As an incentive, here is my brief review and rating (as they appear in the book) for "A Friend in Need"...
The first episode of the series without Skeletor making a nuisance of himself proves that Eternia has a wealth of interesting characters. Much of the episode focuses on Ileena and Jarvan, and because of the strength of the writing, this proves to be a wise move. The music that accompanies the scenes between Ileena and Jarvan is, at times, haunting. Linda Gary acts out Ileena's character, and her addiction, to perfection; and while the episode does have a fair amount of atypical action, make no mistake, this is a character-driven episode, with a hard-hitting moral, if ever there was one. 8/10
Now, may I ask; what is YOUR rating?
8 comments:
Right on, James. :) Along the lines of what you had mentioned, Jarvan is the first "guest villain" of the He-Man series and he came off just about as evil as Skeletor! Illeena has to be one of the most attractive females in the series and Linda Gary gives her a beautiful voice. :) I also found certain moments in the series amusing, like Prince Adam transforming into He-Man in midair (What are the chances of others who do not know his secret NOT being around to see this, at the time?!), the phrase of "Em Ot Emoc," and the security device that has the exact same voice as Orko, in a brief little scene where Illeena attempts to enter a security door! A perfect "Don't Do Drugs" message, courtesy of He-Man, is included as well. I'd give this the same rating or higher. :) Thanks for reading and God Bless! ~"KevyGuy" :)
Damn! The book is all sold out in 5 hours :(
And I only just found out about it 1 hour ago
This was a great episode, that still has a powerful message now as it did when first aired -Don't do drugs. Illeena shows us how Teela interacts with her girlfriend--which was rarly seen. Plus its nice to give Skeletor an episode "off" and allow others to be in that villain lead. I wish we saw more episodes with Teela and other girl friends in the lead.
Over all I give this episode 9 out 10.
Kelly
Fantastic episode and i love the morale at the end of the episode as well. Great to see how the characters rally around Illeena to help her overcome her addiction. A very early concept of Adora? Brillian episode - 9/10
While this is one of the earliest He-Man episodes I ever saw, I've never really liked this episode, apart from the action at the end. As a child, episodes without Skeletor, were usually automatically second class episodes for me and this was not an exception. And even now as an adult, I don't like this episode. As for why I don't like this particular episode, all I can/will tell is that there was someone close to me having an addiction and this episode always was constant reminder of that. And because I can't be objective with this episode, I'm not giving any score.
If this episode has a flaw for me, it's that I never found Ileena to be a terribly likeable character, and so it weakens the emotional investment I have in her "drug problem". That said, this episode still stands out because of its strong message - and the scene of Adam transforming into He-Man whilst falling out of a Wind Raider! :)
Totally agree with the 8/10 rating. A really nice episode even though I was a bit disappointed about the "final battle".
A great review. I agree, this is a nice episode with an adequate dose of morality, and Ileena is a nice character
Jarvan seems physically to Emperor Ming of Flash Gordon. but more curious is that he seems also to Keldor on the animated series, 2002. their mutual appearance is very similar, although age is different
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