Just in case that title doesn't clarify my thoughts on "Game for a Mystery," I'm sure this audio review will!
Showing posts with label disliked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disliked. Show all posts
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
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
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
Saturday, January 01, 2011
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)
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)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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
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
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