Seven the Hard Way is a perfect example of what I liked, and disliked about the last two seasons.
The comedy was great, the very forced drama was not so great.
The writers must have been watching a lot of Dawson's Creek at the time.
I didn't like how outrageous some of it was (the bear in the classroom, for example), but I liked towards the end when Shawn was explaining how they were all linked (Shawn is Jack's brother, Angela's boyfriend, and Cory's best friend; Cory is married to Topanga and Eric's brother; Topanga is best friends with Angela and Cory's wife, Eric is best friends with Jack and Cory's brother) and then Rachel points out that she doesn't fit in. Of course, they ruin it by not letting her walk out and then all going out to grab a pizza just the six of them.
shareIt was pretty outrageous, but I was still amused. I do find it funny that in an episode about friendship, everyone seems to be cool with the attempted murder bear prank.
The whole second half of the episode was just so silly to me though.
"Cory goes to Shawn instead of me.
"We don't fit into your friendship."
"Everyone has a place here but me." And on and on and on. It was so forced. The characters seemed to regress emotionally in the last two years of the series. I still like episodes from those two seasons, but man, the drama sure put a damper on them.
Good point - Rachel is the victim of embarrassment (and yes, I would have been upset too if that moment were a standalone incident) but c'mon! IT WAS A BEAR! That's a physically dangerous situation! Now I always thought the bear scene was funny at the time I was watching, but in hindsight, that was really really extreme of them. Certainly the retaliation prank was much more comparable than what they all let on.
The drama did become a bit much, and Rachel was the real wet blanket in this episode. I've said it before and I'll sat it again: Cory and Topanga had Rachel in their wedding!! How can you feel like they don't care when they put you up front for one of the biggest moments of their whole lives?? She seemed like a spoiled whiner to me in Seven The Hard Way, and I've never really cared for her much.
Absolutely agree.
I liked Rachel, but she was always my least favorite. Rachel never really had a purpose in the series, and to a lesser extent, I think the writers stuggled with Jack as well. It seemed that whenever writers struggled with lack of ideas, they would just add more people, without knowing what to do with them after their original storyline.