Squirrels Attack Connie's Car!

Wow, that was weird...

I don't think there's ever been an AIO episode quite like "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show." First of all, the whole thing is a radio broadcast of a talk show. It's true that we've heard many programs on Kids' Radio before, but never 25-minutes of spontaneity. Usually what we hear from Kids' Radio is limited to one story or a bunch of skits ("Fairy Tal-e-vision" or "The Power of One," for example), but here we have a live call-in show and a bunch of characters talking together. Secondly, there is actually little plot to speak of. I suppose that really depends on how you define "plot," but you don't have one adventure or two similarly-themed stories going throughout the whole episode. Unless you consider the conflict being if Wooton can make it through Connie's show okay (which any AIO listener should know, wouldn't be a problem for Wooton). So, when you've stripped your episode of a captivating story running throughout, are the characters and messages enough to sustain it?

In this case, my answer is "maybe." I don't think this episode will appeal to everyone--it depends on how you feel about Wooton and Connie, really. Wooton's presence hovers over the whole episode (just in case it wasn't obvious that this episode is a love-letter to Wooton, he even takes over the closing wrap for Chris), so if you don't like him you're out of luck. My opinion is that Wooton is okay when he's written well, and in this episode that was mostly the case. Yes, there were some times when he got annoying (his preoccupation with the sound effects, for example), but other times he was just laugh-out-loud funny. Taking over for Chris at the end, some of his comments in the Captain Absolutely story, and anything regarding squirrels elicited some sort of a smile or snicker from me. Was he over the top? Yeah, but he was on a radio show, so why wouldn't he be a little crazy in that situation?

Harlow Doyle was also funny. There wasn't too much of him, so hopefully no Odyssey fan will get all upset about his presence in this episode. The characters of Wooton and Harlow play off each other well, I think. And on the subject of characters who sound good together, we also have Eugene and Connie. It was slightly weird for them to apologize to one another on the air, with explanations from Whit and Wooton, but they sounded natural together in the show.

Not only do we have the return of Candid Conversations with Connie/ Wooton in this show, we also have the return of Captain Absolutely. Well, maybe it's not really the return, as he's never actually been heard on the AIO broadcast before, but for those of us who heard The Truth Chronicles this was his return. I think I preferred his adventures in The Truth Chronicles, but this one felt similar. I liked that Whit and Eugene, who were already in the studio, took on the voice roles for the other two characters in the Captain Absolutely story--that makes it feel more believable (and they did a great job sounding like cartoon characters!). Despite the cartoonish nature of Captain Absolutely, I was still a bit concerned over the part when Absolutely was beat up and twisted--it felt too much for AIO. Apart from that, it was lots of fun with a clear message to it.

It was obvious that this episode was written with its message in mind--no slap-on-a-moral mentality this week! Eugene expressed his thoughts on intelligent design and meaning in life very clearly, and the Captain Absolutely story served to illustrate his big concepts in a more simple, understandable way. I can see this episode as a great discussion-starter with families about all sorts of things--entertainment, salvation, creation. However, because all these messages were presented in such a comical and almost disjointed manner some of the serious implications of the lesson may be lost on the listener--the themes may have been difficult to take seriously.

"Not enough story." "Too much all over the place." "Overly silly." "They couldn't have all fit in that closet." Admittedly all those negatives thoughts about this episode have some truth in them, but for anything negative you might say about this show, there's no denying the originality of the plot and message. It's unique for AIO, and after 669 episodes of the show that's something that you can't say very often.

Oh, and I thought it was quite comical when the space station was affected by the mind-numbing gas: "Houston, we have a problem, but...who cares! It doesn't mean anything anyway!" :-D

Rating: 7/10.