TVSquad

(S02E15) When you get older and have to actually drive to work when the winter weather gets bad, it's easy to forget just how much you loved those days when you were a kid and didn't have to go to school. My school was always the last to close on snow days, and my father, who drove a school bus, was often already headed into work before they'd announce it.

Chris encounters the same problem: since he has to take a city bus to his all-white school, he doesn't hear about the cancellation and winds up stuck in the school with his eccentric principal, played by Jason Alexander. I think this is Alexander's best role since Seinfeld, which isn't really saying much since none of the series he's done since then have stuck around for very long. Still, I like that at least one person in Chris' school other than his friend Greg treats him like a normal human being rather than as "that one black student."

Typically, I find the subplots to be a tad weak, but this time everything worked together to create one of the better episodes of the season. I think my favorite part was when Rochelle and her fellow passengers are being robbed on the subway and they tell a girl who just broke up with her boyfriend Spike (an aspiring filmmaker) that she shouldn't waste her time with a black man named Spike and instead find a man with a nice name like "Orenthal."

Another great and funny episode, but I also liked the underlying point about how extreme conditions can bring out the best in people, whether it's Chris' dad walking clear across town to pick up his son at school, or Rochelle telling a young man he doesn't have to resort to robbing people.