The worst episodes of California Dreams

[TMC]

Season 1

Episode 4: “Double Date”: Proof positive that Sly should be fired as the band’s manager, he convinces Tony to do something that should have gotten him fired and books the band without checking the rest of the band’s availability. If I was the audience at either Sharkey’s or the wedding, I would have been severely pissed off and wanted my money back as they really shouldn’t have satisfied either audience, except in contrivance land.

Episode 8: “It’s a Guy Thing”: An entire episode about Jenny and Tiffani teaching Sly and Tony how to treat girls. How utterly boring. Frankly, if I tried something like this on friends in real life, even if they really were sexist pigs, I probably wouldn’t have a friend anymore. What kind of teenagers really act like this? And the subplot about the Garrison men fixing things was just pointless.

Episode 10: “Romancing the Tube”: I hope I conveyed in my review for this episode how grating on my nerves it is. It reads like something my grandmother, who never surfed in her life, would have written about surfing. And the idea that Sly and Tiffani should have some sort of commitment ceremony after the short time they were dating is just idiotic (they’re supposed to be in high school for ****’s sake!), but not as idiotic as the ceremony itself. And the subplot with Melody hiring Matt, Jenny, and Tony to paint the bedrooms is just never resolved and might as well not have been in the episode.

Season 2

Episode 2: “Ciao, Jenny” It shows that this was a hastily written episode to provide a departure for Jenny, and that’s no excuse for this to be such a weak episode. The fact that Jenny nearly gives up going to Italy to be with a guy who just declared his love for her is insulting. It’s just a lazy episode that would be forgettable had it not been for the fact a main character left.

Episode 8: “High Plans Dreamer” Easily the worst episode of the series so far as it is nothing but an absolute time waster. There’s no reason for it to exist other than for the cast to play dress-up. What’s worse, they took a character who was the primary in two of the best episodes last season and made the worst this season about him, and that’s just sad.

Episode 15: “Can’t Buy Me Love” I still feel insulted by this episode and its manipulation to try to get me to feel sorry for Sly after he was just acting ****** to a girl. Sure, she was a jerk, but so was he, and I can’t help but think this episode is an example of everything I don’t like about Sly on this show.

Season 3

Episode 8: “The Princess and the Yeti”: Talk about a pointless episode with mixed messages and the wrong protagonists. The entire band turning against Lorena for her treatment of Mr. Guthrie is wrong-headed. There’s a message in there somewhere they were trying to get across, but it really got lost in the mix somewhere.

Episode 13: “Rebel Without a Nerve”: This one is just idiotic. To buy this episode, you have to be willing to believe that Jake’s entire personality would change over an accident. The idiotic subplot about Principal Blumford and the world record doesn’t help things. No one got out of this episode looking good.

Episode 16: “The Treasure of PCH”: Hey, you know what would make for an awesome episode? Let’s show how superficial all our characters’ relationships are by making them all act like little *******s over money! While we’re at it, let’s make them idiots as well in not realizing the clues to the treasure are superficially fake! That will make for some great television right there, I tell you what!

Season 4

Episode 5: Fallen Idol: Jake’s idol is a plagiarist and steals one of his songs. What pushed this episode into horrible for me was the ending. Seriously, they chose to do absolutely nothing about the plagiarism because being a terrible person is punishment enough? **** that! This guy is making tons of money off the band’s song. That’s what civil suits were made for.

Episode 8: Old: After learning about being a ****head to overweight people in the previous episode, Sly’s now an ageist ***** who hates old people because of an experience with his grandfather? The sudden change of heart and bonding with a guy are so lazy and even worse than when the same thing happened in “Running Zack” on Saved by the Bell.

Episode 13: We’ll Always Have Aspen: It should come as no surprise this was my least favorite episode of the season. Any episode that tries to convince me Mark has an actual purpose on this show is going to fall flat, and his romance truly makes Maria and Tony in the final seasons of The New Class look like a classic romance by comparison. Seriously, just get rid of Mark and make us all happy!

Season 5

Episode 10: “Babewatch”: I really got sick of all the episodes where Sam has to keep assuring Tony she’s not jealous of him noticing other girls and then having Tony not reciprocate such respect. The over-the-top Baywatch spoof that was not at all self-aware that Engel-verse shows succumb to some of the same criticisms as Baywatch pushed this episode over the edge for me.

Episode 11: “Love Letters”: Look, pairing up Sly and Lorena at the last minute just stunk of desperation. At least Saved by the Bell had the self-knowledge to know that having Lisa confess her love for Screech towards the end of the fourth season would have been a really bad idea. This, combined with the fact they seem to have forgotten they already did this plot, with an opposite result, in season four, and you really did waste my time.

Episode 12: “Graduation Day”: The epitome of this universe’s incompetence in handling serious issues, I was cracking up laughing during the over-the-top moralizing about underage drinking. Add to the fact that this was a Mark-centered episode and he was dating Tara Reid, and you have a formula for a truly terrible very special episode.

[AMackII]

Ciao, Jenny: it’s disappointing that Jenny was written off after the 2nd Season Premiere but the remainder of the series were not the same without her around.

[irehtman]

Tara's absence in the graduation part sucks, TBH, IMO...