Season Two: Exploring ROXY RUMBLES
Britrock website copyright EA Woolley
ROXY RUMBLES
OVERVIEW...
Roxy Rumbles is that rare thing - an episode featuring two Misfit songs.
Essentially the main players in this episode ARE the Misfits - whilst Jem
and the Holograms are, for once, in the more supporting role. One could almost
say it was a flip of most episodes, where instead of the Misfits foiling Jem,
Jem and the Holograms inadvertently foil Roxy and help the Misfits. Roxy,
of course, is the star, and the episode deals with one main theme - illiteracy.
ROXY'S BACKGROUND
This is also the only episode in which we see Roxy in her native environment.
Whilst always a little culturally out of her depth in Los Angeles' high flying
music scene, Roxy is very much more at home in Philadelphia. She goes to no
house, merely wanders the streets looking for her old crowd. Since this is
the only indication we have of Roxy's life before the band, we can deduce
a few key points.
Firstly - Roxy has no family, or if she does, they are not people she wants
to look up. Roxy's own words are "noone at home thought I'd amount to anything."
The fact Roxy is haunting the streets and not houses of her old neighbourhood
also could suggest that she lived rough and was a runaway. We know for sure
that she was a high school dropout, because the first (and only) allusion
to this is made during this episode also. What can also be deduced, however,
is that she did not want for loyal support in her hometown. Link and the others
are thugs but they are thugs with hearts and they are obviously very fond
of her. When Roxy induces them to sabotage Jem's concert, they are reluctant,
but in the end say "maybe...for you." They do not choose to do it because
she is offering them money - she has to force this into their hands. They
do it out of loyalty to an old friend. Roxy, therefore, is not alone in the
world. These are her people - and perhaps the people she refers to when she
talks about "showing everybody" what she's made of her life.
THE ISSUE OF ILLITERACY
Roxy's illiteracy is a well kept secret throughout most of the series. There
is one allusion to it a lot earlier on (Adventure In China) which would
be seen as ambiguous and inconclusive without this particular episode to
back it up. The main drive of the episode is to promote to kids watching
the importance of learning to read. Jem and the Holograms' campaign is to
do this exact thing - to promote literacy in as many venues as possible.
The whole campaign dates the episode to the year it was produced - in the
current climate such an episode would have been deemed insensitive and impractical,
since these days the phenomenons of learning difficulties, dyslexia and behavioural
optometry are far more commonly known about. I suppose that, taking it in
it's context, you cannot blame the episode for ignoring these little factors.
The message throughout is "make the smart decision, learn how to read", and
I am probably being highly anachronistic by saying that in Roxy's case this
is probably impossible.
The Rock Out Illiteracy tour is something I find very strange, in truth.
This is one of those episodes which is blatantly schooled around an educational
ideal rather than thought out on the lines of a logical rock star storyline.
THE MISFIT HIERARCHY
Right at the start of the episode, Stormer whispers to Roxy "aren't
you going to tell them you can't read?" Roxy reacts to this vehemently by
telling her to shut up, but Pizzazz and Jetta make no public comment about
Roxy's lack of literacy until after the broadcast is a disaster. This tells
something about the Misfit hierarchy - Stormer knows about Roxy's illiteracy
BEFORE the show goes out. Jetta and Pizzazz realise it AFTER.
This is one of the few episodes where we see enough in depth about the Misfits
to realise that they have a certain type of working relationship with is far
more than just individuals with individual agendas. Stormer raises her voice
to Pizzazz for probably only the second time in this episode - to criticise
her for letting Roxy walk out. Stormer and Jetta go as a team to follow Roxy
and find out where she is going. Jetta reports Roxy's doings back to Pizzazz
and Pizzazz refers to the Misfits as "the only friends" that Roxy has. Equally,
at the end of the episode, the Misfits go to Philadelphia to reclaim her.
Though the contract is the technicality which they use to get her back, it's
admitted in the office back in L.A that the band needs Roxy, because the songs
"aren't the same." Pizzazz's comment here is key - "I don't believe it. I
was sure Roxy'd come back." At no point had she envisaged the band going
on without Roxy, only that she felt her hold over the group was such that
Roxy would not leave. As soon as they realise the seriousness of the situation,
therefore, even Jetta admits that they have to get her back.
THE ROLE OF JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS/BANEE
Being anachronistic again, Jem and the Holograms' role in this episode is
not a good one. From the point of view of hindsight, their calm assertions
about learning to read would probably grate with any learning support teacher
or dyslexic schoolchild. But it has to be remembered that this episode was
written in the 1980s, when dyslexia WAS still a foreign concept. Jem's role,
therefore, is to convey the message of the dangers of illiteracy to the audience.
Between the Holograms, pushing to make America literate, and Roxy, struggling
to manage without being able to read, this message is definitely put across.
Jem's song, "Open A Book" might make folk (myself included) cringe for it's
arrogance in today's world, but in the time in which it was produced it carried
an important message.
The drawback, of course, for Jem and company being an instructive tool is
that their characters suffered as a result. At best the Holograms are simply
wooden advocates of learning to read, and Jem is a walking cliche.
BaNee, of course, is the strangest addition to the cast of this episode.
Why a Starlight Girl should be roaming around America helping JATH to promote
their tour instead of being at school is still a mystery to most Jem fans.
It is made stranger still by the fact that she is able to go up to Link and
his friends and challenge their reading skills (would you go up to three beefy
thugs and insult their intelligence like this if you were nine years old?)
without getting hurt (I told you Link and co were all right really!). But
her key role in this episode, of course, is helping Roxy. BaNee is the only
character throughout the episode who actually wants to help Roxy for a purely
unselfish reason. Whilst the Misfits want Roxy back in the pack and the Holograms
want her and her carnival out of the way so they can get on with their tour,
BaNee actually reaches out to Roxy in order to help her to learn to read.
In fact, it is not made clear whether Jem and company even know/realise
Roxy's secret. BaNee, however, does, because she offers a book in the hope
that it would "help" Roxy learn to read. Though Roxy is obviously the star
of the episode in so many ways, BaNee comes a good second.
CONCLUSION
Very difficult to view this episode without being anachronistic about the
messages within it. I have tried to be as fair as I can but it's difficult
because dyslexia is something I know about and it seems impossible to me that
Roxy is not dyslexic. However, for Misfit chemistry and an awesome solo song
from Roxy, it gets two thumbs straight up. BaNee has her most pivotal appearance
in all of the series too, here. Sadly the episode is let down by the blatant "info-mercial" qualities it portrays, which make the Holograms into less-rounded
characters at times - none of them really have any chance to show their personalities).
Episode rating: 8/10.
Original site concept c. 2001
This version c.2014
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