Manny Camacho reviews the fifth episode of Red Band Society…
If you haven’t followed this series as of yet, read my review of episode four, which was my first entry for Flickering Myth and contained a small breakdown for the show as a whole (at that time) and its marvelous premise. Red Band Society this week had a few moments that made me weep like a sad retriever who realized he accidentally squashed a lizard he was playing with. Followed by my weak attempt to conceal the fact this episode made me weep like the aforementioned pooch to the rest of my family.
Some of the readers across the pond in the UK may be thinking “…This soft and dapper idiot is possibly a nutter!” but I don’t care! I haven’t loved a series so intently in years. Especially one with such a powerful smorgasbord of messages for us to pleasingly feast on each week until a proverbial food coma hits us all. This week the series focus was mainly on two characters. Charlie and Astro. Which is good and fine as we’ve needed some background on both our young narrator and we’ve needed a better understanding of why Astro is in the hospital. With Charlie, in this episode, it was his impending transfer out of the hospital and with Astro we gained a clearer picture of his illness…Cystic Fibrosis. Astro gave a poignantly juvenile, if not direct and educating, minimalist explanation of his condition. “Yeah…so with me, my snot…it’s like, concrete, if it get stuck, I can’t breath. If my mucus don’t move I drown to death.”
Astro had an awkward quid pro quo set of bonding moments with Kara that came from all of this. Kara is still a girl who for all intent and purposes should be irritating this series’ audiences to no avail; but is so infectiously played by Zoe Levin, you can’t help but want to save her instead. She got to shine and be more accessible in this episode, even if it took some tough friendship on Astro’s part. Who seems to be able to deal with her abrasive attitude easily by maintaining a bluntly honest personality.
Astro needed to gain access to a specific building in the city and Kara wants more information about how to get on the donor list for a heart. Astro gained positive news about possibly being close to getting a donated set of lungs. News which prompted Kara to immediately begin probing him for. Information he didn’t give up easily. Having Kara to do him a favor, in exchange for his help. Because of this favor the episode shows a different side to Astro that also punctuates a set of behaviors and sheds perspective on something we’d otherwise dismiss as delinquent. It also provided the setup for a beautiful moment at the end of the episode.
For Charlie, a clear flashback was used to sequence the events that brought him to his current comatose state. This plucky character who narrates the varietal situations at this hospital in each episode was brought to this situation because of a very stupid mistake made by his father. A mistake that also underlined a larger set of issues with himself and Charlies mother. During the flashback the issues between Charlies parents are gleaned from the few moments they’re both together on camera. More immediately we’re aware of them when Charlies father was not being allowed to visit his son by nurse Jackson. Jackson’s connection to the child and her attempt to aide both parents ends up resulting in decisions made that could cause the loss of her job down the road.
Episode 5 of Red Band Society didn’t leave the growing love triangle between Jordi, Emma and Leo behind either. While this aspect of the story was secondary, coming out of its primary focus from the previous episode. It culminated into a full out cold war over this young teen with the proverbial shots fired by Leo in a moment of heated declarations between himself and Emma. While this aspect is resoundingly juvenile for the adult viewers of this series, it is appropriately right at home for any of the young adults watching. With just the right amount of angst, exasperation, finality and climax.
The preview of the next episode gives us glimpses of this cold war bubbling over into an all out brawl between both young men presumably trying to force a decision in either of their directions.
The series continues to deliver on virtually all markers of what a solid dramedy could be. With wise understated and contextual teenage issues packed in with powerful social conflicts that most adults would struggle to deal with and is heavily peppered with light-hearted humor and human moments. For a series that dances around the topic and possibility of children confronting their own potential demises along side their emotional turmoils and life victories –It is exceptionally funny and touching.
This episode has a resounding 5 out of 5 ★★★★★
Manny Camacho is a Miami, Florida based award winning writer and independent film producer whose current novel, I Think? No, I’m Sure…God Hates Me, is currently sold out of its first printing but will be available again on Amazon soon.
Follow him on @EmanuelFCamacho and on Facebook
Originally published October 17, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
