A Day at the Circus

Club Med at Sea lives up to its name as the kids find the concept of work and play difficult to balance.

Analysis

I was afraid of this, but it seems that most of my direr predictions for season 8 are coming into play "already"! In fact, I was abit taken back at how fast some of the Roadies were assimilated into the Club Med student body.

Here Yes (Smooth Operator) practically invites the entire student body to come crash at his quarters for a late night party; bringing with them the loud music, crates of alcohol (which I'll get to later on), horny frat boys, and all around obnoxious rowdiness which give college students everywhere a bad name!

Note: I referenced the S.A.S quarters as "his" due to the fact that he didn't seem to care too much about the opinions of his travelmates--or consult with them on the matter prior to flipping through the yellow pages for an on call DJ! But of course Ayanna's not having any of this crap! She immediately puts her foot down and demands that S.O. apologizes for his lack of respect regarding the welfare of his cabinmates who have to get R & R in order to perform well academically (not that these kids are actually tackling a full course load mind you!). To which S.O. says something to the effect of, "I'll get back to you on that one!"

And eventhough this ship is a floating "university", that doesn't mean that one can't find the time for a little hooky! In particular Veronica (on second thought, I'll call her "Clueless" since her persona reminds me of Alicia Silverstone's character in the movie!) who decides to skip class because it's such a nice and sunny day (in addition, the gorgeous weather gives her an excuse to strip down and lay by the pool side in preparation for the long line of drooling guys). Believe me, if I had a dollar for every time I wanted to skip class cuz it was a "sunny day", I'd be Bill Gates!

Fortunately partying on the high seas isn't the only thing this episode has to offer. The episode's B plot features the cast volunteering for the Project Axe' Circus in Salvador Brazil. If there're successful, Apple will donate two brand new computers to needy children. However, everyone's not up for the job.

Pua (Marlene)'s down with a headache coupled with a hangover from all that partying the night before. On the other hand, Clueless threw her hat into the ring, but ended up dropping out when she suffered a broken nail injury! However, everyone else was on the dime; especially Yes and Ayanna who both gave Clueless and Marlene a pep talk in hopes of persuading them to give the circus act another go.

Marco (one of the project directors) supplied them all abit of motivation by driving the cast out to a neighborhood where the needy children reside. It's Marco's hope that the group will perform their best if they see who there're performing for!

But alas, Clueless is pretty much unfazed by the visit, and would still prefer to sit on the sidelines. I must say, from what I've seen of Clueless so far makes me wonder how did she ever get into Berkeley in the first place. Her actions over the past two shows have proven nothing other than the fact she's a slacker who seems to put priority on recreation rather than work! Plus she had the nerve to climb up on stage along with the REST of the group to take a graceful bow despite the fact she contributed nothing to the mission! Hmm, it appears Clueless wants to have her cake and eat it too!

Goofs

• Unsolved Mystery: Oh, did I see a crate of empties displayed during that wild party? It does open up an unethincal can of worms--like what are these kids doing with alcohol in the first place? Where are they getting it? S.A.S isn't your average college campus where one can run down to the nearest 7 11 to buy a six pack. Eventhough there's a bar on the ship; wouldn't it be damaging to the school's image if students were shown loading up on national tv?

• Editing Room Floor Material: Bummer B-M didn't air the annual Neptune Celebration where students shave their heads and get drenched in gumbo soup upon crossing the equator. Both the university site and rumormill were playing up the event; and I was close to 90% sure B-M would air it, but alas, I should've expected something like this from BMP. But, on the other hand, knowing B-M's history of superb editing.....I wouldn't be surprised if they served it up a few episodes down the line--totally out of context as a thrust mechanism for a character plot or something!

• Consistency: Previously on Road Rules.......Pua had her head shaved--Whoa, wait a minute! When did "this" happen? Ooooh, that's right....sorry. I'll let you brilliant editors get back to work!

• How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up: It's obvious that Marlene's head isn't quite into the whole mission thing as of yet. After Marco had stressed to everyone how important it was for them to put forth their best effort to win those computers, Marlene made the brilliant comment--"I thought we were doing this just for the heck of it!" How could she not have known why they were there? Especially since she was standing no more than two feet away from both Anna and Marco when they were explaining why the group was performing for the circus. Where did Marlene's mind float off to--Oz? At least Ruthie can blame her memory lapses on alcohol.....so what's Marlene's excuse!

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