Date of airing: October 5, 2001 (Disney Channel)
written by: Douglas Tuber, Tim Maile
directed by: Brian K. Roberts
It was about time there was a Halloween episode, but for me, this episode came a little early, as it is August by the time of this review’s posting. It was still an entertaining episode though, since Kate was finally given what she deserved: some of her own medicine, only spiked with more revenge and salt (in the form of punch and chocolate cake on her face and hair). While it was obvious from the beginning that the Day of the Dead thing was just an elaborate prank to get Kate to humiliate herself in front of everyone while also learning to not make fun of other people’s cultures, it was fun to think about the possibility that all of the bad crap happening in this episode was, in fact, real (up until zombified Lizzie showed up, as everything before could have been used for a kid-friendly horror episode or film).
These 22 minutes could have essentially been removed from the show’s continuation, as the writers, producers, and cast members just wanted to have some fun putting on a scary Halloween episode, during which kids get scared for a change and the parents have to calm down their children after the closing credits finished rolling.
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| Miranda's parents come with stories of the dead. |
Besides that, this episode served nicely as a proper introduction to Miranda’s parents. I believe they appeared before this episode, but I cannot remember, so that is why I was appreciative of a little more backstory for one of Lizzie’s best friends, as well as giving her heritage a bit of the spotlight, to make clear that Miranda is not fully Caucasian, even if she might look that way to the untrained eye. Then again, I never could figure out that Olivia Munn was half Chinese, let alone Chloe Bennett being half Chinese as well, because I seem to be unable to recognize non-Caucasian features in mixed-race people when it is not obvious at first sight (I expect there to be a scientific name for that).
Anyway, I loved it that Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez got some screentime in this episode and assisted their daughter in her evil plan to tell Kate what is up and to show the evil girl with the heart of stone that her behavior is messed up and that she should watch what she is doing before she gets another prank pulled on her. Miranda’s parents assisting in their daughter’s scheme should be the premise for a few more episodes though, especially when it involves the humiliation of Kate Sanders. Although let’s ask how healthy this form of parenting is when Miranda’s parents decided to assist their daughter and her friends to scare the crap out of a school bully.
The Halloween party at the school looked nice. First of all, the prank was nicely executed, and I would love it for someone to do that to me, because every once in a while, I need a good dump in my pants when ghosts suddenly appear before me. Also, it would prove that I have people who care about my opinion and who think I must learn a lesson (and it may show that I have people who would consider me a “friend?”). On Halloween, those kinds of pranks are allowed, especially when I only have to humiliate myself by putting chocolate on my face, but I would not mind being the executor of such a prank myself one day. That must be a bunch of fun, although it would need a ton of preparation and planning. Sadly, I am not a kid anymore and I have no friends to pull such pranks with or at.
In the meantime, Sam and Jo had a nice story as well. 24 episodes into the series and the two behaved like a real married couple, which is not always a given on the Disney Channel. They planned to spend some time together, they shared a kiss, they cuddled together on the couch... Damn, that is what I always miss in any Disney Channel sitcom, and while LIZZIE McGUIRE is short on love between the parental unit as well, the show at least happened to go into the notion of marriage and parents loving each other when the kids are out of the house. And the story had one of the funniest jokes of the entire show: When the teenager was moaning for more candy and got the chicken pot pie instead, I laughed out loud when he screamed he was a vegetarian as the door was being shut in his face. That was close to funny sketch comedy as it could have gotten and it was a moment belonging to the “funniest moments of LIZZIE McGUIRE” highlight reel.
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| Lizzie haunts Kate for being a terrible person. |
I was also happy that Matt was properly involved in the central
storyline, although I still would not mind if the kid just disappears and
is nowhere to be found, forgotten by everyone in this series universe. I
know, Matt’s behavior is close to how brats of boys really behave at
home in real-life circumstances, but in a scripted comedy series, this is
just annoying, especially when it is happening in every episode, without
an ounce of development for that character. One way to have solved that
problem for at least this episode would have been to include Matt in the
creation of the prank somehow, to make him a bigger part. But that
probably demanded some acting abilities, which Jake Thomas seemed to not have back then.
