Party of Five (TV Series) Here and Now (1998) User Reviews

Here and Now (#4.15)

[ComedyFan2010 · 9/10 · 4 April 2018]

Kevin gets cured and it just makes Charlie worry that his chances are now lower. Sarah is planning the first time with Elliot but turns out that he is gay. Julia and Griffin film a commercial for his store but it fails and he has to close his bike shop.

It was a fantastic story of Charlie and Kevin. It was a beautiful scene when Kevin finds out his results. But then the scene of Charlie talking to him how they don't have it in common anymore and how he feels Kevin took his place was so good and sincere.

I also liked the story of Elliot being gay. The scene where he comes out to Bailey is funny in that awkward way. And also how Bailey struggles not to tell it to Sarah when she is looking forward to what she thinks will be the big night. I actually wish they showed us the scene where Bailey tells her why Elliot broke up with her.

Too bad for Griffin. Yes it is amazing how he ended up losing his $100000 on that shop. Wonder where it will go now.

Bad Luck

[tomasmmc-77198 · 7/10 · 25 July 2021]

Griffin and Julia finally spend a few happy moments filming a TV advertising for the shop but all turns out wrong when it can't be on TV, because it's not good and funny. Julia tells Griffin to let go the bike shop but he's stubborn. When his reopening fails, he finally accepts defeat. In season 3 finale he had 100.000 dollars and now he has to sell the shop to pay debts. Bad luck for Griffin. The commercial was funny and the story was overall entertaining. On the other hand, the Salinger's bad luck reached Sarah, now that Elliott turns out to be gay. She didn't deserve it, so I didn't like that she forgave him. Bailey acted well in comforting her and telling the truth to her. Anyway, poor Sarah.

As for Charlie, his chances are worst when he finds out that Kevin will be cured. Now, his chances are 2/3 instead of 3/4. The scene at the cliff in front of the sea was really nice, and I want to highlight one of Kevin's lines earlier: in the beach while opening the envelope, if he found out he wasn't in remission he could go through the waves. Kevin was afraid of the case if radiation didn't work, which would mean chemotherapy, and asks him to open it for him. But Charlie says he's there just for moral support (wearing the "great coat"), and makes him find out the good news, and they celebrate. Anyway, then he makes plans for designing furniture with computer and using software (he is good at it), along Charlie. But Kevin initially doesn't understand that Charlie is still with cancer and he is not optimistic. So Charlie doesn't want to join his software design plan, because he is not in remission and also because he doesn't like to design with a computer, he likes paper and pencil (I agree with Charlie on this, but Kevin surely in 2021 is rich, almost everything is virtual now). So he finally tells him that the thing they had in common is gone. Charlie also tells that is great for Kevin that he's getting better, that he'll live, and though he swears he wants to be "bigger than this", he can't, and knows that his chances of recovery are lower (like I said, math doesn't lie, 2/3, at least in early 1998). The last scene between them was great and shows that Matthew is still doing a great job with his storyline. And Claudia, bad luck, because in the moment that Charlie listens to one of her problems with her homework (he didn't listen her lately), she talked to him about the wrong theme, her future life, because Charlie doesn't know if he will live. She got excited to think about her life in 2026 (imagine a continuity of Party of Five then), but Charlie couldn't believe that she didn't think about him, that he can't know if he's going to live. This were the best stories of the episode, still showing the dramatic situation in the right way. To finish, there is a detail to mention about Kevin: he didn't have a family to share the good news?