...Help From My Friends

My Review

I include this episode in the season of death group of episodes and although no one actually dies we do have a couple of characters considering suicide. However it is frustrating that we have not seen these characters before. Surely it makes more sense and is more powerful if we already have some attachment to characters. Maybe the male character could have been Troy or Dwight and as for the female character the writers totally messed up here. We have Kelly played by Connie Needham but Connie has already played Kathy in season 1’s To Soar and Never Falter. Why not continue with Kathy’s storyline? We already know her and have an emotional attachment to her. Maybe her M.S. is now developing and becoming worse and she is struggling to keep dancing making her realise it is the end of her dancing and she is totally depressed. I don’t know it just seems like a crazy thing to do when you already have an actress with a perfectly good storyline for a character she’s already played but instead give her a different character to play. In a season where there are already too many guest stars taking over, this episode could be improved by adjusting the storyline and using characters we already know.

However, all that said I do really like this episode and Connie’s performance is very good when she is talking to the teachers and the counsellor.

Valerie’s performance is fantastic at the end of this episode and always brings me to tears. Although Lee Montgomery as Timmy leaves me a little cold. I particularly don’t like the scene with the gun in the dressing room as it seems way over the top and too heavy handed for me to take seriously. Surely if someone is suicidal they don’t sit there pointing a gun at a mirror making silly speeches, they would just do it. Where did he get the gun anyway?

There are a couple of things that are confusing in this episode:

Firstly the layout of the school. When Doris and Leroy are in the hallway after leaving the dance class the lobby entrance can be seen behind them. Then they go downstairs but later we are told that the trashed lockers are on the 2nd floor so the class they came out of had to be on at least the 3rd floor. How many of these large dance rooms do they have?

Also at the start of the episode after Leroy and Doris have left the dance class and turn the corner they bump into Timmy who is standing at an open locker, and he talks about a petition. They then run down 2 flights of stairs to where the lockers have been vandalised. This is where the suicide note was found but if Timmy’s locker is on a different floor then how can the note be his? Do the students have more than one locker?

Also at the beginning of the story the kids talk about it being winter and how cold it is, Julie comments how much she loves the snow. However we are virtually at the end of the season which means they are coming to the end of the school year and the summer break so surely it’s now spring and not winter?

I love the scene where all the kids think they know who wrote the note and all think it’s someone different. Also at the end, Doris comes up with the idea of doing the improvisation but Timmy doesn’t want to do it and says someone else should do it. Instantly Coco has her hand up enthusiastically volunteering, that’s just so Coco.

Albert co-wrote the Light One Candle song, which I really like although it would have been nice had members of the cast actually sang on it.

Episode Pictures