Time of Your Life (TV Series) The Time They Threw That Party (1999) User Reviews

Miss Free & Easy in here... surprisingly makes The Client List look like a... Lifetime TV show

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 7/10 · 22 June 2017]

I was in awe of the pilot episode of TIME OF YOUR LIFE. Jennifer Love Hewitt was almost the entire show, much like the Sun is almost our entire universe. She was the focal point of every scene bar one in the pilot. And she is this soft, very soft, silky angel, this San Francisco girl in the much harsher New York and so, so obviously not New York material, really more designed for some cozy suburb in some large town.

Yeah, I am that guy posting quotes for TV shows that haven't been released on DVD, hoping to show YOU UNINFORMED LOT out there what you have been missing. TIME OF YOUR LIFE is a failed TV show that shouldn't have failed, but it did so spectacularly, so much so that it is ridiculed. Not by me. Take one look at the pilot. I love her, I love Jennifer Love Hewitt, I love Sarah, I love the pilot episode, I love "The Time She Came To New York"... But this is the third episode, and much of the magic is gone.

I do not have access to the second episode, no sign of it on the Net, I have to contend myself with what I can manage to download. So, watching this one, I am already at a bit of a loss. But you do become increasingly aware that sweet little Sarah from PARTY OF FIVE is prone to doing inane little things, no, not silly laughable things we could giggle about tomorrow, but the kind of stuff that could have serious consequences, like, she's going through life like a ball-chasing dog running on the highway. There was no sign of this in PARTY OF FIVE, you could say that it was simmering, and I would of course say that it was inspired by that dweeb that Bailey became more and more with every passing episode, but you could also say that the scriptwriters are simply taking liberties with the character. Sarah is highly susceptible to every possible bad influence that comes her way, from overdoing the tippling, to being unable to steer clear of that mecca of the lower class, the tattoo parlor. A girl like Sarah is pictured here, would very quickly be swallowed up by the Big City and be every bit as grimy as it is.

By the third episode, it's very noticeable that Sarah isn't on the screen the whole time anymore, and she is already slightly less cute than at the kick-off. It's too late for me to speak up, it's something that happened eighteen years ago...

It might interest you to note that I would have placed more quotes, but with this particular episode, many lines kept having "anatomical references" which, in my experience, wouldn't go down well with IMDb. I have enough trouble with that already.

Despite early warning signs, it is still considered by me to be one of the worthiest glamour-filled titles (it's mega-cute Jennifer Love Hewitt, for crying out loud!) to front the list of what should have been available on DVD. JLH has legions of fans and it would have sold. Big time. Maybe not to the Bailey-obsessed PARTY OF FIVE core group so much. (Blegh, Bailey!) But to Jennifer Love Hewitt fans around the globe.

One more time all together now: Wow, what an angel! Sigh.

A Cold but Hard Break Up, Drinking, Partying

[tomasmmc-77198 · 6/10 · 18 September 2021]

Following Party of Five 6x05, Bailey sent Sarah's stuff through UPS, so now she receives the boxes with John's help. Then, Sarah finds that Bailey is online, she wants to talk but he writes he is busy (likely with the restaurant) and logs out. She knows he is mad because she decided to stay, so she plans to go to SF to talk and convince him of being ok with her staying in NYC. Without enough money, Romy, who was fired from a job, suggests throwing a party for "losers-singles" and other people like their friends to raise funds for for Sarah to buy a ticket to SF, and for Romy to have money for the rent, food, etc. But that night, Sarah finds in the mail a letter from Bailey announcing their break up. He says she took the first step for it when she decided to move to New York, and with the last 4 months of unhappiness between them, he can't do anything to fix those problems being so far away. Sarah cries alone in the bathroom while reading the letter and then tries to call him to talk, but for some reason, she can't reach him. I didn't like how the writers handled the break up. It would have been better if Bailey took a plane to NYC, appeared in this episode, and they argued. That would have been more dramatic, more real, more emotional. But ending a relationship after 1 year and a half living together through a letter... Anyway, while Bailey is in SF talking to his sponsor, wanting to drink, Sarah deals with it in a different way. She cries and Maguire comforts her, telling her that Bailey is not good enough for her (wrong!, he is good enough for her), that he only waited 3 weeks and that she should be mad at him, not sad for herself. She says that she stood up for Bailey many times (and to be fair it's truth: his alcoholism, Callie, Annie), and decides to get drunk and do crazy things. It's truth what she said, she could have left him definitely in POF season 3 or season 4, but she didn't (mainly because JLH's popularity). And yes, Bailey could have waited for her more weeks, months, whatever. But he knew that she didn't want the life he offered her and decided not to wait indefinitely. She expected that, like if Bailey was somehow a parent, who always will stay in the house forever even when his children leave. He loves her, he misses her and can't stand the chance that she might not come back. If I compare this to Charlie able to wait for Kirsten forever after her parents took her to Chicago, is totally different. They already wanted to spend a lifetime together and she wanted to be waking up next to him everyday of her life, same as him. But in this case, Sarah wanted something else for life, like she said in POF 5x25. She didn't want to break up because now she realizes that she has nothing, but she can't want 2 different lives in different cities. Still, her later actions show how much hurts the break up with the only man she ever loved. She gets drunk and tells a man how someone changes his mind from proposing to ending a relationship in 3 weeks (to be fair with Bailey, were 4 months of unhappiness). Then she goes with JB for beers, and a tatoo (go yankees) in her butt, and then, in the party, finds Spencer (who was invited by Romy for the money), they dance and start making out. She asks him to take her to his apartment, he does, and then, happens a very sad and emotional moment for her. He asks her to undress herself, her front, and she does, but in that moment, she "wakes up". Sarah realizes that there's only one person on Earth who has seen her naked (besides her adoptive parents), only one person whom she made love, and that person is Bailey. Anyone who saw Party of Five knows that Sarah only dated 3 guys besides Bailey: Will, Drew and Elliott. But Bailey is the only one she ever loved, the only one who gifted her a star, the only one who gave her everything he could, a home, a family, comfort, safety, peace, money, dresses, and more. He was there everytime she had issues with being adopted, her adoptive parents, with Robin Merrin, when she was robbed, etc. So for now, the idea of sleeping with someone else, or showing herself to anyone else besides him, is too scary for her. She can't and feels sad because for wanting something else for her life, she lost him. So Sarah decides to walk away from Spencer, tells him her boyfriend broke up with him, that she is sorry for doing this to him, and leaves. He tries to talk, to stop her, but accepts her decision and lets her leave. Later, Sarah tells Romy that she doesn't need the money, she won't fly to SF, there's no point because she would return to NYC anyway. Finally, Maguire admits that he gave her a bad advice, considering what she did, so he tells her to accept the decisions she made. She chose to stay, and now she has to live with that. She seems comforted by this and ends the episode in not a sad mood.

As for the rest, Romy realizes in the party that JB is the womanizer type. He even has to avoid a woman whom he had a brief thing and now hates him. Later, he tells her somehow that sleeping with those woman didn't mean anything, so she starts to accept him. This story seems like I've seen it before, the good nice girl trying to accept a womanizer, expecting that he can change. Maguire and Joss meet a band, and some members are his friends so they go to the party. The problem is that one of the guys, Kenny, likes Joss and they start hanging out, despite Maguire's warnings. He says the guy is a jerk but she doesn't listen, thinking he is jealous. Later, in a limo, they are making out but she wants to stop, as they are not alone (the driver is driving). Kenny almost forces her so she opens the door, jumps out the limo and hurts her knee with the floor. The limo never stops and leaves, and Joss has to return her home, and admits to Maguire that she made a mistake. The part when she was alone and hurt in the street was sad, and shows how dangerous are certain places and persons of New York. And well, in the short part, Cecilia meets an orthodoncist, who saves her life through Heimlich maneuver.