You made my day with your opening comments. :D I'm glad to hear that you have fun reading them, since I have fun writing them.
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you that not only was this the worst of 51, but it was worse than the large majority of past Odyssey episodes. I personally would put it lower than the Danny Schmidt episodes, but that's probably only because I don't own any of those, so I only hear them periodically on the radio.
Mr. Jones really is a pretty boring character in this episode. He really doesn't seem to have much of a connection to his children's lives. He continually tells Barrett to trim the hedges, but he doesn't make sure he follows through. He's not a very good dad, and he doesn't get much better later in the season.
(We do hear Mrs. Jones, but as you said, it's only for a few seconds, right after she runs over the game.)
I thought Emily's character was okay in the episode. It was a good introduction for her. She handled the mystery as well as she could have, despite how simplistic it was. She and Matthew have fairly good chemistry together, but I still can't get past the fact that she's played by such an old actress!
Barrett's game was Verminoids. I agree that it was a very uninteresting, unintriguing basis for a mystery to have him lose it. They could have at least tried to add a little twist to the story, but I guess it must have been entertaining enough for the target age.
Don't even get me started on Barrett's annoying character! >:< Ugh! Especially in this first episode he was in, the actor was terrible. I'm glad his voice changed before too long. He is so immature that for a sizable time, I thought that Emily was older than he was.
Most of the Jones & Parker Detective Agency's mysteries (all of them, if I'm remembering right) are of the style that it would be next to impossible for the listener to figure it out before Emily does. We're always figuring it out at the same time she is, and we usually don't know "whodunit" until Emily reveals the answer. So this episode was only as annoying, in that respect, as Stage Fright and The Malted Milkball Falcon.
I hadn't really noticed before how unpredictable and implausible that ending was, but I guess you're right. It didn't help anything to have a surprise ending (if you can call it that).
Yeah, I wouldn't even give it 4/10 stars. You are being generous. This show deserves something less. What episode would ever get anything lower?
Unfortunately, I've had to listen to this episode several times, because my younger siblings and I listen to a radio drama CD nearly every night while in bed, and since one of the best episodes of the season, Target of the Week, is on the same CD, I've had to suffer through this terrible episode more than twice like you.
I'm a very moderate rater--I wouldn't give an AIO show more than 9/10 nor would I give a show less than 4/10. However, for the enjoyment factor of "Game for a Mystery," 0/10 covers it well. :-)
2 comments:
You made my day with your opening comments. :D I'm glad to hear that you have fun reading them, since I have fun writing them.
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you that not only was this the worst of 51, but it was worse than the large majority of past Odyssey episodes. I personally would put it lower than the Danny Schmidt episodes, but that's probably only because I don't own any of those, so I only hear them periodically on the radio.
Mr. Jones really is a pretty boring character in this episode. He really doesn't seem to have much of a connection to his children's lives. He continually tells Barrett to trim the hedges, but he doesn't make sure he follows through. He's not a very good dad, and he doesn't get much better later in the season.
(We do hear Mrs. Jones, but as you said, it's only for a few seconds, right after she runs over the game.)
I thought Emily's character was okay in the episode. It was a good introduction for her. She handled the mystery as well as she could have, despite how simplistic it was. She and Matthew have fairly good chemistry together, but I still can't get past the fact that she's played by such an old actress!
Barrett's game was Verminoids. I agree that it was a very uninteresting, unintriguing basis for a mystery to have him lose it. They could have at least tried to add a little twist to the story, but I guess it must have been entertaining enough for the target age.
Don't even get me started on Barrett's annoying character! >:< Ugh! Especially in this first episode he was in, the actor was terrible. I'm glad his voice changed before too long. He is so immature that for a sizable time, I thought that Emily was older than he was.
Most of the Jones & Parker Detective Agency's mysteries (all of them, if I'm remembering right) are of the style that it would be next to impossible for the listener to figure it out before Emily does. We're always figuring it out at the same time she is, and we usually don't know "whodunit" until Emily reveals the answer. So this episode was only as annoying, in that respect, as Stage Fright and The Malted Milkball Falcon.
I hadn't really noticed before how unpredictable and implausible that ending was, but I guess you're right. It didn't help anything to have a surprise ending (if you can call it that).
Yeah, I wouldn't even give it 4/10 stars. You are being generous. This show deserves something less. What episode would ever get anything lower?
Unfortunately, I've had to listen to this episode several times, because my younger siblings and I listen to a radio drama CD nearly every night while in bed, and since one of the best episodes of the season, Target of the Week, is on the same CD, I've had to suffer through this terrible episode more than twice like you.
I look forward to your next review!
Okay, going to finally reply to this comment! :-D
The main thing that I wanted to point out is that I thought "The Malted Milkball Falcon" was actually quite easy to figure out. I was way ahead of Emily on that one--I knew that none of the six kids could be lying, so it had to be Whit. Kind of like the old mystery cliché that whoever has the least attention focused on him or her is most likely to have committed the crime. :-) I actually didn't go for that mystery at all, because it was such a dull storyline with no twist ending to it for me. "Stage Fright" is quite good for a Jones and Parker mystery--a little silly, but overall a fun show.
I'm a very moderate rater--I wouldn't give an AIO show more than 9/10 nor would I give a show less than 4/10. However, for the enjoyment factor of "Game for a Mystery," 0/10 covers it well. :-)
Dave
Post a Comment