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review | transcript | screencaps | quiz This no episode titles thing really bugs me. You've got no way of telling one from the other and I'm crap with numbers. I think someone should give them all Friendsesque titles so we can tell which ones which. You know, "The one where..." or "The one with..."You've got to talk like that anyway if you want people to know which one you're on about. The only trouble is, so much happens in each episode that you don't know which thing to choose. I guess you just need to choose one. This is, 'the one with the new head of year' or "the one with the parents evening". Susan reveals that she is going for the head of year job, and Simon is disgusted at first because she'll become 'one of them', but he sees the bright side to it eventually though, because he realises what a nightmare it would be to have Jenny instead. As they both practice for the interview together, Susan and Jenny start to act worryingly friendly. I don't understand that really, I mean they were never friends before, and now they are trying to get the same job and only one of them will manage it. I don't think I'd be getting friendly with a rival like that, unless is was to betray them at the last minute! Maybe I've got a bit of a ruthless streak though. Anyway, Susan gets the job in the end, something I don't understand either, Jenny had been acting head of year, surely that would give her a fairly major advantage. Her interview technique must be really crap or something. Whatever the reason, Simon, Brian and Kurt now have friends in high places, or rather one friend in a position of slightly more authority. Unfortunately that friend is now friends with Jenny who they all hate (but would shag if they got the chance). In another story line, Simon demonstrates some extreme dozyness by smoking pot at school with one of his students. It wouldn't have been a problem if Jenny, while she was still acting head of year, found the cannabis on the kid. Simon panics because he doesn't want anyone to find out he was smoking it too. If they did, he could lose his job, which really makes me wonder what made him even consider doing it in the first place, I mean, he can't be that stupid, he's a teacher! So, he acts like a little kid doing everything he can to make sure no one finds out, and while he's at it actually makes himself look something like a competent teacher by getting Maggie to talk to the kid. That presents him with another problem though, he tries to make sure no one finds out that the police woman who is giving the talk is his girlfriend, he's embarrassed. We get to find out a lot about Simon in this episode, mostly that he's a complete hypocrite, Maggie, Liz and Susan all tell him so. In the end they all find out anyway, and so do all the students. Not only that, but while he's trying to make sure they don't find out, he really pisses Maggie off. Leaving him with everyone knowing he's dating a copper (quite embarrassing for mister anti-authority!) and she's barely speaking to him anyway. The worst of all worlds, poor Simon! You can't help feeling slightly sorry for him, I suppose, but at the same time I find myself thinking it's his own fault really, if he hadn't been stupid enough to smoke dope with a student, no one would have found out about Maggie. In a way then, it's his anti-authority, smoking dope at school type stance that got him found out for not being as anti authority as he acts. Or something. There's some sort of a lesson there probably, if you look for it. While al this is going on, there's the parents evening. This is my favourite part of this episode. You get to know Brian and Kurt a lot better than last episode, which was really just about us getting to know Simon. Simon and Kurt have a problem with parents evening, they don't know who any of their students are, so we get that hilarious bit where they are studying and testing each other like kids preparing for an exam, and then we get the just as hilarious bit where Kurt had no idea who he is talking to, and tries to blag it. I love that bit. It's in this episode where we get the first idea that Brian isn't completely happy with what he does. I feel sorry for Brian here, he wants to teach PE to A-Level and Clare just laughs at him. Plus he's the only one of the gang that knows all his pupils, he obviously pays attention to everyone, not just the ones he likes and the trouble makers like plenty of teachers. It doesn't make any difference though, because no one talks to him the whole parents evening, and he just sits there, all dressed up, briefcase on table, utterly rejected. How did none of the students not see him and feel sorry for him? How did none of the parents? I'd have gone to see him, and I hated PE. Then again, if I'd have had Brian teaching me, maybe the class would have been a bit better! I'd say this episode is a definite improvement on last week's there's a hint that it might not be all about Simon whinging and whining. Kurt, Brian and Susan are beginning to take on something of a life of their own too. I think 7/10 is a reasonable score for this one. Review by Catherine O'Brien | ||