Robbie is seen in a high school classroom just before class begins, trying in vain to talk to a girl named Amber. She is speaking with another boy and doesn't even know Robbie's name. Class begins and the first order of business is for the students in the room to hear from two candidates for the student council--Robbie and another boy. Robbie stands up and basically says if he is elected he'll show up for the meetings and do his best. The other boy gives them a reason or two to vote for him.
Back at the house, we see a dejected Robbie who lost the election 28-2. He gets the notion that he can learn how to be popular-so Amber will at least know he's alive-by reading some library books. We aren't told how much time has passed, but it appeared to be about a week. Robbie is going around the house-and school-glad-handing everyone, saying insincere complimentary things to everyone, trying to be more noticeable.
His goal is to now be elected class president. This time, his campaign speech-as it were-is in front of the same classroom. Now he does nothing but tell silly jokes, with good results as far as laughter goes, including the teacher. But the other boy wins the election 29-1. He doesn't care about the office, only that he now figures he is still unknown to Amber.
This time Robbie takes his dad's advice. He phones Amber and asks her out and she happily accepts. He learns it is best to just be himself.
My problems with this script are numerous. Robbie has never been seen as someone who is friendless and he's had a few girlfriends. When Amber continues to not remember his name-after he keeps telling her-it seems clear that he needs to move on to one of the other girls and forget this one. This entire personality change just didn't seem genuine-Robbie would normally realize this is stupid of him.
I am confused by the way they run for school offices at Bryant Park High School. First there are just two candidates for "student council." These bodies normally have quite a few members-typically 6-12, at least two or three per class-assuming the school has the usual four grades.
Why would they first elect only one person to this council, then about a week later elect the class president? You'd expect, if elections are separate, that they'd first elect the president, to allow any losing candidates for that spot to then, perhaps, run for the council. Picture the U. S. Congress electing all their senators and then one month later having the election for president.
Then there's the matter of the vote totals. I didn't count the number of people in the classroom, but can say it appeared it could well have been 30. For both elections, the only "speeches" were made only to this group and the votes numbered 30 each time. Assuming this is supposed to be Robbie's class-either the sophomore or junior class-are we to believe there are only 30 people in his entire class?
The picture shown to establish the setting as the high school clearly shows a building with at least four rooms on each of two floors on the front side-and there would surely be as many on the back side, plus whatever other rooms are to the sides of the picture we see. That sets it up to have, at a minimum, 12 classrooms plus a couple of other rooms. But if the entire sophomore class has only 30 students and they can all fit into one classroom, then the whole high school must only have about 100 students. They'd only need a school with about 6 rooms total. Nothing else in this series ever suggests they have such a tiny high school. Based on other things we hear in this series, it would seem they are much closer to 800-1000 students, if not more.
It just seems like everything about this school and how they run student elections along with Robbie's strange attempt to become a totally different person were both totally unbelievable. Thus I cannot give this one a score higher than 4.
Back at the house, we see a dejected Robbie who lost the election 28-2. He gets the notion that he can learn how to be popular-so Amber will at least know he's alive-by reading some library books. We aren't told how much time has passed, but it appeared to be about a week. Robbie is going around the house-and school-glad-handing everyone, saying insincere complimentary things to everyone, trying to be more noticeable.
His goal is to now be elected class president. This time, his campaign speech-as it were-is in front of the same classroom. Now he does nothing but tell silly jokes, with good results as far as laughter goes, including the teacher. But the other boy wins the election 29-1. He doesn't care about the office, only that he now figures he is still unknown to Amber.
This time Robbie takes his dad's advice. He phones Amber and asks her out and she happily accepts. He learns it is best to just be himself.
My problems with this script are numerous. Robbie has never been seen as someone who is friendless and he's had a few girlfriends. When Amber continues to not remember his name-after he keeps telling her-it seems clear that he needs to move on to one of the other girls and forget this one. This entire personality change just didn't seem genuine-Robbie would normally realize this is stupid of him.
I am confused by the way they run for school offices at Bryant Park High School. First there are just two candidates for "student council." These bodies normally have quite a few members-typically 6-12, at least two or three per class-assuming the school has the usual four grades.
Why would they first elect only one person to this council, then about a week later elect the class president? You'd expect, if elections are separate, that they'd first elect the president, to allow any losing candidates for that spot to then, perhaps, run for the council. Picture the U. S. Congress electing all their senators and then one month later having the election for president.
Then there's the matter of the vote totals. I didn't count the number of people in the classroom, but can say it appeared it could well have been 30. For both elections, the only "speeches" were made only to this group and the votes numbered 30 each time. Assuming this is supposed to be Robbie's class-either the sophomore or junior class-are we to believe there are only 30 people in his entire class?
The picture shown to establish the setting as the high school clearly shows a building with at least four rooms on each of two floors on the front side-and there would surely be as many on the back side, plus whatever other rooms are to the sides of the picture we see. That sets it up to have, at a minimum, 12 classrooms plus a couple of other rooms. But if the entire sophomore class has only 30 students and they can all fit into one classroom, then the whole high school must only have about 100 students. They'd only need a school with about 6 rooms total. Nothing else in this series ever suggests they have such a tiny high school. Based on other things we hear in this series, it would seem they are much closer to 800-1000 students, if not more.
It just seems like everything about this school and how they run student elections along with Robbie's strange attempt to become a totally different person were both totally unbelievable. Thus I cannot give this one a score higher than 4.
