Rules

Synopsis

Bruno meets and falls in love with Lisa Connors, not knowing she is Shorofsky's new student teacher. This causes problems at the school when Lisa starts to hang out with Bruno and his friends from school, causing Lisa to choose between Bruno and her work. An angry Bruno refuses to let the school use his music for their latest show.

Meanwhile Morloch asks Sherwood out on a date.

My Review

Doomed love raises it’s head again and is pretty prevalent throughout this season. Maybe I should call this the season of Love, which is obviously better than season 2’s season of death.

Normally I’m not keen on these doomed love episodes however I think this works pretty well and we have the interesting story of a teacher dating a student, (well ex student to be correct) and the unforeseen conflicts that brings. The emphasis is more on the problems the relationship causes for everyone else rather than the love story itself which is why I probably like it more than the normal doomed love stories. Thankfully also the guest star doesn’t take over the episode and instead just enhances it.

This for me is the best use of having Bruno leave the school so that they can do stories from a different angle. Sadly after this episode Bruno tends to fade into the background a little bit.

I love the scenes and banter between Sherwood and Morloch it's just hilarious stuff, both are just such good actors and the script is really good. I love the scene where Morloch has his hand in the tea money jar and is caught by Mrs Berg.

I also love Lydia teasing Sherwood, saying that Morloch was humming. Then just when we feel sorry for Morloch his true colours are revealed and he's as sneaky as ever. It’s just great stuff.

The scene where Bruno goes to confront Shorofsky is also funny as he keeps thinking the music is ending and goes over to speak but it isn't and he has to keep going back to the edge of the stage. It's just another example of a very good writer. Don't just play the scene, add other things to it too, which adds to the humour and enhances the episode.

I’m in two minds about the scene at the end where the kids stand on the steps and talk to Lisa. I like it but it comes across as the kids bullying her. Everyone seems quite mean (which feels out of character) except Coco who particularly seems concerned about Bruno. It's interesting that the kids seem to blame Lisa for the whole mess maybe there should be confronting Shorofsky.

“The Best In You And Me” is an epic song which sounds very much like “I Sing the Body Electric” from the film. This is a great song and again we have lots of cast members singing together which makes it even better. Then to make out it was Bruno’s last piece of music that he wrote as a student adds to the emotional impact.

Lee’s “False Alarm” is pleasant but not one of my favourites by him, although it fits the mood here very well. This is one of the last times that Lee sings on the show, with the exception of his duet with Val at the end of the season. This is another example of Bruno just fading into the background. I wish I knew why, Bruno had been such a huge part of the first 2 seasons; it’s just very sad how the character is treated in this season. Obviously there was the issues Lee had with the producers about him getting the royalties for playing the music but was that what led to he downfall of the character? Were the producers so bitter that they reduced his role considerably until they could write him out completely? Seems like sabotage to me and why someone working on the show would want to sabotage it doesn't make any sense to me.

There are a couple of things that confuse me:

When Bruno thinks Lisa is recording his music, she plays him her notes that she’s recorded, which refer to subdominant chords (whatever they are). Bruno then records his apology to her and afterwards she starts to record him playing. Later when Lisa is playing the tape back in the cafeteria her notes are about something completely different, Harmony. Then there is no apology from Bruno and the tape cuts straight to the music he was playing.

Bruno tells Lisa he has got to be the head waiter. That seems like a very fast promotion because they also state he’s only been out of school a couple of weeks.

Morloch is looking out of the office door window waiting for Sherwood but where that door is he wouldn’t be able to see the actual corridor, just the stairs and phone area and maybe across to the auditorium doors. To make it more confusing he appears to see something and quickly moves to a new position behind the pillar however at this point Sherwood hasn’t even started walking down the corridor, so even if he could see from his original position how did he know she was there? Has he suddenly become psychic? Or maybe psychic Mrs Berg tipped him off!

Interestingly the scene of Bruno walking up the steps to the empty lobby is slightly different in the preview than in the episode. In the preview we see Bruno start to count and we see the clock when he gets to 3. In the episode we hear Bruno count but we only actually see the clock.

Episode Pictures