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While it may seem strange to hype up a second episode, BTV premiered its second installment of Slice and ‘Deis to a nearly-filled Golding Auditorium, allowing it to showcase its hard work.

This episode entitled “New Textbooks” ran for about twenty-seven minutes, most of which was filled with witty dialogue, well crafted scenes, and some physical comedy. In the Slice and ‘Deis pilot episode, the opening credits parodied the opening credits of Friends. In this episode, directors and producers Arun Narayanan ’10, Ilan Amoural ’11, and Alex Gaman ’09 decided to parody the opening credits after Fresh Prince.

While the play on the Friends theme seemed to make perfect sense for the show, the Fresh Prince parody seemed a little out of place. Even so, this twist in the opening drew a good share of laughs from the audience, including myself. I look forward to seeing what they do with coming episodes.

The storyline of this episode centered on second semester events including buying textbooks, studying abroad, and midyears. Walter, played by Josh Reuss ’10, develops a crush on a hot midyear, played by Larissa Liebmann ’10.

He ends up needing help from his buddies Ed, played by Gdaly Berlin ’10; Brendon, played by Gaman; and Ronnie, played by Ted Levin ’10.

Berlin delivered his lines exceptionally well in this episode, being comical with seemingly little effort. The other cast members also performed well in their roles doing much better than in the pilot in defining their characters.

New to this episode was the use of cut scene flashbacks, comparable to those used in Family Guy (although not as random). While this technique produced some of Slice’s best material, a couple of the scenes seemed to drag on with duller humor.

The shining moments of “New Textbooks” gleamed when the scene was less predictable. I found myself laughing the most when something unique happened on screen.

In comparing BTV’s second episode of Slice and ‘Deis to their first, the crew improved on their second round, especially in characterizing each friend and diversifying their humor.

The humor in the show is slighted somewhat during longer scenes. In these, the show tends to seem slower and lacks its better comedy.

Once again, I was impressed with the show and look forward to the seeing how the show progresses and develops in its coming episodes. Both episodes of Slice and ‘Deis can be caught on the BTV channel 65.