Sunday, July 15, 2012

That 70's Show


That 70's Show
Episode 4: Battle of the Sexists
Episode 5: Eric's Burger Job
By: Carlos Uribe

That 70's Show is a series about a group of teenagers growing up in the 70's. It aired from 1998 to 2006.

Spoilers Ahoy!


From now on, I'll be reviewing two episodes at a time.

The first episode that I'm reviewing tonight, “Battle of the Sexists” deals with the complicated and serious rise of feminism in that 1970s. It's an episode that deals with how this change affected the relationships between males and females and challenged the traditional roles of females. It's also an episode that dealt with how feminism helped shape sexuality. Oh wait? This is That 70's Show and not the Wonder Years? My mistake. This episode did deal with challenging traditional roles, but in a really simplified way that related directly to the characters. It was an episode that had the athletic Donna beating her love interest Eric in basketball and in air hockey. While this might have been fine when they were kids, Eric now feels that he is being demasculated in these losses. Donna struggles to understand the problem and how to deal with it. In other words, the show does deal with feminism and how that changes the relationship between males and females. It merely does it in such a simplified manner that it doesn't really begin to explore the full impact of the feminist movement. This is fine and it provided for some easy laughs.

The sub-plot of the episode continues this season's trend of having a serious economic storyline. Red has apparently gotten a new job (since he had been laid off in the previous episode) but his hours have just been cut. He spends the episode fixing stuff that isn't really broken, trying to be useful when he isn't needed. While “Streaking” failed in showing the impact of the recession, this episode did that. It didn't go for the same emotional impact, as it was largely played for laughs. Some of the biggest laughs in this episode came from Kitty's exasperation from Red's supposed fixes. While the main plot did make me laugh, the sub-plot managed to out-beat it in terms of comedy. The C-plot of Keslo being whipped by Jackie was filler that didn't really do much for me, but that end scene with Fez was genius. This was a better episode than “Streaking” simply because it managed to have a point, even if it simplified a complex issue, and in having two funny plots. While the third plot wasn't as funny, that final scene made it worth it.

The second episode is “Eric's Burger Job”. Eric decides that because everything costs money, he should get a job. The show has been making a recent story arc that the economy isn't doing so well, but Eric is easily able to find a job that he wants. The title should make it obvious: he decides to work at a burger fast food joint. He applies for the job and is able to get it since his friends all gave the worst interviews. That's when the problems start to come. He finds that he has no time to spend his hard-earned money since he has school and his part-time job. This is shown perfectly when Donna is shown constantly inviting him to hang out and him having to turn her down. When he's shown at work, he puts on a happy face but he's never actually happy. It's a terrible job, he's working for minimum wage, he's getting behind on his homework and on his chores, and he's just not happy. He wants to quit but he fears Red's reaction. It's an episode that had the central conflict be between work and personal life and in the end-personal life won.

Eric isn't the only one that isn't happy about his job. Donna doesn't like that he's always so busy. She likes him and wants to spend some time alone with him. That's the reason that there's a party being thrown at her place-she had wanted to spend time with Eric. He's so busy with school and work that he can't. His having a job doesn't just affect his own life, but also the life of Donna. This episode didn't juggle as many storylines as the other one and it wasn't as funny, but it wasn't that bad. It managed to get some good laughs in and I did enjoy the sequence where Eric had to keep telling Donna that he has to work.

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