This episode, “Stand Alone By Me,” was sprinkled with amber-filtered flashbacks of the Knights Ridge guys as ten year olds, when they were all crushing on the same awesome girl, Angela Ferrili. In the present they learn that adult Angela just died in a car accident, and her death forces them to reevaluate their own troubled relationships with the women in their lives. Chicks, man. What’re you gonna do?
As you can tell by the title of the episode, this particular October Road was borrowing heavily from the childhood quest vibe of the movie Stand By Me. The golden, nostalgic flashback sequences were a little cloying for my tastes, but they were interesting. We got to see how the childhood interpersonal dynamic between Nick, Eddie, Physical Phil, Owen, and evil bully Ray inform their adult relationships. It was nice to get a little more back-story.
The best part about October Road for me is the relationship between neurotic Physical Phil and Pizza Girl. They have a sweet, eccentric love thing going on and seemed destined to be together. Their scenes together are always well written and acted. In lesser hands they could easily become the annoying comic-relief couple, but they always strike the right tone.
Plus, I love Pizza Girl and her kooky hair. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Pizza Girl? She would be the best girlfriend ever.
My one complaint about October Road is that each episode is carpeted in wall-to-wall music. Not just strings plucking away on the score in the background, we’re talking full-on songs here. It’s rare that a scene passes on the show without some sort of musical accompaniment. Don’t get me wrong, the music they use isn’t bad, and they often choose songs that musically comment on whatever’s going on in the episode - it’s just that there’s so much of it. I’d like to see more dramatic scenes on October Road that rely on acting and smart dialogue to establish a mood instead of music. Just my two cents.
There was a great moment (musically accompanied, natch) on this week’s episode involving Physical Phil, who can’t attend Angela’s funeral with the other guys because he has issues with leaving the house that go beyond “I can’t find anything to wear.” Phil was sitting in the dark, thinking about Angela because the music told us so, when a butterfly fluttered in through an open window. Phil watches the butterfly alight briefly and then silently fly back out the window – or at least I think it was silent; I couldn’t tell because of the music.
Anyway, it was a nice little way of showing Phil becoming at peace with the memory of this girl that had such a big impact on his life. I’m glad they threw the butterfly in there.
-- Dave Campbell
