The Saddle Club (seasons 1 & 2)
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The Saddle Club is an Australian-Canadian children's television series developed by Sarah Dodd, based on the books written by Bonnie Bryant. Like the book series, the scripted live-action series follows the lives of three best friends in training to compete in equestrian competitions at the fictional Pine Hollow Stables, while dealing with problems in their personal lives. The first two seasons debuted in 2001 and ended in 2003.
Why These Seasons Can Say "Hello World"
- It is faithful to the original saddle club books.
- It has many memorable and likable characters such as: Carole, Stevie, Lisa, Veronica, Kristi, Red, Ashley, Melanie, Mrs. Reg, Max, Deborah, Phil, Dorothée, Liam, Scooter, Drew and more.
- Pretty good acting.
- It is filmed with a single camera and has no laugh track making it more realistic. It also proved that sitcoms don't need a laugh track to work.
- The instrumental theme song of ''Hello World'' is very good and catchy.
- It teaches good morals, such as "Support your friends", "Don't judge a book by its cover", "Work as a team'', ''Always need help when needed'' ''No matter how hard a task is, never give up.'' and ''Don’t be too strict when it comes to rules.''
- It discusses social issues like belonging to a group friends, inclusion, boys, embarrassment around males, social classes, mild bullying, providing supervision and direction.
- Has a handful of good episodes such as:
- ''Trail Ride (Part 1-2)''
- "Greener Pastures (Part 1-2)"
- ''Flying Change''
- ''Bridle Path (Part 1-2)''
- ''Show Ponies (Part 1-2)''
- ''Love Is In The Air''
- ''Stevie's Bad Day''
- ''Join Up''
- "Odd Girl Out"
- Phil is a good love interest for Stevie.
- The show can also be serious and emotional at time.
- Amazing set design and decent lighting. It was even filmed at a real stable.
- Lots of funny and heartwarming moments.
- As the series progresses, the characters grow up and experience character development such as: Veronica who is actually quite a sympathetic character on several occasions.
- Great original songs, such as:
- ''Hello World''
- ''Hey Hey What You Say''
- ''Trouble''
- ''Perfect Boy''
- ''Dreams Come True''
- ''Together We Are''
- "On Top Of The World"
- "Crush On You"
- "We Can Do Anything"
- "The Best That I Can"
- "Here I Am"
- Excellent for children who want to express in riding competition.
- The final episode of season 2 ''Finishing Strongly'' was decent and could have been a perfect way to wrap up the series if it had not continued past that.
- It got a revival in 2008, many fans we're happy to see the show again since the original run ended in 2003. Even though it wasn't good as these seasons it still had effort put in to it, despite receiving mixed reception from older audiences.
Bad Qualities
- After being revived in 2008, the series has experienced a minor decline in quality during it's 3rd Season.
- All of the original cast members from the first two seasons, we're not invited back for a 3rd season due them getting to old, so they ended up re-cast all of the characters.
- It has jumped the shark due to some characters being removed without any explanation such as: Ashley, Kristi, Deborah, Scooter, Red, and Drew.
- Veronica and Scooter relationship didn't developed.
- The producers should've made a 3rd season while most of the original cast we're younger, around in 2004.
- Some fans say that it didn't hold enough relevance to the books (amongst other things) while others felt it was a worthy adaptation with all the charm of the book series still intact.
- Wasted Potential: The series wasn't a Pine Hollow adaptation carrying on with the original cast which is shame, because rather then having a new cast, we could've seen the main characters going to school, making good or bad decisions and having the audience grow up with them.
- Some characters can be unlikable at times such as: Max, Melanie, Veronica, and Kristi.
- Max isn't in the majority of season 2.
- In an early episode, Veronica is treated like a brat for complaining when Max adds another rider to her private lesson. But while she loses sympathy for taking it out on the other rider by being nasty to him, she's not wrong to think that if her parents paid a premium for a private lesson, that's what she should get. At the very least, Max should give them a future credit for the cost difference between a private and a semi-private lesson, and even then, he really should have asked her or her parents first rather than just making the change unilaterally.
- The 2nd actor for Red "James O'Dea" isn't quite as good as "Nathan Phillips", and it wasn't really well received by fans.
- The second season is a bit dark compared to the first season.
Reception
The first two seasons of The Saddle Club received positive reception from critics and audiences alike. It has a 6.1/10 on IMDb