Review: Clone High “Some Talking but Mostly Songs/Saved by the Knoll”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Some Talking but Mostly Songs

Hoping to land a role on the hit show “Tropical Hospital”, Harriet stages her new musical but must contend with Joan’s creative meddling.

Saved by the Knoll

When a fire threatens to shut down the Grassy Knoll, a desperate Abe spearheads a campaign to rebuild the town’s beloved greasy diner — and save Joan.

Our Take:

Musicals and nostalgia are the topics for this week’s episodes of Clone High. Of course, as always, there’s bound to be more teenage drama amid its scenarios. I mean, it can’t be any worse than having panic attacks during “Pre-Midterms”, right? Well, you might not be surprised with the answer. 

The first episode sees Harriet attempting to get the role of a lifetime. But, of course, the only thing standing between her and her dream is the power of “creative differences”. When an agent from the soap opera series “Tropical Hospital” is looking for fresh talent in Exclamation, USA, Harriet looks to earn that spot by putting on her dream production called “Twister: The Game: The Musical”. Harriet attempts to provide a fun musical for her audience. However, Joan’s creative “ideas” threaten to ruin Harriet’s chance at fulfilling her Hollywood dream. During that time, we see Confucious, Cleo, and the others attempt to perfect their dance routine for the musical by stealing Abe’s “white guy confidence”. By that, I mean drinking his sweat, which is more gross than it sounds.

“Some Talking but Mostly Songs” shows that the second season continues to go downhill regarding the narratives, but only slightly. The episode is a by-the-numbers narrative involving two best friends fighting over their creative differences but eventually making up after understanding their intentions. Joan believes Harriet was also trying to provide a stellar production amid its dumb concept. But thanks to the quiche metaphor, Joan realizes that Harriet was only delivering what the audience wants, and Joan was only getting in her way.  

So Joan stages Harriet’s musical on top of the Grassy Knoll and gives Harriet her role because…well, Joan can’t act to save her life. Unfortunately, that wound up being Joan’s big mistake, as Harriet and JFK are now secretly affectionate toward each other when they kiss on stage. But on the bright side, this might give Abe a chance to win over Joan. While predictable, the episode offers some decent humor, including the musical format and Steve Kerr, to make this production a modest hit. 

The second episode continues where the previous one left off, with the Grassy Knoll being set ablaze from Harriet’s production. To avoid the diner being sold off and bulldozed, Joan sets out to get people on board to rebuild the Grassy Knoll. The problem, however, is that no one wants to help out because the diner wasn’t precisely a high-quality restaurant. To them, it’s a worn-out building with coffee that tastes like mopped water, but to Joan, it’s a piece of nostalgia filled with pleasant memories. Unfortunately, Joan’s obsession with nostalgia caused her to be diagnosed with a life-threatening sickness known as “Silly Legs”. This resulted in Abe helping Joan campaign to save the Grassy Knoll. But, of course, the Grassy Knoll isn’t the only thing making Joan’s condition worse.

“Saved by the Knoll” is a slight improvement over the previous episode, mainly due to its comical approach to the subject matter. It redefines the concept of toxic nostalgia with the parodic version of the “life-threatening disease” trope. Any hint of nostalgia causes Joan to tap dance her pants off like Mumble from Happy Feet, which could lead her to death. That includes the Grassy Knoll and her memories with her friends. The only cure for the disease is accepting the changes in life, affecting some of her friends, including Abe, who kept the kiss between Harriet and JFK a secret from Joan to avoid worsening her condition. Because of this, Joan is forced to end her friendship with Abe, thus ruining Abe’s chances of winning Joan’s heart again. Teenagers, am I right?

Overall, both episodes are entertaining enough to bypass the narrative flaws. “Some Talking but Mostly Songs” is a fundamental and predictable episode with Harriet and Joan fighting over creative differences. However, “Saved by the Knoll” improved over that episode with the series’s usual approach of parodying one of the tropes from the cheesy teen dramas. With half of the season done already, it’s safe to say that the revival continues to hang on despite having a slight decrease in quality. We only have four more episodes of the season left to see if it can maintain its grades long enough to graduate, so we shall see if it can fulfill that potential.