White Light

Chris discovers his new girlfriend Julie is a drug addict. When Julie overdoses Chris seeks revenge on her dealer.

Meanwhile Danny is uncomfrotanble when his Mother stars dating Lou.

Season 5 has a bad reputation and episodes like the previous one "Bronco Bob" deserve that criticism but this Season also contains some really strong, serious episodes, where the show's morals are demonstrated and "White Light" is one them. I think it is a very good episode.

The darker more realistic story is strong and gives Billy Hufsey some of his best material.  The scenes at the end where he attacks the dealer are some of his best work on Fame. 

The use of the narration and flashbacks to the main events in the story works really well and  means we can skip to the key moments in their relationship which adds to the grittiness and intensity of the story.  

One of the usual issues with the doomed love stories is that we have to fit in the initial meeting, the falling in love, the problems and then the break up all in one episode. which means the story feels rushed. Seeing things in flashback, we can ignore the initial meeting and the falling in love, We just know they are in love and this gives more time to concentrate on the problems.

So we are taken on a journey into the World of drugs, where the addict thinks they have it all under control but of course she's in denial and the drugs are really controlling her. Then she accidentally overdoses and we see Chris have to deal with life without her. Shorofsky's react the death and asking why young people insist on throwing their lives away is strong and heartfelt.   

My one small problem with the story is that I don't really like the character of Julie. We've seen Chris in love before and he seemed to have more chemistry with previous love interests but we are now being told that this is the real things as though his previous relationships in the past didn't mean too much  but Julie really doesn't come over as that likeable. I feel the episode is left to Billy to convey how strong the relationship rather than what we are actually seeing between the actors but billy does a good enough job to pull it off.

I would have liked Sherwood to have had a stronger role too. In season 1 when we see Danny taking pills Sherwood becomes very involved telling us how she's lost students to drugs. It would have been nice if the show had revisited this with Sherwood trying to help.

The B story of  Lou and Danny's Mother starting a relationship is okay and a lighter fun tone compared to the main storyline, with Danny being against the relationship. I'm sure last season there was a scene where Lou is pretty insulting about Danny's mother, which suddenly he's forgotten about. I'm not sure we needed a siong from Betty Karlin. It adds nothing to the show and we don;t need to see every guest star have a song.

In terms of the music "Animal Instinct" is good but I'm not too keen on The Message, it feels a little bland.   

Original  air date in U.S.A 09th November 1985

Original  air date  in U.K. on The Children's Channel  Broadcast early 1993.

Original air date in Italy 14th September 1987

Original  air date in France 18th February 1996