Written by TAKE the CHALLENGE!
By early next year, some “Masters of the Universe” fans will be able to proudly state they watched all 130 Episodes of the 1983 Filmation Cartoon Series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe“, one episode a day, for 130 days straight. Be one of them!
Today’s Episode is:
A Friend in Need
| PRODUCTION NUMBER | EPISODE TITLE | DIRECTOR | WRITERS | PREMIERE DATE | RE-WATCH-A-THON DATE |
|---|
| MU10 | “A Friend in Need” | Ed Friedman | J. Brynne Stephens | September 26, 1983 | Dec 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synopsis: Teela’s frail friend, Ileena, wishes she could be braver and stronger. Jarvan creates a potion to help Ileena with her problem, but only if Ileena does his biding. | |||||
CLICK HERE to Watch on YOUTUBE (or watch it embedded below):
OUR THOUGHTS:
One of many examples why this series should not be pigeonholed as a toy commercial, the message this episode is trying to convey (while noble) feels forced, extremely repetitive and ultimately gets in the way of telling an entertaining narrative.(3/10)
Comment, Review and Discuss below:
Tomorrow’s Episode is: “Masks of Power”
Crack is like puttin’ a gun in yo’ mouth. And pullin’ the trigger.
2 stars. An important lesson for the kids but otherwise the first skeletorless episode is a bit dull.
This is how I feel about it bro. If it went on any longer I would be asking for little potions.
In my biased opinion, episodes like this is why He-Man was superior in storytelling compared to a show like G.I. Joe. Both had lessons at the end, but 95% of the time the He-Man lesson was actually the basis of the story of the episode. I like how they incorporate drugs into Eternia as “magic potions”, which is a natural fit for a magical/medieval/fantasy show.
Jarvan is a good villain, but certainly no Skeletor. I do like how they set him up as a prior threat so the first time you see him he’s already focused on revenge against He-Man and King Randor.
This episode has a top 5 He-Man burn as well:
Jarvan: You haven’t heard the last of me!
He-Man: Aw, you mean you’ll write to me from the prison mines?
@battlecat327 He-Man had some great burns in this. Your marksmanship leaves me cold Jarvan!
@samuel haha, He-Man was on fire in this episode. While Jarvan isn’t the most threatening villain, the fight is so fun to watch primarily because He-Man is trolling him nonstop.
I really like this episode. It’s a great story that teaches kids to stay away from drugs. Parents can show it today to their own kids and it will be just as effective. Very Good. 8/10
Another episode I just thought was just okay. Good message but probably could’ve been executed better and a bit more impactful without feeling too preachy.
Going in I thought this was one of the episodes I haven’t seen until a few minutes in when I remembered “Oh yeah this is the drug episode". Before the watch-a-thon I usually just sometimes binged some of these episodes randomly.
At the beginning, Orko mentions that He-Man and Randor imprisoned Jarvan a long time ago and I’m like this cartoon like many of it’s time has negative continuity except when it feels like it but I’m asking myself how long has Adam been He-Man at this point? Adam in this show is in his early 20s, couldn’t have been that long?
Also idk why but I love that the first scene just has an abrupt cut to the next after Teela and Ileena greet each other.
I am starting to question this show’s infamous “blatant 80s toy commercial" status because so far there are a ton of one-off or not toyetic characters, then again this is only the tenth episode probably before they shifted into full gear
I know why it’s called HE-MAN and the Masters of the Universe just so the show can have a main character but the actual toyline lacks his name just so kids wouldn’t have the want for only He-Man, but I feel like the best “toy commercial shows" like pre-movie Transformers G1 really took advantage of it’s ensemble cast and giving them stories and actual personalities and not just because it wasn’t titled “Optimus Prime and the Transformers".
One of the best things 200x did was making all of the main Masters a team, basically a unit working together most of the time, playing off their dynamics and not just He-Man, Duncan, Teela, Cringer, Orko and [INSERT ONE OR TWO CHARACTERS THEY FELT LIKE ADVERTISING THAT WEEK]
I’m not saying this as a detriment to Filmation, again, only the tenth episode, it’ll probably get better.
One more thing we should all take away with this:
Is this a drug awareness episode or sex education episode? Elena is 🔥HOT🔥