Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is facing backlash from a number of viewers who feel “disappointed” in the latest Episode 5.
Last night (April 7), Investigation Discovery aired its anticipated bonus episode, titled ‘Breaking the Silence’. It sees Drake Bell speaking about the reaction to the first part of the true crime series, while All That stars Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Hearne return with further insights about the discrimination they faced while working for Nickelodeon.
Additionally, fellow All That actor Shane Lyons makes his debut to discuss an incident involving convicted sex offender and Bell’s abuser, Brian Peck. “There were certainly some passes,” says Lyons, adding, “When he asked me at the time what ‘blue balls’ was, I thought he meant racquetballs.”
He goes on to explain that a conversation had been unfolding in the greenroom about the term, and when everyone walked out to start shooting, Peck turned to Lyons and said, “Well, we know what blue balls are, right Shane?’… I’m a kid. 13, 14. And as I think back now, as an adult, would I ever have a conversation with a 13 year old boy like he did with me? No.”
Despite these new conversations, many viewers feel the episode promised too much in its promotional material, and didn’t contain enough new information or insights to warrant the buildup.
Taking to Reddit, one said, “I’m pissed I waited so long just for this episode to have two people blabbing and repeating the same thing over and over again.” Another agreed, writing, “They really tried milking the series with this episode.”
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“This episode was so disappointing… and to make matters worse, that interviewer was unbearable. The episode just looked kinda… cheap,” added a third, while a fourth chimed in, “I mentioned this elsewhere but it really seemed like Episode 4 was the final episode, then they added a 5th because of how it was elsewhere.”
Going into more detail, another Redditor wrote, “In the beginning they made it seem like we’d see so much new stuff from cut interview clips and a sketch which I assumed was actual footage of the sketch but I was wrong.
“I was interested in hearing Shane Lyons’ part because it was hyped up to be like a big story of him coming forward, but it was just one instance (which was disgusting) and just the rehash of the same thing.
“I think if they just set up the episode like the original doc and used the cut content that they scrapped from the interviews we’d have more interesting things. One thing I am happy to hear is that the documentary helped bring Bryan and his mother back together.”
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on Max now. You can read one thing missing from the docuseries here, while for more true crime, check out all the documentaries hitting streaming this month.
