Boys Before Friends Special Episode

Boys Before Friends Special Episode

Summary: A behind the scenes look at Boys Before Friends

Number of Episodes: 16

Stars: Suteara Vaughn, Jackie Averia, Erik Thomas, Trenton L. Culkin, Jason S. Mordeno, Tiffany Daniels, Alexia Quinn

Language: English

Additional Info: Available on Viki.com

See my reviews of episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4




If you've been following Boys Before Friends, you'll know that the lead actors, Dawn Morrow and Joseph Almani, left the show after episode four. There was a lot of speculation about what happened but, at the end of the day, it happened. The roles were recast and have already started filming. So, in order to provide something this week, they released a Boys Before Friends special episode.

The first half of the 45 minute episode is a Real World-esque confessional setup that covers the spring break material from episodes 3 and 4. Both OG Liam and Zoey #2 (or #3 if you count the girl that was replaced before filming) are there so I'm assuming this footage was something that was originally meant for a future DVD release.

In a way, I thought this confessional special was more entertaining than a good chunk of the episodes involved. I didn't really care for episode 3 but I did mostly enjoy episode 4. The confessionals felt more natural than the scenes they were discussing in them. The characters also seemed to have more depth than they usually do. I don't really know if it was scripted or partially scripted. If it was, they should consider writing like this more often. I particularly liked the part with Piper, Chloe and Zoey discussing the midnight club kiss. My problem with it, though, is that it immediately followed the episodes it referenced and I was kind of bored with watching the same scenes again.

This section ends on an ominous note.

The second half is several cast members, the writer, the producer, and a crew member talking about the show as well as recent things. In all honesty, they should not have done this. It was around 20 minutes and that's a long time to listen to them talk about the same thing over and over- with better sound quality than the show has.

There were two things that I really disliked about this part:

1. When discussing the poor quality, especially at the beginning, the producer pretty much blames everyone around her for it... saying that they saw everything we saw and those people who can't do a good job were fired. Her fault in it was to assume that someone with previously good work could do good work on her show. I say that if you see what poor quality your show is, delay it until you fix it. I'm sure the fans would rather have a good quality episode that took a few weeks than a crappy one that was rushed out in a week.
2. For not being able to discuss the loss of the former main cast members "for legal reasons," there sure was a lot of that going on. The majority of the 20 minutes had all three cast members and the producer go on and on about "people" that were maliciously lying about poor treatment and "people" who didn't want to come to set or learn lines because "people" said they didn't get paid and "people" were big fat liars.

In the end, this whole thing made me feel more negatively about the situation than I did before it. I didn't get the feeling of a show trying to clear the air and start fresh. In fact, they barely mention the new people. They also didn't talk about their direction for the show. It felt more like them complaining about how mean people just can't understand how it's not their fault. No amount of "we are a big family and we love each other" could change that for me.