7th Heaven

Let me just start off by saying that I have loved 7th Heaven from the very beginning. Seasons 1-5 (the years with all the original Camdens) are probably the very best, and I remember losing a lot of interest once Season 6 began, but I will continue to watch until the end. Those who have loyally followed this show are invested in the characters, so it would be pretty hard to tune out now. Still, after watching last night's silly and completely pointless episode, I have to wonder why they even bother to keep it on the air now. I am not exaggerating when I say that they have absolutely no valid plot material to work with. You know there's a problem when after raising seven children and having five of them gone and out of the house, Eric and Annie have nothing better to do than to obsess over a break-up text message that was sent by their 17-year-old daughter's boyfriend. Think about it: that's truly all that Eric and Annie did for the 60-minute duration of this episode. They argued about how to handle Ruthie's "break-up," Annie criticized Eric for giving T-Bone "permission" to do it, and Mac (who sent the text message in the first place) wreaked havoc among all the characters in the episode by sending the message to each of their cell phones. Yep, that's right, everyone received the message except Ruthie: Eric, Annie, Kevin, Lucy, Jane, Margaret, Sandy, everyone. I suppose wacky storylines like this have become a trademark flair of 7th Heaven, so viewers have basically come to expect it, but to me, it's too ridiculous and insane to even generate a good laugh.



I have to say, however, that if Kevin and Lucy moved to this Crossroads area, that would be something fairly interesting to end the series. Kevin is thrilled about the idea and ready to go immediately, but Lucy--who wants more children and isn't so sure about raising them in the middle of nowhere and away from the family--proves to be a tougher sell in the situation. Come on, folks, think long and hard about this one. She's been married for three years, has a 2-year-old daughter, and she is still practically living with Mom and Dad. If marrying and having her own family hasn't prompted this girl to get out and live her own life, it's quite possible that nothing will. That's one thing that I don't really like about the show right now; Lucy and Ruthie have been portrayed as spoiled, overindulged kids who have no concept of what real life is. All right, so maybe it's not exactly fair to say that about Lucy--at least she has her own family and a career--but at 17, Ruthie has never had a part-time job, and Mom bakes her a chocolate cake just because she spent a few days "looking" around for one? Please. I guess you'd have to figure that the one job she'd pick was at the nearby movie theater, where she could be right at her boyfriend's side. Ruthie ended this episode with a twinge of maturity, providing some hope for her character, but really, if you know Ruthie Camden, you know she's not going to stay that way for long. Once she and Martin start spending more time together in future episodes, the good old bratty, annoying Ruthie will be back in top form--just as the moody, emotional Lucy will return once the events of the next few episodes unfold. I can hardly wait. ;)



Overall, I still tune in every Sunday night to catch new episodes, and I will continue to do so, but at this point, I think it will be a miracle if they can come up with something halfway original for the finale (which is only 2 episodes away). At least with last season's finale, they had a little bit of an edge and had a chance to bow out with some dignity, but right now, I'm not so sure if they can repeat that a second time. Judging from next week's episode previews, the prospects don't look so great.

T-Bone wants to break up with Ruthie. Mac sends a text message on T-Bone's phone to Ruthie and everyone on T-Bone's phone list that he's breaking up with her. Ruthie gets a job at the theater. Ruthie understands about wanting to break up. Jane and Martin have a phone date, which doesn't go too well. Mac turns in Margaret's paper. They both say that they like each other. Annie is upset that Eric meddled with T-Bone and Ruthie. Lucy and Kevin decide to go to Crossroads. Captain Michaels is being named Chief of Police.



This was a pretty good episode. It was awesome seeing Cpt. Michaels again! He is a great character! I'm glad that T-Bone and Ruthie broke up. I was glad with Mac and Margaret getting together, but now she broke up with him. I hate Martin. He's a total jerk! I couldn't believe the things he said when on the phone with Jane. I want Kevin and Lucy to go to Crossroads. That would be cool. This episode gets a 9.5 out of 10!

7th Heaven was ending by this time, and the show had been on a pretty nice role with the last few episodes. Things were looking up for the show(except a renewal), and the few episodes before this one started to feel like the old 7th Heaven again. Then, the the roll stopped when the show hit a complete dead end with this episode and the one following it, although that one was slightly better. I don't know about any of you, but episodes of 7th Heaven that focus heavily on non-Camden members, regardless of if some Camden members appear or figure into one of the storylines, are rarely any good. They are usually duds. This one is a major dud. The fact that Ruthie factors into one part of it pretty heavily(that in itself isn't exactly a plus since she is a pretty unlikeable character), as does the Lucy/Kevin/Crossroads scenario, doesn't help. Although the latter was the only watchable aspect of this particular episode. I know 7th has to keep things going and keep things fresh, and that they have to bring in new people to fill the spots left by former Camdens, but they could at least fill these spots with new characters that people will actually like and care for. The last one to do that was Robbie!. I guess another reason that this episode had me reeling was because it was so close to the end. This is the kind of episode we get with so precious few left?. Maybe it's good that 7th left when it did. Had it gone on longer, more family members may of left and new ones brought in. By that time, they would have to change the title of the show to "Used To Be 7th Heaven". Does anyone really want an entire episode leaning heavily on T-Bone, Mac, Margaret, and the other non Camdens?. Were you as earth shatteringly bored as I was?. Okay, let's dive in shall we?. Slow going in Glen Oak this week....



In a storyline that may of been okay if it had been done differently but eventually veered off into something ludicrous, T-Bone is contemplating breaking things off with Ruthie. Already uninteresting there. T-Bone is telling his feelings about all this to Mac. And, Mac being Mac, he does something stupid. How can anybody really stand this guy?. I have always found him annoying. Mac takes T-Bone phone and text messages a message to Ruthie saying that he(as T-Bone) is breaking up with her. First of all, that alone was pretty shallow and crappy. If this is how Mac goes about doing things, then it is no wonder he is never with anybody. Unfortunatley, the bad news doesn't stop there. Mac accidentally sends it to everyone. That's right. Everyone, including Eric, gets the message. Now, this is where things just get too ridiculous. I don't know about you, but a text message with somebody breaking it off with somebody else wound't completely grab hold of my attention the way it does everybody else. Everyone has their thoughts and opinion on the matter, and Eric does what he does. Back in the old days, this wacky situation may of been fun and tolerable and cute, but now, after all these years, it isn't working. These people have got to be more preoccupied with things than a text message between two teenagers breaking up. And with Eric and the church and all of his duties, surely he must have more to do in his life than this text message?. I am not crazy about T-Bone, but I prefer him and Ruthie together over her and Martin any day of the week. If I had my way, there would be no boyfriend at all. Ruthie needs something different for a storyline. Sadly, they never really did. Even sadder, they made the character into such an annoying brat, you could care less what they did with her. She became so unlikeable. In the end, a mediocre storyline made pretty cheesy and silly.



If all this Mac wasn't already enough(and it was plenty), we are treated with him having his own storyline. He and Margaret have bonded and gotten closer, and she gets her feathers ruffled when he uses one of her school papers and passes it off as one of his own. Wow, how can this guy still be single?!. Margaret is the only non Camden/new character I like. She's nice, kooky, and funny. I don't mind some attention focused on her, but not in an already heavily filled episode with new people or non Camdens. This side storyline is nothing but filler in an episode already filled with it.



The only redeemable and somewhat interesting aspect of this episode deals with Lucy, Kevin, and their decision to move to Crossroads or not. Personally, I like this storyline. I don't know if I would of liked it as an actual series, since it seemed they were setting it up as a spin-off, but I liked it here. The Crossroads theme would get mighty boring after a while, but the setting was different, mildly kooky, and somewhat fresh. It would of been nice to see them finally do something with Kevin, since his Mr. Mom schtick was going nowhere and doing nothing. But, thanks to the open ended series finale, we may never know what the two decided on. Thanks again, Brenda.



The rest of the episode had something to do with Martin and Sandy and Martin having lied to Sandy about not being able to watch baby Aaron and whatnot. Just more nothing. Martin has become like Ruthie. The writers have turned him into a really unlikeable character. I never cared much for the character in the first place, but he was a pretty good kid and decently likeable. However, he's been a pretty unlikeable jerk these past 2 seasons. I'm glad Ruthie rejected him.



And so, this episode was a complete waste of an hour. It was mostly filled with uninteresting, unimportant characters dealing with mostly uninteresting, unimportant issues. It was almost unbearabley boring to watch. It may seem I am too harsh, but I am always going to be fair and truthful. I love 7th Heaven, but it can have some pretty miserable episodes, and this one was. With the exception of the Lucy/Kevin part, watching a show with an hour filled with Mac, T-Bone, Margaret, Martin, Sandy, and Jane, isn't exactly a good time. Get it back on track 7th. The end is almost near after this one.

The worst part of this episode had to do with Martin. He lies to Sandy about having a baseball game to stay home, relax, have "phone-dates" with Jane, and watch something on televison, and to get out of watching his son; which is mean, kinda dumb, selfish, rude, rude, and did I mention rude? Something tells me I did... Anyway, that seemed to be the only bad part. Good parts... One was when Sandy finally yelled at Martin for being an idiot. Oh, wait, no T-Bone was the idiot... And apparantly, Aaron thought so too. I thought it was really cute when he was like, "Yeah" in this really cute and innocent voice as he agreed with T-Bone when he had said, "I'm an idiot." I liked that part. It was really cute. But, T-Bone is a bit of a dope, especially for breaking up with Ruthie through a text message that he let Mac send her. STUPID!!!!