Party of Five (TV Series) Spring Breaks: Part 1 (1996) User Reviews

Spring Breaks: Part 1 (#2.21)

[ComedyFan2010 · 8/10 · 6 March 2018]

Everyone is mad at Charlie because the restaurant will be closed. And it turns out that Kirsten is already getting married. Justin and Julia both find other people at work who in a way try to help them with their gifts for each other. Matt kisses Sarah. Claudia goes to a party but isn't into the whole kissing games yet.

The restaurant story is good. Although I am sure they will solve it like most of their problems. Charlie or Claudia will go to Kathleen and convince her with an emotional speech to save it. I am now more interetsed about what will happen with Kirsten.

It is sad to see what is happening with Justin and Julia. But it was nice to see Kate Hudson in her first role ever. This is the beginning of her career.

It was also great to see Danny Masterson in his pre The 70's Show times. The story of him and Sarah being assaulted was also pretty exciting.

Better episode suprisingly, all thing considered

[amazingm08 · 9/10 · 18 December 2022]

Julia who's been written horribly didn't annoy me, she realizes a lot of what happened in her reationship with Justin is her own fault, and now is trying to make it work once by taking him to a photography class, unfourtantly Justin has his radio show and really doesn't want to see Julia's face, so she reluctantly has to go by herself, where she meets a cute guy named Ian who's completely into her and decides to help her in photography, there Julia sees Justin is walking with another girl and confronts him about it, which he doesn't deny she exists and admits she easier to be around than Julia has been lately, and Julia intends to give Justin one of her old modeling photos from season 1 to give him as a gift and then is kissed by Ian and to the viewers shock Julia actually doesn't kiss him back and in fact doesn't even freak out over it just tells Ian what's up and moves on.

Meanwhile there's very little Bailey in this episode shockingly, it's shown he and Sarah are very distant and she's spending more time with her band and feels more comfortable around them then she does Bailey, sadly she was mugged and robbed making Bailey even more protective of her angering Sarah even more, and the guitarist tries to make a move on her which turns him down and tells Bailey about it, who's unsure how to react to about it knowing Sarah will be pissed no matter how he reacts, which was nice to see Bailey's first reaction wasn't scream and then find the guitarist and beat him up for kissing his girlfriend, but it still annoys the both of them and shows how distant they have become and consider just breaking up.

The Claudia storyline, really it took some creep trying to kiss you to realize Jody is trouble and it's not even because of that it's because she rather spend her time with a crush, I would've preferred if they guy was being polite about making his next move on Claudia and she leaves in annoyance and realizing Jody isn't a good influence on her and how she compromised herself for somebody who doesn't even respect herself.

As for Charlie, his horrible decision making ofc comes to bite him, his old boss Joe is back and is impressed to see the restaurant under Charlie's ownership maintaining but peaking, even his siblings are proud to see all the progress he's made, but they eventually find out why business is really blooming and find out it's being moved away and ofc Claudia kicks and screams, Bailey calls Charlie stupid & Julia is acting like she has any right to pass judgment on him, honestly Bailey is the only person who's opinion truly matters which even Charlie knew right away and begged Bailey for his help which he refused, so now all alone got drunk and picked bar fights until he was arrested and then decides to profess his love to Kirsten who tells Charlie she's getting married in a week.

So overall this episode was suprisingly good, Julia seemed likeable, Bailey even tho wasn't in the episode still was effective, great to see Sarah & Justin have mini plots of there own, Claudia finally leaves her friend & Charlie's actions are beginning to catch up to him 8/10.

Abandoned

[tomasmmc-77198 · 9/10 · 19 July 2021]

This episode resumes how the writers totally ruined Charlie's life in season 2. In The Ides of March or Where there's Smoke, no one could imagine that Charlie was going to be so alone in the ending of this season. He was the Man of the house, the Father, the Husband. Being almost 26, he had it all: a beautiful fiancee (kind of wife, the love of his life), who proved to be the perfect adoptive mother for the kids, his siblings Bailey and Julia, his "kids" Claudia and Owen, a good, stable job in the restaurant with his name on it. But in just three episodes, without reason, the writers transformed him into a totally lost/immature man who lost it all. And now he hitted bottom. Abandoned by Kirsten, mistreated badly by Bailey (who really hates him many times) during most of the two seasons, sometimes mistreated by Julia, and finally abandoned by Claudia. He is losing his safe job, the restaurant of the family to a vengative woman, only because he lost the love of his life in the most impossible way, and then, he got lost. Not even Joe helped him, because instead of clearing his mind on his wedding day, he behaved like one more guest (unlike in Fathers and Sons, where Joe put Charlie in line). Now, he is losing everything, and he didn't deserve it. He goes to a bar to drink and causes a fight, which ends in arrest. Joe bails him out, and only now tells him how he had everything going and he screw it up, but like I said, he didn't help him before. Then, while watching pictures, Claudia in tears, tells she will never forgive him for losing the restaurant. And the ending scene for him was to jump off a bridge (like Jack Shephard, who also lost his wife, his family and friends, in Through the Looking Glass) and commit suicide: devastated, he goes to Kirsten's apartment and tells her that he is sorry, he deeply regrets the mistakes, he loves her and wants her back but finds out that she is getting married next week, with a divorced guy she met two months ago. There's nothing more than sadness here.

As for the other stories, are all less significative. Julia and Justin start to separate when they spend time with other people (Justin's new girl is Corry, a young Kate Hudson on TV). Claudia and Jody start to drive in different ways because Claudia is not in the mood of boyfriends yet (by fortune). And after a robbery, Bailey is very worried of Sarah (because he lost Jill already) but she doesn't want him to worry, she doesn't understand him. Besides, the guy from the band, Matt kisses her but she doesn't return him the kiss, and then tells Bailey. Then, he tells her that if she doesn't let him love her the way he does, he doesn't know how to make things work. They are also starting to separate.

For the record, Owen was missing here, like in most of the episodes of the season. Obviously this season is worst than the first, because the series lost stability, steadiness. In season 1 we had Owen present almost every episode, always with someone taking care of him (Kirsten, Charlie, Bill, Claudia, Bailey and Julia) but in season 2, he was missed a lot. The first 7 episodes were great overall, with remaining traces of season 1, the family united, a responsible Charlie running the house with Kirsten, Bailey struggling after Jill's demise, Julia being a selfish teenager, Claudia thinking about growing up, the violin, being taken care of by her "adoptive parents. But with the wedding canceled and Kirsten leaving, the family fell apart: Charlie, the leader of the family, abandoned and ruined, Claudia lost and rebel, Julia having sex, getting pregnant and then having the whole trauma of her miscarriage, Bailey having a not so good relationship with Sarah and neglecting his family waiting for college. Not even Jacob Gordon could help much, he just gave some little happiness to Claudia and Owen. And the point of the series is to watch a family of orphans together, struggling against dramatic situations, the absence of his parents. But if they are all mad at each other, hating each other, because there's no Father, no Mother, no leader who can be responsible and lead them, the series loses the point, loses the motive. After the failed wedding, the Salingers stayed without parents again. And this episode proves it, the family is a disaster, a mess, they are all apart, separated, everyone hating badly Charlie, who was the leader. For all that, the second half of season 2 is one of the worst parts of the show, there were some good points, like Jake, Claudia still being a child sometimes, or the aftermath of Julia's miscarriage, but overall, the house was falling down. At least in the finale, things might change for better.