. Said storm picks up thousands of sharks and deposits them here, there and everywhere.

Bar owner Fin (Ian Ziering), his employee Nova (Cassie Serbio), BFF Baz and regular customer George (John Heard) are caught in the crossfire. Fin makes it to ex-wife April's (Tara Reid) house. She's initially none too happy to see him.

Grab a weapon and let the shark fighting begin! That's really all there is to the plot. People fighting sharks in different locals with different weapons (with some cheeky dialogue thrown in for good measure). So far we've been to: Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Orlando, Las Vegas, Kansas, the Grand Canyon, Mt Rushmore, Niagara Falls and yes even outer space (which incidentally was HILARIOUS). I assume we'll be in Paris next due to the scene with Nova in the Eiffel Tower.

What makes "Sharknado" so fun is it's absolutely over the top action (and really hokey CGI). One of the best examples is at the end of season 1. Fin is swallowed by a shark only to emerge out the back side thanks to some excellent chainsaw skills. April has her hand bitten off by a shark while dangling from a plane. She attaches various implements to her stump such as a circular saw ala "Ala Ash vs The Evil Dead". Too funny!

We also meet most of Finn's family. Besides April, there's daughter Claudia (her boyfriend is chomped in episode 1), son Matt (his newlywed wife is killed in episode 4), sister Ellen and brother-in-law Martin (Mark McGrath). They made the mistake of vacationing in New York. There's also Fin's father (David Hassellhoff), Fin's mother (Cheryl Tiegs), April's mother (Bo Derek), and April's father (Gary Busey). We also meet cousin Gemini in episode 4. Where did she come from?

In other crazy news, April gives birth inside a shark at the end of Sharknado 3. Wow, that was a quick recovery. You'd think that after childbirth she might at least need to lay down for a few minutes...but nope. April is T-O-U-G-H. The Shepherds name the baby Gil (after Fin's father who ends up temporarily stuck on the moon).

At the end of episode 3, the public was asked to decide April's fate. Should the giant piece of the space station squash her dead? The Twitter campaign was #AprilLives versus #AprilDies. It is revealed in episode 4 that April indeed survived (and became some sort of robotic superhero after saving mankind at the end of episode 4.

Besides sharks, "Sharknado" is know for it's celebrity cameos. Famous faces include: the "Today Show" hosts (LOVED IT!), Billy Rae Cyrus, Vivica A. Fox, Robert Hays, Jerry Springer, Tommy Davidson, Penn & Teller, George RR Martin, Gilbert Gottfried, Steve Guttenberg, Kelly Ripa and Michael Straham, Wayne Newton, Stacey Dash, Vince Neil, Will Wheaton, Kelly Osbourne, Carrot Top, Dr Drew, Anthony Weiner and Dog the Bounty Hunter, two Baywatch chicks and two Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (to name only a few).

But wait, there's even more. Since sharknados have been eradicated due to Astro-X's "atmospheric stabilizing system" the sharks have to find other ways to attack. Now they're in oilnados, lighteningnados, dustnados, firenados, bouldernados, lavanados and possibly world ending nuclearnados. Just take any word and add "nado" to the end of it.

Young Gil also gets into the action this time around. He's five and that's plenty old enough to fight sharks. He saves his family from certain doom. You go little dude!

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "Sharknado" is so horribly bad, that it's good. Suspend all common sense (and knowledge of the laws of science). Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Here's a pic of Fin riding a shark above NYC to get ya in the mood.

I have no idea where the series can go from here but I'll keep watching as long as they make new ones. One has been released each year (beginning in 2013) thus far. "Sharknado" is B movie entertainment at it's finest. And, no, we're not lost on the irony of a guy named Fin battling sharks (and whose father is named Gil).

If you liked "Sharknado", check out "Ghost Shark" as well. It's one of my faves. Flying sharks are bad enough but supernatural sharks are even worse. See IMDB for details.