Question, what do you get when a Saturday Morning cartoon series parodies police dramas and sets it in a middle school? Answer, one of the most underrated Disney cartoon shows ever! Fillmore, is what you get when you take all of the tropes of crime dramas and set them in a middle school and the result, it worked Fillmore was one of the shows that could've been found on the Disney ABC block, I'm not sure if it was still One Saturday Morning when this show rolled around. Either way, this show while not a popular as say Recess is still pretty good and I've decided to take a look at one of the episodes from season 2 for a review. Enjoy! Oh, one last and really cool thing to bring up is that Jeff Probst, host of Survivor had a role in this show as the vice principal. That is so cool that the host of my favorite show was in this, I mean the guy known for doing this and saying this was in a Disney show.
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| The Tribe has Spoken |
Sorry about the little detour there. Anyways onto the review. Sadly, his character wasn't in this episode.
Episode Title
The Shreds Fell Like Snowflakes
I love this title, it is just so awesome and not only does it give an idea of what is going in the episode and ties it into the element of the episode as there snow falling all around. Now the show did something that I liked and reminded me of Law & Order, each episode was broken up into three acts and each act was given a subtitle. Now I won't be going over those because I just wanted to focus on the episode title.
The Plot
Now I'll admit that the plot is nothing to write home about but I enjoyed it for what it was. X Middle School (the setting for the show) has been hit by a serial shredder simply known as The Shredder.
Yeah, no! This one looked more like Todd In The Shadows. Back on topic, The Shredder had been going after pet projects of students and shredding them and the X Middle School needs the best profiler to help track down this baddie, Frank Bishop but Frank has been banned from the safety patrol after a nasty incident that almost got the school sued. He was brought onto the case against the wishes of the principal and we also find out that he used to be partners with the safety patrol's superior before he got in charge because of the incident that cost Frank his spot, he ended betraying him unwillingly. He comes on and one by one is able to deduce who The Shredder really is after a lot of false leads as it turns that all of the victims were actually suspects because The Shredder had been going after after members of The Drama Club in alphabetical order and the next person on the list was Frank's sister, Francine. Though, when he finally got to her we find out that she was the one behind it and you may be asking yourself why. Simple, she wanted to exact revenge on Vallejo, the safety patrol superior for getting her brother kicked off the force and had her acting friends play along with her to get the crime to go down. I love this plot and in all honesty, this wasn't my first choice of episode to review but I'm glad that I went with it instead because it was so much fun and sure, it may sound absurd but that's what you get with this show and part of the absurdity is how serious everything is treated. I mean the show and atmosphere take the ordeal treating like a real crime drama and for me that works in making the show all that more enjoyable and I really liked the false leads because that was a nice touch. This was a fun episode.
Characters
I'll be breaking this down into Main, Supporting, & Villain. With that out of the way, let's begin.
Important Characters
Fillmore voiced by Orlando Brown
Now it should be easy to figure out that this is our main main character for the show. Before we get too far into Fillmore in this episode, I think it best to bring up how and why, Fillmore joined the safety patrol. For all intents and purposes, he didn't have a choice as he used to be a kid on the wrong side of the track and he was given a choice of to join the patrol or spend the rest of middle school in detention. So he straightened up and now he goes above and beyond to solve cases and bring down the culprits behind each case and this episode was no exception. Though he fell into the trap of falling for false leads and believed that Frank was The Shredder. It took him awhile to figure that it wasn't Frank but rather Francine and that was fun to see.
Ingrid Third voiced by Tara Strong
Now just like Fillmore, Ingrid started out on the wrong side of the track and after Fillmore helped to clear her name, she became his partner and is the smartest kid at X Middle School. Again though just like Fillmore, she almost fell for the trap of believing that Frank was the culprit but after all of the pieces were put together, they were able to figure out that it was Francine and with some help, they were able to take her down and bring her in.
Supporting Characters
Vallejo is the man in charge of the safety patrol and he is one that decided to bring in Frank to help solve the case. Though that puts him on the line as he is up for his second term for being in charge of the safety patrol and bringing Frank in may cost him his job. Though luckily, he was not only to keep his job but also rekindle his friendship with Frank after getting him back on the force. It was nice seeing him get some character development and exploring his past.
Frank Bishop voiced by Theo Greenly
Sorry, I couldn't find a picture for Frank. Frank was was an intriguing character because when we first see, he is shown to be washed up and past his prime and not willing to work with the patrol. He came off a gruff but when we later see that he still has some passion left in him to solve a case and profile the culprits and when he finds out that The Shredder was his sister, you could see that he was heartbroken and couldn't understand why she was doing this.
Villain
Francine Bishop (The Shredder) voiced by Mae Whitman
Again, sorry couldn't find a picture. As stated at the beginning of the review, Francine was doing this to exact revenge on Vallejo for getting her brother kicked off the force. She came up with the scheme as having her friends shred their own projects and made it look as though The Shredder was only going after the drama club and it was found that it was her when both it was figured out that The Shredder was going after members of the drama club in alphabetical order and that she was the only one besides Frank and the safety patrol that knew the details of what happened to Frank. It was interesting but still a lot of fun and sure, this may be a cliched trope but the show knows that and they were making of fun that idea and it worked.
My Final Thoughts
All in all, this was a fun episode from a criminally underrated show from Disney. Fillmore! is a show that deserves more attention than it has been given and this episode shows how much it can be. It may seem silly but the whole idea of having a crime drama take place in a middle school is such an odd premise but I really liked it and I hope that you guys take the time to check out the show.
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