Mike K reviews Heart on a Chain

[froodle]

This seems to be one that stands out in a lot of people’s memories, and I can see why - it’s still in keeping with the supernatural theme and overall tone of the series, but it’s the first episode to go for drama rather than horror-comedy, as well as the first one to have a romantic element that’s taken remotely seriously.

There’s a new girl in town named Melanie with a heart problem, and Marshall and newly-introduced rebellious thrill-seeker Devon both instantly fall in love with her. When Devon dies in an accident after recklessly skateboarding in the street, she gets a heart transplant from him, and mysteriously starts picking up his habits and fashion sense, as well as having mysterious heart palpitations whenever she starts getting romantic with anyone else. Unusually for this show, aside from one shot at the end, it’s kept fairly ambiguous as to whether this is actually supernatural or not - it could be that his spirit lives on inside her, but it could just be that she’s acting this way because she feels guilty and is also trying to keep part of him in her life any way she can. For having to wrap things up in half an hour, I think the show’s first “serious” plotline is handled pretty well - I wouldn’t want all of the show to be like this, but it’s an interesting exploration of other things that can be done with the setting and characters.

Side notes:

Either this was the first episode to actually use commercial bumpers, or just the first one where netflix preserved them. Regardless, they’re cute, but sort of clash with this particular episode.

We’ve seen Elvis before, and he’s in the credits, but this is the first time he’s had much of anything to do. I kinda like him in the “quirky adult mentor” role.

I love that we get a brief, out-of-nowhere The Fly homage during a transition shot, and that the grim reaper could be seen hanging around in the background during the final cemetery scene.