The Winner is Obvious...

The End of Season awards have been given out, and AIO fans seem very certain that one episode stood out from the rest in album #52--"The Mystery of the Clock Tower." It won Best Scene, Best Sound, Best Actress (Connie, of course), Best Script, and Best Overall Award--the only category that it didn't win in was Best Actor, and the only reason it didn't win for Best Actor was because it wasn't nominated in that category. The results strongly suggest that it would have a complete sweep for "The Mystery of the Clock Tower" if the AIO producers had allowed it to be nominated in all six categories.

The other winner in the Awards isn't really "Fast As I Can," although Will Ryan won Best Actor for that category, but actually "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show." Why? Because it came second in every category it was nominated in (Best Sound, Best Script, and Best Overall Episode). In contrast, "Fast As I Can" didn't even end up in the top five for Best Script and Best Overall Episode. Why "Broken Pencil" was such a clear runner-up is up for debate (this episode was pretty divisive because of its wacky feel, but "A Thankstaking Tale" was for the same reason and that one didn't receive much attention from voters), but it seems like enough listeners remember enjoying that show for it to have received such a good placing.

But the "obvious winner" in these Awards isn't one episode, but actually one writer/ director. And that's Paul McCusker, who wrote and directed both "Clock Tower" and "Broken Pencil." Apart from an appearance from Marshal Younger (whose episodes "The Owlnapping," "Square One," and "Fast As I Can" didn't perform particularly well in the Awards, save Will Ryan's performance in the latter), none of the episodes in the fall season were written by pre-1997 writers. As I see it, these results are a vote for "classic Odyssey," as embodied by Paul McCusker's scripts.¹ Why do these shows hearken back to older Odyssey?

• Both of McCusker's shows included the "big three," Whit, Connie, and Eugene. That's not to say that the inclusion of those three characters in an episode is a guarantee of making an episode successful: just take a look at "Grandma's Christmas Visit" (which included the "big three"), which not only placed badly in all categories it was nominated in, but tellingly got last place in the Best Script category. And despite not being considered a classic AIO character, having Wooton in "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show" didn't hurt.
• "Clock Tower" and "Broken Pencil" were good at what they attempted to do. Just like a majority of pre-1997 shows were. The two-part mystery, while admittedly not up to the standard of Paul McCusker mysteries like "The Case of the Secret Room" or "The Mysterious Stranger," was as good a mystery as you were going to get in 2010. In the year of mysteries with the Jones and Parker Detective Agency, as two ten-year olds were busy chasing after ants and arguing about what the mystery should be called, "Clock Tower" shines as the only smart mystery of 2010. People like shows that reach their potential, and I'd wager that many AIO fans thought that "Clock Tower" did.² "Broken Pencil" was going for more comic gold, and whether it was successful in getting that depends on the listener. I would argue that "Broken Pencil" was a good AIO comedy, actually thoughtful for a change. The show achieved what it was going for, and made lots of listeners laugh in the process (and if a comedy makes lots of people laugh then is that not some sort of sign of success?).
• Paul McCusker knows how to incorporate a message into his shows without sounding like he's talking down to the listener. I doubt this third point has anything to do with how well his episodes fared in the voting, but I think it points to an intelligence that isn't present in a lot of new AIO shows.

And for the record, here's how I voted and why:

Best Sound: "A Thankstaking Story" (Actual Winner: "Clock Tower")
This is always a tough category to vote in, but I went with the Thanksgiving show because it really put me into the fairytale story. The sound designer must've faced a lot of decisions when it came to portraying the Dr. Seuss-like world, and I think most of them were the right ones.

Best Scene: "Good News and Bad News Song" (Actual Winner: "Clock Tower Meetings")
I almost voted for the incredibly well-done scene from "The Mystery of the Clock Tower," but I decided to go with a scene that I just thought was really fun. :-) In some ways I'm not sure if you can count either of those two choices as scenes (because one "scene" is actually a song and the other is kind of going back and forth between two scenes), but I completely understand why "Meetings" won: it deserved to. :-)

Best Actor: Will Ryan in "Fast" (Actual Winner: Ryan in "Fast")
There was so much talent in the Best Actor category that it was hard to choose, but I went with Ryan because I thought he did well in "Fast As I Can" and he was the only actor that has been around for more than just the last two seasons. For me that gives Will Ryan an instant advantage over the rest of the actors, even though someone may have actually done a better acting job than him (yes, I know that's not the way you're supposed to vote, but none of the five nominated actors stood out to me so I went with my gut).

Best Actress: Katie Leigh as Connie Kendall in "Clock Tower" (Actual Winner: Katie as Connie in "Clock Tower")
Ben Warren wrote on his blog that this would be "the tightest race, no doubt."³ I raised my eyebrows when I read that, wondering if I'd missed something in the AIO fan community. If the spring Avery Awards are anything to go by, the post-hiatus episodes of AIO have made Katie Leigh more popular than ever. Taking 48.8% of the spring vote when the runner-up has only 20.5% of the vote is not tight. And it's not tight either to take 47.7% of the fall vote (with Sydney [Camilla] once again as the runner-up, but hopelessly behind at 18.8%). In fact, the winner of this category was the most comfortable of all six Avery winners. All this success seems to say that Katie's either really doing a great job, that the other actresses (or characters, more than likely) aren't very good, or that Katie won simply because she was playing such a well-loved character. I would tend to believe that, perhaps not unlike Will Ryan's win in the Best Actor category, Katie won because of Connie. The episode she was nominated for doesn't matter (I'm sure she would've won even if she had been nominated for "Christmas Visit" instead of "Clock Tower"), it's simply because everyone loves the character she's playing.⁴ The reason I voted for Katie is a combination of two things I mentioned why she might have won: the other actresses (read: characters) nominated were much less appealing and I like good ol' Connie. And that's why I predict Katie Leigh as Connie will be winning both Avery awards for this year's episodes--I don't have to hear the shows to know that as long as she's in them and as long as the organizers of the Awards let her in she's going to win Best Actress. No tightest race about it! ;-)

Best Script: "The Mystery of the Clock Tower" (Actual Winner: "Clock Tower")
Overall, the scripts weren't very good this season. Looking through the episode titles only a few stood out to me as viable options, and it didn't take me long before I was clicking back and forth between "Clock Tower" and "Thankstaking." "Clock Tower" had as its disadvantage an ending which let me down a little, but "Thankstaking" also had a disadvantage in that the show was a little over-whelming. I decided to go with the season premiere, simply because the writing was more polished than "Thankstaking." Okay, so I wasn't sure about the plot's direction in part two, but the dialog and the story devices used were signs of good writing. And as implied above, I am partial to Paul McCusker's writing. :-)

Best Overall Episode: "A Thankstaking Story" (Actual Winner: "Clock Tower")
It made me laugh, had lots of good characters in it, and Eugene and Connie sang. Isn't that reason enough? Sure, it may have had its problems, but I think I probably enjoyed that show the most.

Be looking for an overview of the fall season sometime this month, hopefully!

1. And look at the results from Spring 2010, when "The Jubilee Singers" by Dave Arnold (another person involved with AIO since pre-1997) won in three categories.
2. As I stated when "Clock Tower" first aired, I thought part two wasn't a very good conclusion to the mystery, but now it's not as bad as it was on first impression. I would still argue that it didn't reach its potential for me, but it seems that I may be in the minority on that.
3. See http://aio-thechangingtimes.blogspot.com/2011/01/avery-awards-who-should-win-who-will.html. Worth noting is that while Ben did feel that Sydney Shiotani (Camilla) and Christina Pucelli (Emily) has good chances to win, he did predict Katie Leigh as the winner.
4. Okay, so a rising number of fans have been complaining about Connie's character recently. To that I say: so what? The negative opinions about Emily Jones, Priscilla Peterson, and even Abuelita (the bottom three "Best Actresses") have been far more common and consistent.

Album 52 Ends Poorly with "Grandma's Christmas Visit"

My hopes were quite high for this episode. I predicted that it would be a "sure-fire winner," based primarily on the characters that were to be featured in "Grandma's Christmas Visit." Abuelita was a very entertaining character in "Grandma's Visit," interacting well with the Parker family, and hearing all of the Whit's End gang doing stuff for Christmas sounded promising. But sometimes the writers of an episode just can't make their ideas work, as is pretty evident in "Grandma's Christmas Visit."

I wonder if the stale dialog and the uninteresting characters are most at fault for the rather forgettable nature of this show. The Parker's grandma seems to have lost her comedic appeal, and Whit, Connie, and Eugene just seem to be going through the motions. And then there's all the different elements of the show that don't run smoothly together. Eva wanting to relax, Grandma's Las Posadas, and the Whit's End Christmas party actually don't fit together well at all, although perhaps with more skillful writing these different storylines could have. By the time we got to the "Let's Make a White Elephant Deal" game show I was very much overwhelmed. It's one thing after another that doesn't really connect or matter, and only a few moments are actually well-written.

I also wasn't happy about hearing Emily in this episode (enough of her already for one season!). Her annoying voice definitely stands out among characters like Whit and Eugene. And talking of characters that I find annoying, I'm sad to say that I didn't really enjoy Connie in this episode either. She seemed over-the-top. Maybe she's been spending too much time with Emily. :-P

Despite all that, the show does end on a nice note with a simple but well-written conversation between Whit and Lucia. It doesn't really justify all of the "chaos" that went before it, but it hints at what this show could've been like if one experienced writer, such as Paul McCusker, had written it.

So, it's not an AIO Christmas classic. A lot of failed jokes (if they could even be qualified as jokes) and a general lackluster feel make this show one of the worst Christmas audio dramas I've ever heard. It was all-over-the-place, meaning that I as the listener cared little about what was happening or who was doing it. A very disappointing episode.

5/10

Never Trust Whit Around Your Milkballs!

Before I received album 52 a few months ago I had never purchased an album with instructions for doing a "Family Fun Activity" in the booklet, and I was disappointed that this panel took the place of the front cover illustration. But I was even more surprised by how boring the activity was--seriously, a rockathon? Where's the fun in that? And what would a rockathon have to do with any of the episodes in this collection? Little did I know, it would be the background for the dull episode "The Malted Milkball Falcon."

I really can't understand the amount of enthusiasm that has been shown toward this episode in the AIO online community. Put simply, this show is boring. The plot is simplistic, the characters are not particularly likeable (a number of them sound like cartoon characters, probably because they're voiced by adults), and the show never even comes close to realizing its comic potential. The resolution of the mystery would've been better if "Broken Window" hadn't already use that twist with much more skill, but thankfully no animals were involved with the "crime" this time!

Really, this is what I would expect from Paws and Tales, not from AIO. "The Malted Milkball Falcon" feels like it's been written for 4-8 years olds who can easily be entertained with a few bathroom jokes, characters with goofy voices, and a mystery involving chocolate. The message (which came out of left field for me) tried harder than the rest of the episode, but suffered from being somewhat conventional ("don't lie, kids!") and from lacking a lot of staying power (probably because it felt tacked-on). If you haven't learned not to lie from all those other AIO episodes about honestly, then you're not going to learn your lesson from this one either.

So, this was not a good episode at all for me. It was simplistic, juvenile, slow, and lacking a "punch." I must've missed all the humor that other AIO fans got out of this show, because I can only remembering snickering one time. Is it as bad as "Game for a Mystery," Kirby Atkin's worst effort to date? No, thankfully it's not, because the main characters have already been established with this episode and the "locked room" kind of mystery means that the listener can actually solve the mystery this time. But overall "The Malted Milkball Falcon"'s fight to keep my attention was a losing battle.

4.5/10 (and that may even be slightly too high)

The Responsible Parker Kids. Or Not.

Bob Hoose, writer of last season's funniest episode "Grandma's Visit," returns to bring us more Parker family craziness. But this time the craziness goes overboard, leaving the discerning listener with a disappointing episode. With the Washingtons in "The Mailman Cometh" I could put up with it--that's just the Washingtons for you, after all--, but I expected more from the Parkers.

And, hey, didn't we just have a similar storyline seven episodes ago in "Stage Fright"? I wasn't greatly impressed with the actor (Mr. Storfitz) playing a different role to fool the kids in that episode, and I was even less so with "An Agreeable Nanny." Really, the Parker parents hiring an actress to play a pushover British nanny just so that their kids will learn about responsibility? What were they thinking? I suppose it does excuse some of the oddities in the character of Maria (she really goes too far in trying to make herself out to be English), but it was just a plot twist that I didn't care for.

On the positive side, there weren't any weird bathroom jokes like we had in "Grandma's Visit." And I didn't dislike any of the characters that we heard from in this episode, apart from Olivia of course. However, it was just too much for me to suspend my belief for 25 minutes. There were too many times when I rolled my eyes or wondered if I was too old for all this. And the very obvious and tired lesson about responsibility didn't save the show, either.

Rating: 6/10 (Slightly generous maybe, but if you're in the right mood this can pass as fairly entertaining)

"A Thankstaking Story": Good News?

Earlier this week I was listening to a wonderful Thanksgiving show from one of my favorite radio dramas. It was funny, heart-warming, and the occasional moment even brought tears to my eyes. I was entranced from beginning to end, wrapped up in the drama and loving how well-written the characters were.

The only problem for this review is that the show wasn't "A Thankstaking Story," but rather an episode of Down Gilead Lane called "Peas and Thank You." "A Thankstaking Story," like "Peas and Thank You," attempted to be funny and heart-warming, but unlike the DGL episode failed to achieve its goal for the most part.

Perhaps the real issue for me is that I had expected more from this episode. "Dr. Suess visits Odyssey" gets old really fast, and it's obvious that a knowledge of the book The Grinch That Stole Christmas (or, more likely, the movie version of the book) would've helped make the show funnier. But even so, the humor of the Scrunch story was more over-the-top than anything, with silly sound effects, an excess of made-up words, and too many jokes that didn't work for me. Once again, maybe I needed more pop-culture savvy to appreciate the jokes, but the maturity level of some of the story did seem a bit Wootonish.

I'm quite a fan of musicals, when they're done right, so my expectations for the musical element of this show were high as well. There's only four songs in the show, and they're of varying quality. "Good News" is pretty good (better than the majority of songs on Eugene Sings!, if that's saying anything), and "Every Day Is Thanksgiving Day" isn't bad either (overlooking the buzzy bees line, it's probably the best of the show). "We Are the Bad Guys" is short, and that's probably it's one redeeming element. Which leaves "McGluville was a Tiny Village" (by Wooton/ Arctic Blast), a truly strange song. Wooton sang fine in "Odyssey Sings," but here his singing sounds more like Jess Harnell trying to spoof Elvis, which is totally unfunny. And hard to understand, if you actually like to be able to understand the words in songs. So my expectations for the songs were too high, but John Campbell really did a great job with all of the music. He captured the emotion of each scene very well, and I really felt like I was in a storybook or animated movie with the gang's Scrunch tale. The music and sound effects convey that this is not a television special but a big-budget movie.

On the topic of Wooton, as already suggested by my comments on the Arctic Blast song, he was rather annoying here. Too much snorting and too many failed jokes ("No, by a mailbox--that's an excellent hudiling place"? "That was just Bing Crosby singing for a colonel"? Were those comments really funny?). On the flip side, Eugene really shone in this episode. Not only did he sing the lead on the best songs of the episode, but he also was endearing as perhaps the best character of The Scrunch That Stole Thanksgiving (although Connie's Katie Poo-Magloo wasn't bad, either). His Abominable Turkey was a very likeable bad guy! And then there's Eugene's banter with Connie, which was quite enjoyable. The first scenes of the show with just Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Wooton were a definite highlight.

This show reminds me of an episode earlier this season, "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show," in that it is an experimental show, unlike anything that AIO has ever done (or at least has ever done in one 25-minute show). AIO needs to create shows which take a few chances in order to keep things fresh, and "A Thankstaking Story" definitely sticks out from most of the other album 52 episodes because it's different. It approaches its source material(s) without coming across as lazy or (overly) weird like "A Thanksgiving Carol" at times does.

But I had hoped for more enjoyment from this episode. On first listen, "A Thankstaking Story" contained few laughs, no emotional punch, and just a little bit of warmth for me. I was hoping for laugh-out-loud humor and maybe even a lump in my throat, but after listening, all I thought was, "well, that was kind of cute, I guess." My expectations were just a little too high, and it remains to be seen how I'll feel about it in a few years. Will it grow on me, like "Odyssey Sings" did (my original verdict was that it was "just a long advertisement in a well-written show," which I still think is true but no longer matters when I listen to the show)? I can quite easily see it fitting alongside the other AIO Thanksgiving specials, as it is probably as entertaining as "B-TV: Thanks" and arguably is the most poignant of the four Thanksgiving shows (except for "Thank You, God," of course). And for future listenings I shall know what to expect, and won't be disappointed when Wooton does Elvis, Whit takes his rhyming to the extreme, and Connie doesn't make me cry.

Rating: 7/10 (But possibly higher on repeat listenings, especially in comparison to the other album 52 shows)

Best line: "Light the lamp, not the turkey! Light the lamp, not the turkey!" Great reference to one of my favorite Christmas movies! :-D

"Back to Square One!"

It seems that with every new episode that she's in, Emily Jones proves herself to be hard to like. Not as hard to like as Olivia, of course, but still a character that's hard to sympathize with or relate to. In the words of Matthew, she "meddle[s] and make[s] up little schemes...," and seems rarely to think that what she's doing may be hurting her friends or family. And it's her role as meddler in "Square One" that makes the show less than satisfactory.

But before I blame Emily for everything I didn't like about this episode, I have to admit that the plot of this show is somewhat on the bland side to begin with. The guys' secret club wasn't particularly interesting, and the conflict with Matthew being kicked out of it was not edge-of-your-seat stuff. I found it amusing that Whit had his one scene as has been the case in the last few episodes, but it seemed rather strange to have him in the show just so that he could act clueless for that one scene.

So it was just a ho-hum show. Matthew was his usual Sam Johnson-like self, Emily was bossy, and we all learned a lesson about trust and friendship. All of which is very average indeed.

Rating: 6/10

The Odyssey Owl--Stolen!

My thoughts on "The Owlnapping," in no particular order...

You know, I think Ryan's the only good kid character that's voiced by an adult. Unlike Emily, Olivia, and Pete, he actually sounds 14 or 15 in every single line. And his voice isn't annoying!

We didn't have to hear any actual basketball, which was a great thing. That's what helped make "The Owlnapping" more entertaining than "Target of the Week" for me. We don't have to try to picture all the sporting action going on, nor endure any commentators.

There was a lot of humor, especially thanks to Coach Chang Fang. I find him to be a bit too much of a caricature, but he's still funny. But probably the most humorous part of this show was all that Ryan had to go through to get the toy owl back--his spoiler in the movie theater was especially fun!

The message was clearly presented, although it was rather obvious that the episode was leading to that conclusion. But Whit brought across the lesson well, anyway.

It was a little on the predictable side, but "The Owlnapping" manages to make what could be a rather dull story into a fun show. It's a better basketball show than "The Fundamentals," IMO.

Rating: 7/10

Oh, and I can't say I missed Jason Earles playing Vance. His voice reminded me too much of Jackson in "Target of the Week." :-)

Characters Let Down the Show

So Kathy Buchanan's back! And her return is a very ho-hum one, thanks to a predictable storyline and uninteresting characters.

My main problem with this episode is that none of the characters, except for Whit, are really likeable. When Kathy had characters like Mandy and Trent to work with, her episodes would often work well because those characters were good kid characters. But Olivia and Barrett are not great characters, and Olivia is especially annoying in this episode. She hasn't improved at all since last season if this show's anything to go on. And if Olivia wasn't annoying enough, along comes Amber, who also sounds like she's played by an adult and is so over-bearing that she's harder to listen to than Olivia. What a laugh that girl has! Priscilla was just there so that Olivia would have someone to talk to, and Barrett was about the only kid that interested me in this episode (and even he was only marginally appealing). Whit was definitely the best character in this episode, but it was too bad he was only in one scene and that he had to talk to Olivia.

Unfortunately, the storyline of this show didn't work for me either. Barrett's fascination with Facebook allowed for some funny lines, but it was obvious right from the beginning what lesson he'd learn. Olivia and Priscilla's celebration of Opposite Day, while intended to be humorous, was not so, and Wooton's observation of Spirit Week only elicited one or two smiles from me (but I'm not usually a fan of Wooton, anyway).

And, if I may devote a third paragraph to being negative about this show, the music sounded recycled. I'm pretty sure all the music cues were from previous shows, and many of them did not convey the right mood at the right place. Or maybe I was just supposed to be laughing when I wasn't... :-P

Yet for all of my grips about "Opposite Day," I did enjoy it. We need a simple kids-slice-of-life episode now and again, and this show did that okay. There were a few humorous moments, like the scene at drama club and Barrett's friend in Guam ("Beat you again, Filipo!"), and Whit's advice, while not necessarily profound, was practical. It's not really a show I can see myself feeling excited about going back to re-listen to, but it probably accomplishes what it sets out to do.

One more thing: AIO producers, please don't get a new voice for Barrett just because Andy Pessoa's voice is starting to change! If Olivia can be played by a 30-year-old, surely her older brother can continue despite having a deeper voice.

Rating: 6/10

Characters Make the Show

You've got to have lovable characters in a regular television show or radio drama. When I think of my favorite television shows I think of the characters which made those shows stand out from similar stuff on television at the same time. Murder, She Wrote was so much more fun than Matlock because I loved Jessica Fletcher's warm character and the bumbling small-town sheriff. Andy Griffith and Barney Fife (along with some of the other regular characters) were the reason why The Andy Griffith Show is so memorable. You get the idea--if you like the main characters of a show, you're more likely to become addicted to it.

Whit, Connie, and Eugene are the main characters of AIO. These three are the constant, lovable characters that we find almost every week on AIO. Or that we hope to find that often. There are times when they're not around so often or when they act oddly. But at least this season the AIO writers seem to be catching on--AIO fans cannot get enough of these classic characters. Of the first five shows this season, four of them have featured Whit, Connie, and Eugene as main characters. The decision to give these old and much-loved characters center stage and relegate new characters like Matthew and Red Hollard to the wings has been a very wise choice, and has meant that album 51 has been less painful for AIO fans so far.

In "Fast As I Can," all of the characters, except for Matthew, are ones that have been around since before the hiatus. We like hearing from Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Wooton, if only because we know them so well. And they did indeed sound like our old friends: Eugene was back to using big words, Whit was being wise and knowledgeable, and Connie was wearing that green sweater that she's had on since 1992. Even Wooton wasn't as annoying as he often can be, except for when his duck Gertrude appeared. The return of Mrs. Randolph was unnecessary, but it did prove that AIO characters don't have to be heard every album to still be around (and if someone had to tempt Wooton with delicacies, why not someone on his mail route that we've heard from before?).

There was lots of good humor in this show, particularly with Eugene's fast. The IS adventure was somewhat humorous as well, although I was left thinking, "was that it?" But the humor wasn't too silly, and thankfully didn't overshadow the messages of the show. I loved how Matthew and Wooton began to care more for people as a result of their fasts, and especially liked Wooton's idea to pray through the phone book.

In the final analysis "Fast As I Can" is kind of average. I enjoyed the episode, possibly more than any other album 52 show so far, but there were a few elements that I didn't like about it. But the premise and lesson were great, and it was a fun show to listen to. Oh, and the characters were really well-written! :-) Although I would've been happier if the show hadn't ended with them chasing a duck...

Rating: 7/10

Twenty-Two Trombones Led the Marching Band!

The following review reveals details which may spoil your enjoyment of "Stage Fright" if you have not yet heard it.

After last season's embarrassing "Game for a Mystery," I was a little concerned about the introduction of the Jones and Parker mysteries. For a kids-slice-of-life mystery, "Game for a Mystery" was a step toward the unimaginative fare that's common on many children's television shows and a step away from the intelligent stories and snappy dialog that we're used to hearing on AIO (compare "Game for a Mystery" and some of the other kids-slice-of-life shows in album 51 with ones from the past like "The Spy Who Bugged Me" and "Broken Window," and I think you'll get my point). Honestly, even bad kids-of-slice shows from before the hiatus ("A Case of Revenge," "Teacher's Pest," possibly even the terrible "Slumber Party") were better than "Game for a Mystery." IMO, it didn't offer enough for listeners outside of AIO's target age range...

But, I am happy to say that "Stage Fright" is an improvement on their first case. For one thing, the mystery surrounds a fun play--a musical, even. The atmosphere of the episode is rich with music, a location that sounds good, and a bunch of kids that are fun to listen to. Even Barrett, who spent most of "Game for a Mystery" whining and being self-absorbed, is a more enjoyable character here (who ever thought his grumbling would be replaced with singing?). Emily seemed to take on the role as the main detective this time (although I guess Matthew was more of a sidekick in "Game for a Mystery," too), and I found her narration to be helpful and generally entertaining--it wasn't as groan-inducing as in album 51.

Perhaps the concept of a ghost haunting a theater is tired or cheesy, but this show generally stayed away from becoming too corny or boring. I was amused that my prediction that a parrot was behind the "haunting" turned out to be true, but the important difference between this episode's culprit and "Game for a Mystery"'s was that the bird had been trained to scare the kids--there was an actual purpose behind the stage fright (was there any reason for the bird to take Barrett's video game? No, it just liked the look of it. That works in an Encyclopedia Brown mystery, but not in an audio drama as multi-layered as AIO is.). Yes, I guessed that Charlie Storfitz had something to do with the mystery (he was even more obvious than Andrew was a few weeks ago), but since I wanted to know the "how" and "why" and it was a fun ride to get to the answers, knowing who the culprit was didn't matter. Charlie's reason for scaring the kids and teacher away didn't really work for me: similar to how I felt after listening to "Mystery at Tin Flat," I didn't really like that the whole mystery was carefully planned for a reality TV show. Another problem with the stage director was that he sounded too much like Wooton, especially when he changed his voice at the end. Although he was still a funny character, that distracted me a little.

I thought the message of this show was rather weak--even "Nothing to Fear," for all of its faults, taught this lesson better. But despite that, "Stage Fright" was a really enjoyable show--definitely Kirby Atkins's best work on AIO so far. The characters were enjoyable, the plot moved along nicely, and there were some great comedic moments. But please, Matthew and Emily, try to solve a mystery not involving an animal next time. :-)

Rating: 7/10

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.

The Mystery of the Stalker Bank Robber, Part Two

When we last left Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Matthew they were on the trail of the person responsible for the city's clock's complications and for leaving flowers and a wedding veil near that clock. But we were all fooled, because it turned out that it was all an elaborate ruse to get the town of Odyssey focused on the clock tower while the bad guys did bad things in another part of town. Yep, there we have "Clock Tower," part two.

This episode went in a different direction from last week--what started off as more of a personal, "romantic" mystery turned into a story about stalking and robbery. You know, I don't think we've ever had a bank robbery on AIO. Sure, there was that Amos guy on that gold mine video, but we all know the Odyssey cartoons don't count for anything. It wasn't particularly exciting to hear a computer/ cleaning nerd and his father casually break into the bank--not as great of a climax as could've been presented to us.

Of all the characters in this episode, I think Eugene was used the best. He really should work with comptuers more, since that's what he's best at. He moved the show along well. Whit and Connie were okay, but I didn't like the part with the two talking on their separate phone at the exact same time--it sounded very scripted and uncomfortable.

Andrew may have been somewhat obvious as the villain of the two-parter, but the bank manager wasn't as obvious. In my opinion, both of them were boring characters. Andrew was only memorable because he was an obsessive stalker who belongs on CSI, not AIO. I guess stalking is more unique than robbery or murder for an AIO mystery, but it still was definitely on the creepy side.

The message of this show was really weak. That might have been okay if the story or characters were strong, but they weren't so much. Okay, so "sin will find you out" and "every moment has consequences"--those are nice little messages, but they seem more like an afterthought than anything. They weren't really reinforced or obvious in the story itself. It was a pity that we didn't get to hear the reconciliation between Alicia, Wendy, and Michael, but that love story was treated as something unnecessary to the show after such a big deal was made out of it last week.

So, my prediction was right: I didn't actually enjoy this show so much. Part One was good, but part two just couldn't deliver. The storyline wasn't bad, but the way the story was scripted (and perhaps acted out) was flawed. I almost ended up not caring by the time the second break came around. It's not one of AIO's finest mysteries (although in comparison with other recent ones, it isn't bad)--it just could've been better.

Part 1: 8/10
Part 2: 5/10
Both Parts: 6/10

The Clock Strikes 11:45...Again and Again and Again

AIO returns for a new season of small-town fun with "The Mystery of the Clock Tower." Or small-town mystery, as it turns out.

This show almost felt like a Father Gilbert mystery, except it was set in America and there were no British accents. It felt awkward at first--I found it hard to get in to--, but as the pace picked up a bit and the mystery grew deeper I started to get interested. Probably the best part of the episode was the two scenes which went back and forth: Alicia Jennings telling Eugene and Matthew about her role as a courier twenty years earlier, while Michael gave his side of the story. That was written very well and made the presentation of the back story stay interesting without resorting to flashbacks. We also get different perspectives on the same event, although we miss out on hearing the voice of Wendy, the third character in the twenty-year old tale.

We meet a new mayor in this show, whom we can assume has replaced Mayor Faye. How this has transpired is left up to our imaginations, as it mustn't have been exciting enough to make it in to an AIO episode. I'm not sad to see Margaret go--thirteen years as a liberal mayor of a conservative town was a good run for her, although I'm not sure who voted for her all those elections--, but Mayor Spencer Hicks doesn't have much of a character in part one of "Clock Tower." Nothing connected me to him as a person, and unlike with Tom Riley and Margaret Faye we haven't gotten to know him before he became mayor. I'm sure he could become more interesting with future appearances, but right now he's one of those stock characters (but he did only get one scene in part one...).

Whit, Connie, and Eugene are our main investigators here, which makes the story move smoothly. When you have old and beloved characters in every scene, it's just got to make the episode better. And Matthew's occasional comments let us know that he's still there, but not trying to take the spotlight away from AIO characters that we like better. It turns out Dreams by Constance has made it past the hiatus and actually gets events to cater for! Why a 16-year old who's never had a good boyfriend or healthy romantic relationship is running a wedding planning service is anybody's guess, but at least the writers have let Connie keep helping those who do manage to find true love in Odyssey. It's a reassurance that the main AIO characters haven't changed much since before the hiatus. On the topic of Connie, I thought her moment of inquiry at the flower store was a nice scene--some gentle humor with Connie getting out and about.

The music was notably different from what we usually hear on AIO. Sounded more like what you would hear on Left Behind, but it worked for this episode. And they actually used the new 30-second theme to start off the episode--I appreciated that.

Not being able to listen to part two of this show right away was not a problem for me--I felt the denouement could easily wait. Somebody's trying to re-create the events from 20 years ago--my guess is the mysterious Wendy--, but it wasn't a show which really left my head spinning with questions. Yes, questions were left unanswered, but the answers can wait. I'll have to wait to reserve my verdict on this episode until part two has aired, but so far it's been well done and easy to listen to. Connie hasn't gotten addicted to anything and Whit hasn't invented an incomprehensible new invention, nor has Mortimer made an appearance (or was that Finnian? ;-) ). So far so good!

Those "Jilted" flowers sound seriously sick, by the way. :-D

Eleven More Adventures in Odyssey, Coming Right Up!

So a new season of AIO starts this weekend! Most of us made it through that awkward fall season of AIO--the season which had heaps of (mainly unlikeable) new characters, too many storylines lacking originality and depth, and a generally different feel from what we usually expect from AIO. There were a few good shows in there ("Grandma's Visit" and "The Jubilee Singers" stand out for me), but classic AIO was hard to find in most of the shows. But album 52 is almost here! And it can only get better, right? Some of the descriptions of the upcoming shows seem to indicate "yes," but others "no."

The Mystery of the Clock Tower
Simply put, this season premiere has been overrated by AIO fans. They're expecting too much from it. Yes, it's written by Paul McCusker (and Marshal Younger as well, I think), one of the best AIO writers. Yes, it's some cool kind of mystery. But, no, it's not going to blow your socks off. My guess is that it will be on the simplistic side. The two preview clips released are fine, but don't show a great deal of intensity or emotional impact. It might work okay, but I'm thinking something more along the lines of "Sounds Like a Mystery" than "The Treasure of LeMonde!"

Wooton's Broken Pencil Show
This one actually has potential. I mean, even the stated lesson of it--that "entertainment should have a point"--is funny. Wooton wasn't heard that much in album 51, and if he's used properly in "Broken Pencil" I think we have a potentially ROFTLOL kind of episode here. I for one really enjoyed Captain Absolutely in The Truth Chronicles album, and so his return is nothing but good news for me. The main problem I foresee with this episode is that it might all get too silly, as the writers are wont to do when Wooton is involved. Doing that lessens the impact of his character and makes the episode he's involved in too removed from reality to be pleasant to listen to.

Stage Fright
If it isn't The Jones and Parker Detective Agency again! I still haven't quite gotten over the lameness of their last case in "Game for a Mystery," but I guess the writers think they're on to a winner with their little sleuthing business. And, in all honesty, this one shows more potential than last season's one. Firstly, it involves a school play. School plays are more interesting to hear about than video games--they're more sociable and involve interaction. Secondly, there is much more of a chance that an actual human being is behind the "crime" here. If it's a talking parrot that's yelling backstage then I'll officially admit that Jones and Parker is doomed for failure. Not that they won't always solve their cases--we do have writers behind their investigations, after all--but that the entertainment value of them is limited.

Fast As I Can
Here's another show which has potential, but could definitely mess up if not written right. In its favor is a theme which AIO has never properly covered before: what fasting's all about. It's not really the easiest theme to touch upon, but an episode on this is probably overdue. However, we have the problem that the "comedic antics" of our Odyssey friends (mainly Wooton) might turn this into some sort of 20-minute long comedy about Wooton giving up his favorite things, followed by a 2-minute serious discussion (interrupted by comments and snorts by Wooton, of course) between Whit and Matthew. This show could be done so well, but my gut feeling is that it may not take itself seriously enough to deliver.

Opposite Day
So Olivia, everyone's favorite 30-year old in middle school, is back. Can't say I missed hearing from her over the summer, really. At least it sounds like she's doing something nice in this episode--befriending a girl who's nothing like her (that reminds me of "A Lesson from Mike," actually). That could prove interesting. Meanwhile another character who AIO fans fell in love with, Barrett, gets some air-time in this episode. Turns out he's got a Facebook account already and has an addiction to clicking the little "Add as friend" button. A similar plotline was done on DGL last year, but if AIO does it slightly differently that shouldn't be a problem. I do wonder what Olivia and Barrett will learn from their new friendships, though. That people who are different from you are worth befriending? That you shouldn't lie about your age when joining Facebook? There's good potential (hey, that's my favorite word today!) with this show, I think--although, as afore mentioned, Olivia and Barrett aren't the best characters on modern-day Odyssey.

The Owlnapping
Wouldn't it be wacky if Andre Stojka played an owl in this episode? That was my first thought when I heard this episode title. But the AIO writers have come up with an even more wacky idea than that: "What if a basketball team had a mascot--oh, let's say an owl--and it disappeared and the team got all worked up about it. Surely no one would realize that we already did something like that in the 'The Winning Edge'!" It almost makes my "Owl leaves from Pooh Corner to visit Odyssey" idea look workable in comparison. A missing mascot is uninteresting, the message about knowing that true power comes from God is predictable, and sports games can be hard to portray on radio. But at least Jones and Parker aren't involved with solving this mystery, though. ;-)

Square One
You know, I don't mind Matthew at all. People were saying that there was too much of him in album 51, but for me that just allowed me to get to know him well. I don't think he's as plain as Sam Johnson is, as I heard one AIO fan suggest, and I like how he was established as part of a family (rather than just a kid who has a mother and father somewhere out there, but prefers to consider Whit's End his true home). He would have to be the best new kid character, in my opinion. He's joined in this episode by Emily Jones, a character who is not nearly as likeable as M.P. She often seems to be bossing Matthew around, actually. So in this show Matthew's joined some sort of mysterious club and Emily decides to investigate. Of course, the club is all very innocent and it'll probably turn out that its members are planning Emily a surprise birthday party or something. Emily will learn about trust (because whitsend.org has said she will ;-) ) and we listeners will learn what on earth the cryptic title refers to. This show could go either way, depending on how the content is handled and how strong the story is.

A Thankstaking Story
This episode has become the most anticipated of all the album 52 shows for me, especially after hearing the clip on the AIO Scoopcast. Granted, AIO doesn't always do Thanksgiving well ("A Thanksgiving Carol" is the most notable example of that--I agree with Nathan Hoobler that it "isn't...a well-done version of the Dickens classic" and it just doesn't work), and this could be an embarrassing flop, yet the originality of the concept of the show and the promise of a holiday comedy-musical appeal to me. It features Whit, Connie, Eugene, Wooton, and even Harlow (yes, an occasional appearance by him is fine by me!)--classic AIO characters--and involves people being at Whit's End on Thanksgiving. That doesn't remind me of "Lights Out at Whit's End"; that reminds me of "Thank You, God." And if they capture even a little bit of the "magic" of AIO's first Thankgiving show, then I will be pleased with "Thankstaking."

An Agreeable Nanny
We'll probably get another Spanish lesson here like we got in "Grandma's Visit," seeing as that the Parkers' "agreeable nanny" is called Maria. That would be an agreeable arrangement for me, but I'm less certain about the Parkers' neighbor's dog Bruno--are we going to have to suffer through some cartoonish humor in this one? As I said, I like the Parkers. I don't mind spending some time with them. But do they have to repeat some of the same things that families that went before them did? Last season they were having a garage sale, which every AIO fan in the whole universe quickly saw as "Treasures of the Heart" with a few differences, and "An Agreeable Nanny" sounds similar to the Washington kids' adventures in "The Mailman Cometh." Sure, I like "The Mailman Cometh," but we've already learned this: just 'cause you feel responsible doesn't actually mean you should be given lots of responsibility. However, I'm obviously pre-judging an episode which I know very little about. It seems like some of the cast and crew have top marks for this episode, so I guess we can expect it to have some value.

The Malted Milkball Falcon
Just in case you haven't had your fill of mysteries with album 52 yet (this is mystery number #4 on the album--#5 if you count "Square One" as a mystery as well), by not-so-popular demand the AIO writers bring back the team of Parker and Jones! Who emptied the chocolate from the piñata is the mystery in question this time. My guess is that a squirrel took it. Or maybe a rat. Emily and Matthew don't actually solve cases that involve human culprits, do they? :-D It's kind of a cool episode title (now that I think of it, there's quite a few good episode titles this season), but whether the content of the show measures up is anyone's guess. Oh, of course! I've figured out the culprit now! It was a falcon! How slow of me! ;-)

Grandma's Christmas Visit
I like Christmas, and I like Christmas radio dramas. I'm always excited when I hear that AIO has a new one on the way, and one involving a visit by Abuelita to Odyssey sounds like a sure-fire winner! But the old and much loved characters aren't forgotten either, as Connie and Eugene work on an elaborate Christmas celebration. Sure, the message about "the true meaning of Christmas" will be familiar, but we won't care because it'll be so warm and fuzzy and John Campbell will do his thing with Christmas-sounding music between the scenes and we just will think that this is a perfect end to the season! That's what I'm hoping at least. :-)

What do you guys think? Am I too harsh with my predictions? Look out for my reviews of the episodes once they air later this fall!