Roadies Season 1 Episode Guide
1.01. "Life is a Carnival" - Review!
1.02. "What Would Phil Do?" - Review!
1.03. "The Bryce Newman Letter" - (Airs July 10)
1.04. "The City Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken" - (Airs July 17)
1.05. "Friends and Family" - (Airs July 24)
1.06. "Lost Highway" - (Airs July 31)
1.07. "Carpet Season" - (Airs August 7)
1.08. "The All Night Bus Ride - (Airs August 14)
Roadies 1.02 What Would Phil Do" - Review:
Directed by Cameron Crowe & Written by Winnie Holzman
Phil has left the group and now we see what happens to them without him, and from the start it's clear that it's not good. His departure has seen the increase in theft of the band's cases, and the blame for this falls on the opening act, the Head and the Heart, with the natural reasoning being that they're not the headliners. And to make matters worse for the replacement Bill, not only does everyone seem to be asking the same question, "What Would Phil Do?", he seems to be asking it as well.
The Head and the Heart are not the only people who could be trying to dismantle the group as Reg has three people fired and Bill tells Shelli that they could also be looking for revenge. To make matters worse Reg wants to fire another member of the group in order to cut the costs down which is not going to go well, leading to frantically nervous sit-downs when everyone has to work out what their value is to the group and some find it harder than others.
Reg at least, now has a nickname, Double D, something that Kelly-Ann isn't too happy about because she doesn't have one. However, Reg's nickname isn't exactly positive, because it stands for Douchebag Dawson, a reference to the Titanic's protagonist. To make matters worse for Kelly-Ann, Reg suggested to her that the reason why she's staying is because she likes him. Of course she's not keen. Kelly-Ann then goes to see Christopher, the Staton-House front man, and takes her comments the wrong way and believes that she wants Reg to be fired, confusing the raisins to be an analogy for Reg. However she swears she was talking about the raisins. Either way, since I started writing for this site I never expected to write an article where raisins would be possibly responsible for getting somebody fired in an episode of a show that I cover, but here we are. Also I'm somehow not surprised that if it did happen, it had to be in a Cameron Crowe-executive produced show.
Bill is struggling to cope without Phil and his awkward speeches have not quite had the same effect as he would have liked them to. He winds up FaceTiming Phil where he learns that Reignwolf could be the new opener for Staton-House instead of The Head in the Heart, who were responsible for the problems behind stage and have quit. He later learns that Reignwolf only eventually signed up because Shelli's husband, who works for Taylor Swift, remember - was informed about this, and he's not happy. However, Bill did need a new band in under six hours, and Reignwolf seemed to fit the criteria in the deadline provided.
Reg soon reveals that he's behind creating the pro-Phil t-shirts in order to allow workers to express their frustrations, as well as in the process learning that Kelly-Ann indirectly played a part in trying to get him fired. He learnt this because Donna, another Roadie, felt betrayed due to Kelly-Ann's short-lived departure. It turns out that Donna mentally prepared herself for Kelly-Ann to leave only to find out that she changed her mind. Donna insists that she still loves Kelly-Ann though, and reminds her once again that there's no way she's getting her bunk back.
And Kelly-Ann has to tell Reg that Double D doesn't actually stand for Douchebag Dawson after all.
It's an interesting episode that continued to develop the characters and the drama, as we followed the fallout from Phil's absence, and whilst the episode wasn't perfect there were a few improvements from the pilot here, which was once again helped by a fairly solid soundtrack.
Overall Episode Verdict: B+
Positives:
+The "WWPD?" T-Shirts.
+The music is still pretty great.
+Reg interviewing members of the group to determine how useful they are.
+The consequences of Phil's departure.
Soundtrack:
1. Light Me Up - Bronze Radio Return
2. Son of a Preacher Man - Bobby Gentry
3. O.N.E - Yeasayer
4. Talent Show - The Replacements
5. Sun Models - Odesza feat. Madelyn Grant
6. Ain't Got Nothing Going on But the Rent - Gwen Guthrie
7. Hardcore - Reignwolf
8. Dreams of Flying - Mudcrutch
9. Are You Satisfied? - Reignwolf
10. Pretty Pimpin' - Kurt Vile
