Cheers

Cheers

Episode 7: Friends, Romans, Accountants

Episode 8: Truce or Consequences

By: Carlos Uribe

Cheers is a show about a bar called Cheers in Boston.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Norm has the first episode that is focused on him in “Friends, Romans, Accountants”. Norm has been a character that has been present since the first episode. He's been slowly developed since that episode. He's a married man who works as an accountant for some company. He's been shown to be a suck-up in a previous episode, where he took a new manager out for a drink at the bar. This episode he's volunteered to throw an office party because the last guy who threw it became one of his bosses. Norm is hoping to use the party to advance his own career. The problem is that he doesn't know how to throw a good party since he's never done it before. This means that he's willing to take Diane's idea for a toga party and he decides to throw the party at the bar. This means that every character is going to be present for the party. The party itself is a mixed result for comedy: some of it is funny, some of it isn't. It is able to better flesh out Norm. It's an episode that establishes that while Norm will try his best to please his boss, he does have a line he won't cross.

One noticeable thing about comedies is that an event can go either way. It can either be a success and therefore not be the focus of the jokes or it can be an epic failure and be the joke. This episode takes the latter approach and it doesn't work very well. The accountants who show up to the party aren't shown to have any life until the end, where there is a weird switch and they start to carry Norm around. Norm is the only character to show up in a toga, the band is terrible, and it's generally considered by everyone to be a bad party. The girl he had gotten to date his boss cancels on him, and he's forced to lean on Diane. This all backfires when the boss tries to force himself on Diane, which causes Norm to push his boss aside. This gets him fired (although he seems to have a job in the next episode) and it helps to establish a friendship between Diane and Norm. The episode wasn't as funny as this show could be but it did do what it wanted to do.

The relationship between Carla and Diane is the focus in “Truce or Consequences”. The two characters haven't liked each other since the beginning of the series. Carla thinks that Diane is an intellectual snob while Diane thinks Carla is a rude and violent waitress. Their rivalry has gotten to Sam's nerves and he orders the two of them to work out their differences. This leads to a scene where Diane and Carla are “bonding” over a very alcoholic drink. The laugh track slowly disappears and the lights are dimmed. There's a moment where Carla reveals a “secret” to Diane. That “secret” being that Sam is the father of one of Diane's children. The way the show delivers it almost convinced me that it was true. It's soon revealed to be a big lie and the world of Cheers isn't rocked too much. I don't think I would have liked that twist since it adds a whole layer that would be detrimental to the series as a whole. Lucky for everyone, the twist is fake and it's just Carla messing with Diane.

Actually it's a bit more than that. Carla might have been messing with Diane, but she was also testing her to see if Diane could keep a secret. Diane fails the test, but she's not happy that she got lied to. This leads to them fighting against to the point where Sam has to directly intervene. It's there that the three are able to bond over the picture of Carla's child. Carla and Diane will always have their differences and they won't like each other, but this episode is better able to anchor their contentious relationship. This episode was much funnier and managed to work a lot better. The jokes were sharper and it never lost it's attention on the focus of the episode.