TV on DVD Buzz

This week’s TV on DVD Season I am going through and doing wrap ups of is the four disc The Best Years Season 1 set, as sort of a countdown to the premiere of the second season on The N on Friday, April 3, 2009. I will be posting about one disc each day until this Thursday. Today’s wrap up is of disc 1.

“Vertigo” - This episode begins with a girl narrating that the ticking represents her past 10 years in foster homes and is now a countdown to her life now being up to her. She runs down a sidewalk to catch a bus going to Charles University in Boston. When she gets off the bus Samantha is greeted by the dean of admissions. The dean shows her to her room in McDonald Hall and she learns that she has to get a meal plan to stay, which costs $4,000 and her academic scholarship only covers tuition. Samantha meets Devon, a star basketball player, when he runs into her while riding his skateboard. She meets Devon again in the co-ed showers, which she did not realize they were until this awkward encounter. Samantha then finally meets her roommate, Kathryn. Dawn Vargas, a former child star, also lives in their dorm. Samantha has a hard time telling the truth of her background even to her roommate. She eventually tells her roommate that her parents are dead and she does not have anyone to call to work things out. Kathryn ends up lending her her meal plan. Together they go clubbing and end up meeting Devon there, who has a crush on Samantha. They get turned away from the club due to fake ids and end up getting liquor and end up back at the dorm wasted and drinking on the dorm roof. While drinking on the roof one of their friends, John the football player, falls off the roof. They end up arguing over what to do about the incident to keep themselves from getting in trouble even though it was an accident. They end up just leaving the scene and letting it be assumed that he jumped from the roof. Samantha ends up coming forward about what happened that night to the dean. She is told the review of the incident will likely lead to loss of scholarship and even being expelled. Crying in the bathroom she runs into Dawn and they become friends. It kind of seems like she will be expelled, but then I never really believed she would, as then there would be no point of the series. Now that she is friends with Dawn they easily get into Colony, the club they were turned away at before. She does not go with her roommate, though, as they are kind of fighting over the incident with John, and instead she begins her friendship with another woman in their dorm. Samantha does not end up even losing her scholarship because the woman that donates the university that included funding Samantha’s scholarship says she will pull all her funding of the university if charges are brought against Samantha.

“Notorious” - The episode begins with Samantha still thinking she is going to get expelled. She ends up talking to the scholarship awarder and that for now she can stay, but she will not be bailed out again. Kathryn no longer helps Samantha with the Meal Plan and Samantha gets to trying to find a job. Devon gets a new roommate, who is a little awkward about taking the bed of a dead guy. Samantha goes to the Colony and gets a job working there. Dawn is a little disgusted at what her Acting 101 class is and thinks she already knows it all. Samantha begins her business class. Most of Samantha’s dorm floor ends up hating her because the resident adviser cracks down on loud noise because Samantha was complaining about Kathryn waking her up. Samantha ends up purple when she takes a shower as a prank by Kathryn. Dawn ends up auditioning for the school’s Macbeth play even though first years are not suppose to audition and actually impresses even the skeptical Acting 101 professor. Samantha’s business professor is not impressed with her and thinks she is slowing the class down. He has her come up with 10 reasons why she should stay. With the stress of being purple and almost getting kicked out yet again she ends up fighting with Devon. The RA asks Samantha to be assistant RA while he goes to see his girlfriend. She ends up letting their floor have a floor party. Dawn ends up getting the role of Lady Macbeth. At first no one shows up for the dorm floor party, but Devon brings a bunch of people to the party after watching Kathryn gossip falsely about Samantha at the Colony. It seems that Dawn was given the role more for the fact that she is well known from being on television and not based on her acting skills. The RA breaks up the party and she thinks she is out of the dorms, as she takes the blame, but they end up thinking she is taking the blame for Devon throwing the party. This really annoys Kathryn because she was the one who called the RA to tell him that Samantha was throwing the party. After the party incident Devon and Samantha become friends again. In the end Dawn realizes that the professor really does think she is the best for the role and Samantha convinces her professor to let her stay in the class.

“It Should Happen To You” - Roommate fighting between Kathryn and Samantha continues with them throwing each others stuff. It is club week. Samantha and Kathryn rush for the same sorority. Samantha gets somewhat of a hard time for being from a public school. It turns out that her scholarship sponsor belongs to the sorority, but she thinks Samantha can get in on her own merit. Kathryn sees that Samantha got along well in the sorority crowd and asks for her help in getting in. Samantha agrees to help if Kathryn stops making her life a living hell. It turns out that the sorority only has one open spot and the two have to compete for the spot, but only Samantha got that tip. Samantha and Devon begin to date in this episode. Samantha pawns her ring from her mom in order to get a dress for the sorority mixer to secure her a spot in the sorority. In this episode it is revealed her mom died from cancer and her dad died stealing due to the poverty they ended up in with the medical bills. Kathryn ends up being picked for the sorority. When Samantha goes to buy her ring back someone else had already bought it. It turns out her co-worker at the Colony got it back for her. In the end Devon and Samantha break up before they really even began to have a relationship.

“From Here to Eternity” - Samantha’s business professor must cut four from the class and he decides to do it by which two teams of two do the worst at marketing and selling calenders with Devon, the star basketball player, on them. Samantha does not want to resort to asking Devon to endorse her team to help sell the calenders, but she ends up realizing that might be the best option. She chickens out on asking him, but then they come up with the marketing idea to raffle off a date with Devon based on how many calenders people buy. Devon’s girlfriend, Shannon, ends up getting jealous and their plan begins to fall apart. Devon decides to not back out and ends up losing his girlfriend. Samantha begins crushing on Devon’s roommate, Noah who is also her partner in the business class project, but as soon as they kiss they realize it is not the right match. Samantha ends up staying in the class by selling the most and being the best marketing campaign in the class. In the end Devon and Samantha kiss and they end up back together.