#5 "My Future's So Bright"

#5 "My Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" (Season 1 #5)

Photo Gallery 1 (scroll to find correct episode once you get there)

Original Air Date: May 3, 1987

Writer: Bill Nuss

Director: Gary Winter

Production Code: 16105

Things To Note:

Opening Theme:

Closing Theme:

LOD:

Regulars:

Friends, Family & Guests: Josh Brolin [ Taylor Rolador ], David Oliver [ Kerry Graham ], Jamie Brozin [ Niles ], Mitchell Anderson [ Scott Crowe ]

Episode Summary from The 21 Jump Street Episode Guide:

NOTE: Stop with this one if you don’t want spoilers.

Hanson and Penhall infiltrate an exclusive preppie clique to investigate a prank that left a girl dead

Detailed Episode Review (contains spoilers!):

(NOTE: I am doing these from the FX repeats. Email me with missing scenes & I’ll add them).

Commentary:

John DeCarli: Here's yet another early episode that plays off Hanson's "preppy" character. Jenko makes a remark early on that for once Hanson is "wearing the right clothes," and we see Penhall chafing at wearing a tie at the school. "These are my kind of people," says Hanson. Of course, the joke here is that the rich kids accept Penhall right away while they think of Hanson as a "dweeb." And Crowe, Rollator, et. al. are played quite nicely too, with a real degree of smarminess. Ioki gets in some great lines when he plays "Japanese Houseboy" too. Lines like "chop, chop" and "you all a pain in the neck Mr. junior" are favorites.

I still haven't quite figured out how Hanson ends up with Hoffs in the Mustang so quickly when they're trailing Niles. We see Niles picking up the drugs and he's "in a hurry." So how did they get the rich kids out of the house fast enough so Hanson could jump in his car and pick up Hoffs (where was she hiding?) in time to follow Niles? Maybe some editing here in the FX version? And Penhall mentions that he has a brother who went to "State." Probably just a throwaway line, but an unfortunate one given what we learn about Penhall's past in later seasons.

Nevertheless, a good episode. And a good ending too-I wasn't really sure what that sound was at the very end until I turned on the closed captioning!

Main 21 Jump Street Page * Season page * CucFan’s Page * Email CucFan