Boys Before Friends Episode Three

Boys Before Friends Episode Three

Summary: Zoey is accepted into Ellison University, a college for the super rich, as a scholarship student. There she encounters the F4, a group of guys who use their power and money to intimidate other students.

Number of Episodes: 16

Stars: Joseph Almani, Trenton L. Culkin, Dawn Morrow

Language: English

Additional Info: Loosely based on Hana Yori Dango. It's available on Viki.com, Youtube, and the official website.

Check out my review of episode 1 & episode 2.

In episode three, it's spring break. The whole school- which is a graduate level school so this doesn't make a lot of sense to me- is planning a trip to Hawaii. Of course, Zoey the poor girl can't afford the astronomical price tag for the trip, not that she wants to go anyway, and her friends come up with the idea to rent a time-share in Malibu. Noah and Chase, the other F4 members, overhear and tell Liam. Liam then decides to throw his weight around and move the entire school trip to Malibu just so he can stalk Zoey.

Zoey and her friends end up sharing the house with the F4 and the bitchy groupies. I'm not really sure how the girls ended up in the same house because that would have to be one hell of a big house for at least 10 people to have rooms. Oliver's model girlfriend finally makes an appearance so we have Zoey staring longingly at him, Liam staring longingly at Zoey and several others staring longingly at several others. Liam keeps trying to impress Zoey and putting his foot in his mouth in the most awkward of ways instead. Noah and Chase are just as awkwardly hitting on Zoey's friends.

We'll start with the most persistent issue of the show- the sound. It's actually much better this time. I didn't have quite the problem hearing the dialogue as before, though there were still a few spots where it was low... mostly when they were trying to talk over the background music. The background music is still incredibly loud compared to the rest of the sound so it doesn't so much create a mood for the scene as take it over.

Sometimes the low-budgetness of the show bothers me. It's not even the general quality of the show. It's the scenes that should have extras and don't. Much like the benefit on the boat in episode two that was only attended by 12 or so people, they go to a "club" that doesn't have more than 20 people in it. It doesn't really impact the story at all, but I find it distracting when there's supposed to be a crowd and there isn't.

The acting hasn't really improved. We were subjected yet again to the horrible acting of the groupie girls. The biggest problem is that their bitchiness is so contrived and juvenile. Middle school girls don't even act that way. Everyone else is tolerable.

I'm still not digging this Zoey. I think recasting was a mistake. Once they started filming, they should have left well enough alone. But, if they had really wanted to recast, they should have re-shot the beginning and let Dawn Morrow make Zoey her own. At this point, with the other girl having had just as much screen time, I'm constantly comparing them... and I don't think the recast was an improvement. Maybe I'll get used to her as time goes on, though.

And, for the love of all that is holy, take away the purple makeup from Zoey and the blonde groupie, Nikki. They are the worst offenders of terrible eyeshadow that I've seen both on and off TV in a long time. There is something to be said for a "no makeup" eye look on TV.

So far, I'm not seeing any improvement in the show. I'm going to continue watching it in the hopes that the story, if not the quality or the acting, gets better.