Season Three: Exploring RIOT'S HOPE
OVERVIEW... Britrock website copyright EA Woolley
RIOT's HOPE
Riot's Hope is something of an anomalous episode in a lot of ways. I admit
it's about the only episode that I can stand him in - probably because we
are given such a detailed look into him and his past, entirely from his perspective.
There isn't a single other character in the show who we get such a detailed
backstory about in such a concise and thought out way - and that it should
occur for a character who in the final analysis only appeared in maybe eight
or nine episodes says something about the intentions the writing team had
for the Stingers in the series. It's interesting to note that this is essentially
the 'How The Stingers Formed' story - something we are never told about the
Misfits, even after two seasons of getting to know them!!
RIOT and HIS FAMILY
Though the episode is about the Stingers, they are almost an incidental
part of the bigger picture - the problem background Riot has and his relationships
with both his mother and his father. Riot's Dad is a military man who believes
in things his way or no way at all. He considers music "for women and sissies" and cannot accept Riot's desire to make it as a musician. Part of the problem
is obviously the weak Mildred Llewelyn, who loves her son and her husband
but doesn't know how to make them see eye to eye. Since it's Mildred who teaches
Riot the piano, we must assume that she has a keen interest in music and
that it was probably her he inherited his own love of it from. There's something
tragic in his recollection of his father's activities - the fact he smashed
Riot's guitar, which we later discovered was bought for him by his mother.
Riot's love for his Mom seems to be absolute, despite the fact his father
essentially has disowned him. When Mildred is in hospital, his mind is never
far from her, and at the end of the day, he is able to make peace with his
father for his mother's sake.
Strangely enough, when you look at Riot and his dysfunctional family background,
there are some spooky parallels here to the lead player in another Jem rival
group! Yes, I'm serious - Pizzazz! At first glance they seem to be totally
different characters, but they do have things in common. Firstly, Riot's desire
to prove himself as a success is derived largely from his father treating
him as if every decision he makes is a bad one. He brings the album home to
give to his mother as a gift, but also as evidence that he's made something
of his life and in search of pride and acceptance from his home. Pizzazz too
is seeking acceptance from her father, and attempts on several occasions to
get his attention by trying to correlate business and her musical interests.
Equally, both Riot and Pizzazz attempt to 'conform' somewhat to their father's
ideals - Riot joins the army because it's what he's expected to do, and Pizzazz
tries to manage a business deal with her father in Middle of Nowhere. Both
attempts end in failure and disappointment because the bottom line is neither
Pizzazz nor Riot are anything like their fathers, and subconsciously they
both feel it a a black mark against them in the world. Riot's preoccupation
with control and perfection is not really so very different from Pizzazz's
obsessive domination of the Misfits and frantic attempts to be the best in
the music world. You can't help but wonder, then, if they are such kindred
spirits, that this is part of the reason Pizzazz finds herself drawn to him!
Riot's family troubles have issues on several different levels. Since he's
spent his childhood being told that music is not for proper men, and is only
for women and sissies, it's important to take a look at Riot's concept of
his own identity. I'm not a fan of dumping sexual orientations on characters
who were written to be one way or another, but I think it's very possible
that Riot himself has doubts in that department. That's not to say that Riot
is or isn't homosexual. But being constantly barraged with insults, coupled
with his father's "blueprint" for being a "proper" man (including the armed
forces, which Riot was an abject failure in) must have made him wonder if
he was "a proper man". This might also easily explain his very public and
very superficial interest in Jem - a seemingly 'perfect' individual but more
significantly, one with no ties or background or real identity. Riot isn't
looking for a real woman, or a relationship with security and trust. He's
looking for someone he can use as a trophy piece, to front an image to the
world while he tries to figure things out in his own head. I don't know if
he is straight, gay, or bisexual. I don't think it matters whether he's any
of the three - it's Riot's own understanding of himself that is the key. He
does things on his terms and he has no real affection for Jem, until she is
his 'shoulder to cry on' - then, when she tries to be affectionate he pulls
back, probably because he feels he can no longer 'use' someone who's proven
themselves a good listener and a better friend in his time of need.
Despite his animosity towards his father, Riot is still very much connected
to him. Aside from trying to prove himself, the effect that the General's
dismissiveness has on him is absolute - and here is another parallel with
Pizzazz, as we see Riot in the middle of the Stingers' success party, alone,
isolated from the crowd, and struggling with his inner demons. This is so
eerily close to Pizzazz at the end of The Music Awards - apart from the party
atmosphere Jem and the Holograms are enjoying, alone and clutching a trophy
that suddenly has lost it's lustre. For both Riot and Pizzazz, success is
not enough on it's own. There is a bigger picture - proving to themselves
as much to the world their own self-worth.
Perhaps the most telling piece of evidence for the fact Riot and his father
have a bad relationship comes from Rapture's lips - "I didn't even know you
had a father!". That someone he works so closely with and has been through
so much with (see below) is unaware of his family back in America speaks volumes...perhaps
failure is too big a thing to confess to, or maybe the memory of it all is
just too painful.
THE STINGERS - A HISTORY
Yes, that is the other part of this episode - the Stingers. Not even Jem
and the Holograms really have a backstory quite like this one. Though we see
something of the background to the Holograms, we see it as it is happening,
whereas this episode trots back further into the past and links together Riot's
childhood with their eventual success in getting the club date in America
- tying it in nicely to the events in the Stingers Hit Town.
That Riot - an American citizen - should spend so much of his time in Europe
is an interesting concept. Though he hated his military training, it did,
in fact, provide him with his means to freedom - he was stationed in Germany,
an ocean away from home, and it is in Germany that he first encounters Minx
and her band 'Nirvana'. Aside from the obvious (and frequently mentioned)
predating of the famous group of the same name, I think Nirvana can also be
seen in another way. If we consider Riot's own words about the army - how
he hated it and couldn't see what his father thought was so great about it
- we can easily see that he considered this way of life his form of 'hell.'.
Then, out of the blue come the group "Nirvana" (meaning heaven, of course),
with his chance to escape and finally do with his life what he always wanted
to do. Despite the fact that joining Nirvana demanded him turning his back
on the military and therefore his father's high expectations, the call of
the music was just too much. We see the Stingers often as troublemakers who
are less interested in music and more interested in causing problems and mayhem.
This is not one of those times, however. Riot's devotion to his music is
so strong that he essentially chooses it over a relationship with his father,
and because of it loses everything he has.
It's not just a matter of music, though. Riot says himself that "This time
I was determined never again to let anyone else control my life" - neatly
explaining his own desire to be in charge of whatever is going on. And hence
the Stingers are born.
That Riot and Minx should have met in a group and adopted their relative
stage-names at this point contradicts Riot's own original explanation to Jem
in The Stingers Hit Town about how he and Minx met - in high school in Germany.
It seems possible that the reason behind that was simply he didn't want to
go into detail with Jem about how the Stingers began - or how he was discharged
from the army in disgrace because of his musical ambitions. And yet, I don't
think Jem would have been unimpressed by the truth. Of all the groups, it
has to be said that for determination, grit and hard work the Stingers win
hands down.
"Life was hard, and we were determined to make it" - Riot's own explanation
for why he, Minx and Rapture stuck together through cold winters, playing
on street corners to make money for food, and without any shelter. To have
such commitment to their music and to each other explains very well why they
are so closeknit, and therefore, why they are so successful at what they do.
And yet, even after all of this, we still don't know anything at all about
Rapture. It seems strange, really, that an episode which gives us Riot's life
story and a good insight into Minx pre-Stingers gives us absolutely no idea
why an American girl should be in Europe at the right time to hook up with
the Stingers, or why she should have met them at all. In the music video
for a Hard Hard Life we first see her playing a tambourine, and we see Riot
putting a coat around her shoulders as she shivers in the cold. Later, Rapture
is playing guitar, and you can only wonder if Riot taught her to do so. In
that case, then, is it possible that Rapture's joining of the group had nothing
to do with music at all? We will never know for sure, because Rapture's backstory
was never explained - and her reasons for aligning herself with a struggling
rock group remain in shadow.
JEM and POLITICS?
Considering the current political climate, I felt it topical as well as
interesting to mention the opening of the episode. We see Riot's father with
a newspaper, complaining "What a mess! We oughta send over the big guns and
clean up that place once and for all!"
The headline?
"Middle East Heats Up."
This episode aired at least two years before the first Gulf War broke out,
and considering the use also of "Nirvana", you really do have to wonder about
the prophetic qualities of this storyline ;) But considering current affairs,
the soldier's words ring eerily true even twenty years or so down the line.
JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS - STINGER RIVALS OR SOMETHING ELSE?
This honestly puzzles me. We believe after The Stingers Hit Town that Jem
and the Holograms are setting themselves up for a new rivalry with the Stingers.
And we feel the same rivalry at several points, albeit often one on one rivalry
(Jem/Rio/Riot, Minx/Jerrica/Rio, Rapture/anyone she feels like upsetting).
But in this episode it's not like that at all. Jem and the Holograms are invited
to the Stingers' success party and even though Shana says wryly that it's
probably to gloat, they still are going and are going in good humour. Would
they ever have gone to a Misfit bash? Perish the thought. So how deep is
this rivalry, then? Maybe the answer's in the coy blush Jem gives when Kimber
teases her about still liking Riot. At several points in this episode you
think Kimber probably has the nail hit right on the head - I suppose if Jem
was crushing on Pizzazz they'd have a different attitude towards the Misfits,
too!!
CONCLUSION
I'm not a big fan of the Stingers or Stinger episodes, but I do like the
flash-back nature of this one. It gives us a lot of information about a group
that, without this episode, we would really know next to nothing about. And
even though Rapture remains a mystery, the episode does contain one of the
best Stinger songs - A Hard Hard Life. It's also, memorably, perhaps the only
Jem episode NOT to feature a song with either Jem or any of the Holograms
performing in it!!
Just a pity, therefore, that the Holograms themselves are largely marginalised
to bit parts, and the Misfits are nonexistant!
Episode rating: 7/10.
Original site concept c. 2001
This version c.2014
Please ask before using the images on this site. 