User blog:Corbierr/Episode Analysis- Season One Premier

''' That ^ is the video version for those who want it. Below is the written version. Check out both if you want, you don't have to. But when reading, you should put on this musicfor the full effect, simply because I have it on in the video and I said so. (And btw the only difference between the video and the written version is that the written version is just a transcribed and slightly changed version of the video and you don't have to listen to my voice. So go ahead and pick either one and there won't be any difference) '''

Welcome to Episode 1 of my Episode Analysis series! Today we will be discussing, what else, but where it all began. The pilot. The first five episodes.

Because this is a premier we're talking about, it will be a bit different than the episodes we will see in the future, because instead of discussing, like, was it a good episode overall and the major events, we really have to see how it will fit in with the other episodes as a premier, and, you guys get the picture, right?

So, where do we start?

How about we start with all the good things, the characters. (That was worded weird but I said it in the video so.) One of the things I like best about the premier is how they introduced all the characters. You had...Establishing Moments. That's a TvTropes term, "Character Establishing Moments", and they are basically those moments where you first see a character and learn about their personality through the scene. So, for example, you have Nina in the cab, being all nervous yet excited- that's her personality right there- you have Fabian and his nerd book, Joytricia joking around, Jerome scamming, Alfie with his fake arm, Amber on the phone, Mick all sweaty... you get the idea. You got to know the characters in a short time with the scenes they gave you. And that's really cool, (I say in a very impressed fashion when looking back I'm not sure why it's that exciting), instead of laying it on really thick like other shows do and making the person really over the top, HOA just lets you know who the characters were with the simple clues you could pick up on. Amber was asking her dad for shoes...dumb blonde. Yay. Character. Obviously they don't tell you everything about the character, especially when you look in Patricia's case. I'll have to talk a lot about Patricia this time because she played a very big role in the premier but I'll get to her in a minute. So yeah, it's not like they showed you every single detail about the character, obviously they can't do that in one scene. But they did a good job at letting you know each of the characters in the simple way, like Jerome is greedy and manipulative and Alfie is goofy, you know, basic. And because the characters start off this way, we can kind of connect to them better. Instead of spending time finding out who everyone is, we get a basic idea, and then we get to learn more about them.

However, in this premier episode, I kind of think the only characters we learned about were Nina, Fabian and Patricia. This isn't completely bad, because they were sort of the biggest characters in season one so this kind of sets a good basis for the rest of the series. But I would have kind of liked a bit more scenes with the other characters, you know, here and there. I like characters, what can I say? I like when everyone gets stuff to do. The only characters that only did anything noteworthy this time were Nina, Fabian and Patricia (and Joy, if you count her getting kidnapped as noteworthy). But, the only character who really influenced the plot was Patricia. Okay. You had Nina doing things like meeting Sarah and being the heroine, but Patricia was the one who really caused the plot of this episode (these five episodes I should say) and that's kind of interesting, I mean, usually you would expect the heroine to be getting into the mystery right away but instead they let the proactive-ness come from the "antagonist" of the episode. Obviously it doesn't last for the rest of the episodes, but you know what I mean.

Because we're on the topic of Patricia, let's talk about Patricia's role in the episode. What can I say? I mean, she had a lot to do this episode. One thing I could say is that they were a little dodgy on her characterization, They didn't mess up anything really but they did make it hard to know if you were supposed to sympathize with her or not. Because yeah you start off seeing her joking around and being normal and you think, she's kind of cool, and then- Bam! She's the antagonist of the episode after Joy leaves. And it's like, are we supposed to be sympathizing with her and liking her even as she does these things? Are we supposed to dislike her but still find her sympathetic? Or not find her sympathetic at all and just crazy? Obviously I sympathize with her (she's my favorite character and all) but I don't know if it was intentional. IDk, it's just a little thing. I would have liked more scenes of her being sympathetic so you know it's okay to root for her. But whatever.

That does tie into her being the most proactive character in the episodes, but she's only proactive in that the plot of the premier is Nina vs Patricia. It's about Patrina. I love Patrina. They're my favorite friendship. But it gets to the point where you are wondering...is this the whole show? Are they just going to keep doing this the whole time? And obviously  they don't, they're just setting things up for later (which is good, that's what premiers are meant for), but when that's your whole episode, based around the two of them not getting along, I'm not sure if as a stand-alone episode it really holds up. Of course it holds up as a premier, because as a premier, it does a great job of setting things up for the future! It's well paced, which sets the pace for the other episode. It has a bunch of foreshadowing moments, and brings in things like the locket, and Sarah, and Joy leaving, and a bunch of different relationships show up in this episode, but we never really see them until future episodes. What I'm trying to say is, it did a good job at it's purpose which is setting things up.

But as an episode on it's own, I'm not sure if it would have been, for example, as good if it was in the middle of the season because of it's whole plot being based around Patricia and Nina. You guys are going to be saying, "wait, what about the subplots, like Sarah and the couples?" Well those happened, but they didn't influence the plot of the episode. Patrina and Joytricia did. Joytricia because of "Where's Joy?!" and Patricia because they were the two characters who did the most in this episode. They were the characters who did everything, so yeah. What can I really say about that, except, everything was really done by them, the other characters were there but they just kind of reacted or went along with it. They didn't cause anything, ya see? That's not a bad thing, because in the future they obviously do stuff. They weren't bad characters, they just didn't do much except for their subplots, setting things up for the future (which is okay, because that's what premiers are supposed to do.) Good premier, yes. Good episode on it's own? It's neutral.

But, Idk. It is kind of weird that for five whole episodes, all they can get is Patrina going at it. I mean I know they were very rapid in progression, because they were basically just one long episode, they weren't like normal episodes. They were different. So of course they would be, like, just one plot. But it does kind of make you wonder. What if these episodes were broken up? It would have been just a straight week of seeing Nina and Patricia not get along, which is kind of...weird. So, I guess it works as an episode, and even as an episode it's kind of weak. If you separated those episodes, it would have been an arc that would have gone on for too long.

But, as a premier, it works. It sets their relationship up, it sets the mystery up, sets the tone of the show up, because you show up, getting something kind of light but also dramatic and serious, and it worked. (During this time in the episode I start commenting on the music, which is at the time the soft piano-y track we hear during romance scenes :P So fitting, right?)

Uh, sorry there's not much analyzing going on right now, it's just hard to analyze when I'm dealing with a premier because, like I said, the only thing I can really talk about is how it fits up with the rest of the season. I guess, what I've had done differently is add more scenes of other characters and more scenes of Patricia being sympathetic. It's just a bit hard to analyze this episode...for one thing, it's 5 episodes, for another thing, it's the premier, nothing has really started yet, so I'm just doing what I can to talk about it, and I've run out of things to say.

General consensus? It's a great premier, it's very well paced (dramatic music kicks in), the characters- even though only Patricia and Nina really did anything- were all pretty good in this episode (no terrifying stupidity)...so as a premier it worked, as a stand-alone episode I'm not sure it would have done anything great, and if you showed all five episodes separately it probably would have gotten a bit too annoying, cause, it was the same plot for those episodes.

I guess that's all I can say for now. Sorry if it's not exactly what you were expecting, I'm going to better in future episodes because I'll be getting the hang of it, and I'm already getting better.

See you next week, guys, for episode two.

--

That's it for today! On Thursday, a new character analysis- this time, starring Joy! Friday and Saturday, more SSSOS!

(Also, I'll get around to getting HOA on my Kindle eventually so these episodes will get more in depth and accurate in the future!)'''