Tony (17 Jan. 2011)

Tony has decided that it's time Stanley lose his virginity... to Caddie despite Stanley's feelings for Michelle. All that's required is some spliff. While Stanley acquires the drugs, Tony and his girlfriend Michelle find a party to crash.

Director:

Scott Smith

Writers:

Bryan Elsley, Bryan Elsley (creator),

Stars:

Rachel Thevenard, James Newman, Daniel Flaherty

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Rachel Thevenard	...	Michelle Richardson
James Newman	...	Tony Snyder
Daniel Flaherty	...	Stanley Lucerne
Ron Mustafa	...	Abbud Siddiqui (as Ron Mustafaa)
Sofia Black-D'Elia	...	Tea Marvelli
Camille Cresencia-Mills	...	Daisy Valero
Jesse Carere	...	Chris Collins
Britne Oldford	...	Cadie Campbell
Eleanor Zichy	...	Eura Snyder
Sabrina Grdevich	...	Renée Snyder
John Robinson	...	Jimmy Snyder
Katie Henney	...	Tabitha
Anastasia Phillips	...	Tina Nolan
Greg Ellwand	...	Mad Mao Le Dong
Tenika Davis	...	Jamazia

Storyline

Tony is focusing on making Stanley lose his virginity to Caddie, despite the fact that Stanley, in reality, likes Tony's girlfriend, Michelle. Stanley buys some marijuana to help him sleep with Caddie something that leads to much more trouble than planned. When Tea, Chris, Abbud and Daisy crash the party where Michelle, Tony, Caddie and Stanley were already attending, things quickly get out of hand and Caddie overdoses on pills. The gang rushes her to a hospital in a stolen car only to find out that Caddie is fine in the end. The stolen car, along with the weeds, ends up sinking in a lake due to an honest mistake and after a long and eventful day they all go back home.

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Plot Keywords:

virginity | party | hospital | marijuana | punched in the face | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

494 Markham Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Entertainment One

Technical Specs

Runtime:

42 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tony insists on calling Michelle "Nips" during this episode. It's intended to be a double entendre and to suggest that her areolas are in some way off or humorous thereby putting her down twice with a single insult. In the British, the joke is funnier. The traditional British sobriquet "His Nibs" refers to a self-important person or someone who, quite literally puts themselves forward.

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Connections

References Gossip Girl (2007)

User Reviews

Poor start for an American remake of a UK phenom

The original UK series was brilliant but it's American appeal was somewhat limited by the cultural differences. In the parochial, provincial, pedestrian, U.S. of A. it was felt that some translation would allow for a wider appeal. That may be so but we're off to poor start.

One cannot expect an opening scene as iconic as the UK original (a slow pan back from Tony's face revealing his sexy unique bedspread while wordlessly revealing a bit of his enigmatic character) but the U.S. scene is just boring.

The leads in the UK series were brilliant and their U.S. equivalents seem to be inferior copies so far but things may change.

Enough of the original brilliance shines through that I'm willing to give it a few more episodes before I pull the plug.

It's mostly the unrealistic nature of the supporting characters (or more rightly caricatures) that I found so annoying in the first episode. It may well be that their UK doppelgangers were JUST as artificial but my American roots may have missed the nuances.

After initially posting my review , I decided to go back and view the UK and the US versions side by side to see why one was so entertaining and one was so disappointing.

As I said, it starts with the opening scene. James Newman just isn't as pretty as Nicholas Hoult. He doesn't suggest the innocence one would expect to see on the face of an angel, even a fallen one like the original. Also the "naked duo duvet" with Nicholas' face half way between the bodies of the man and the woman in the UK opening sequence was just untoppable. By comparison the spider print is just boring.

Plus there's poor editing in showing Tony's sister in the street outside too early in the sequence. It diverts our attention from making a connection with Tony. That's further hindered by Tony's practicing martial arts... again, not the most innocence evoking images.

My next beef with the American version is that the minor supporting characters come off more as caricatures than in the UK version where they were still comic characters but just not so abysmally over the top.

Next, the gender swapping of Maxxie for Tea may be necessary to cater to American tastes but it robs the idea that the Chris and Abbud are joining the gay character for a night at a gay bar of the sweetness of being supportive friends. The U.S. guys are reduced to just being lechers.

As to the other main characters, there were numerous points where the Amercian version just seemed harder and more self-assured than their Brit counterparts. That makes them just that much harder to empathize with.

Also its the minor things. In the UK version after joining the rich kids party Tony and Michelle dance together. The costumes that they wear are coordinated, until they start dancing, that's not so apparent and its a nice moment. No such moment exists in the U.S. version.

Even the camera angles weren't as artistic. The scene with Cassie being dragged off the trampoline was more evocative than the US equivalent with Cadie.