MovieChat Forums > Party of Five (1994) Discussion > Season 5

Season 5

posted 14 years ago by prairiedances
10 replies | jump to latest

I've been re watching the whole series since I got the first 3 dvd sets last Christmas. I'm up to season 5 and wow did the quality drop. I loved the first four seasons but I'm finding it hard to get through this season-I'm on episode 5. Charlie and Claudia were my favorite characters but Charlie keeps going on and on about his damn baby with Daphne and Claudia's at boarding school. The whole family hasn't had a scene together since Charlie went into remission. Does it get better? Just curious as to what others think about this season.

[–] felbertmindfoto 14 years ago

Not sure how to approach it. It depends on what you want to be "better". Since I love everything about the series from beginning to end, my view won't really help you too much. All I can say is that they're growing up and people change and move on in time. Yeah, Claudia grows up and she has some problems there. Julia faces a nightmare about relationships. Charlie and Daphne face problems of their own. Bailey and Charlie face family turmoil. In the long run the family is able to remain a family as they begin to separate into their own lives. Season six becomes a little weaker as well, Sarah goes in search of her father, but the series finale is beautiful. The main thing is they couldn't keep writing this family heartache year after year without repercussions. It was a nighttime soap but they managed to keep it from dissipating into chaos or constant nightmare.

[–] prairiedances 14 years ago

Thanks for the response :). By better I just mean do they focus more on the characters as a family again or is it just separate story lines from here on out? I remember bits of season 6 from when it originally aired and I remember liking how it all turned out. However, I didn't watch season 5 at all the first time around. Just a bit disappointed on how season 5 is turning out so far. All the characters are so unlikable- except Sarah oddly enough (I hated her character the first time).

[–] felbertmindfoto 14 years ago

I love all the characters, so I'm not really of any assistance. I loved the characterizations they gave the cast and even in the final two seasons I felt like they were good people just trying to get by. All the individual storylines involving each of the Salingers were more of the theme to me, than it was on family. Yeah, it all came down to staying together in the early years but they're growing up in those last seasons and (just as Charlie wanted to do in the beginning - move out) they all have their own lives to live soon. I placed the spoilers above and those all concern each of the individual Salingers on their own as they did in the past. The Julia arc is the most disturbing (which does involve more family) and later Claudia deals with a rather bad situation as well. You may recall that Sarah (Hewitt) got her own spinoff series (Time of Your Life) and she left during the first few episodes of season six and Sarah's fate is both happy and sad. Time of Your Life was canceled before they could finish airing all the episodes but in other countries they ran all nineteen episodes and Sarah's search for her father was completed.

[–] o1977jp 14 years ago

I know exactly what the OP is talking about. Season 5 was by far the worst season. They introduced a bunch of new characters, none of which were really interesting, and there were whole scenes that didn't include any of the Salingers (I would think most fans would want to see at least one of the Salingers in every scene). Season 6 got the show back on track and gave the series a good ending, but Season 5 was definitely lacking.

[–] prairiedances 14 years ago

O1977jp, Thanks. I was beginning to think it was just me. I think season 5 is where I stopped watching the first time as well. Glad to know it gets back on track. What do you think of the Charlie/Daphne storyline?

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] mancityjinx 11 years ago

Season 5 sucked and made Julia (my past fave character), a totally unlikable person. Scott Bairstow, was possibly, the worst guest star/character to ever come on screen during its six year run. My issue isn't her staying with an abusive person, it happens (although that pissed me off), but the fact that she so blatantly cheated with her new friend's boyfriend and was a total jerk to Griffin. I don't think that was true to the Julia's character and it really disappointed me. Also, why in god's name would anyone choose Ned over the Josh character, who was totally yummy AND Julia's type? Scott Bairstow always creeped me out. He turned my stomach whenever he was on screen with Julia. Blech.

[–] ricky_says_hi 11 years ago

Not true to Julia's character? Half her relationships start with her stealing the guy from someone else. I didn't like season 5 too much either but I did like Claudia's character arc

I'm gonna die of long hair!

[–] toulidengal 10 years ago

I think Julia was awful throughout the series, so I personally wouldn't blame S5 on her. I tried not to judge her throughout the abuse because I've never been in that position and I don't know what character an abused person "should" have tbh. My issue with Julia that season definitely stems from her stealing her new friend's boyfriend. The sad part is, it was TOTALLY in character. I wasn't even shocked.
But because I had already hated Julia from the previous seasons, I just didn't care for her storyline. The most exciting part of her storyline that season was when Charlie and Bailey came to her apartment trying to get her to come home.

Season 5 was okay. There was the abuse, the custody battle and Daphne and the baby. It wasn`t the best, but it did get more interesting toward the end of it.

After finishing up the final episode, I realized that Charlie was right with the custody battle. Bailey had his heart in the right place, but he was definitely too young to know what he really wanted.

[–] willywonka35 9 years ago

Season 5 is definitely its low point and they are lucky it wasn't canceled. The ratings dropped and it never recovered. Season 6 is basically the show running in place and then wrapping it all up in the last couple episodes.

This show was great the first few seasons but they started running out of great stories to tell.