SPEAK NOT OF THIS UNTIL THE APPOINTED HOUR!

You broke your own rule! You are evil!

*laughs* hakebar, that's not Shadowpaw, it's Top.

5 stars. though if Top had wrote, I would have voted 3 stars or less. I thought it was great. And my favorite quote is. "Your liver's rolling across the table."

I voted 5 stars, though I don't think it could be any better, no matter who wrote it!
It was good to hear more about Mandy and her family.

It was good. I voted 5 stars. I think Kathy Buchanen writes all the emotional girl episodes--which makes sense seeing as she's the only girl...anyway, I was REALLY glad to hear from Mandy again and not just focus on Eugene. The whole kill the roses thing seemed a little lame to me at the beginning but it did make sense--sort of--more towards the end (when we found out his roses were going to be in a contest or something?) The whole conversation while he was disecting the frog was HILARIOUS!!! I loved it! Except, I was eating breakfast so at times I was like, gross! (you're losing the spleen!) I'm glad that he decided not to do it, then to do it, then not to do it again...I knew he was going to go in on it but when he left with Mandy it really showed that he DID care. Her play was funny too. When both her mom and dad were up there I was like...this is not good...I know what she's up to! lol. And the middle part where they were telling her (and Connie) that they were going to seperate and Mandy said "you just need faith, or counseling!" it really WAS word for word of their real conversation...which I thought was great. AND it had a good ending with her and her mother bonding. So, that's my 2 cents....

4 stars It was a good episode I think i am starting to like the new david.

I voted 2 stars. I didn't think it was all that good.

As a special treat, I'm going to review as I listen. (I tried this last week but my annoying laptop shut down on me.)

Warning: SPOILERS!

I started laughing at the "Talking about the roses" part because it sounds like something somebody I know would do.

Oooh, Mandy's going to do another one of her plays! And methinks she's up to something.

Yet another LOL moment was when David was dissecting the frog.

Um, I don't think think they will like the look on their teacher's face.

"Your liver just rolled across the table!" I'm definately going to quote that line.

Uh oh.

Double uh oh. Does Mandy think David's getting into drugs?

Oops. Question solved.

Poor David and Mandy.

Mandy's def. up to something.

Mrs. Neechou yodeling!?!

You could really feel the emotion when Mandy's parents are confronting her. Kudos to Aria Curzon for excellent acting.

It was a nice touch to have Connie talk to Mandy about her parents.

Wow, the scene with the rosebushes sounds like something that would happen where I live.

All in all, this episode was excellent. Five stars!

Haystack

so far this season is really shaping up to be great! i'm glad that the writers are sticking to what works best: great stories about the lives of characters we have grown to love and care about.

I voted 3. It wasn't terrible, but nothing reached out and grabbed me to say, "This is a great episode."

I was torn between a 3 and a 4, so I decided to be nice and give it a 4!!!

Some things I really liked... I thought David and his friend dude that I forget the name of sounded pretty natural, not dumb like teenagers often sound. Their interaction is mainly why I rank it as high as I did. Not that the rest was bad... just "three" territory.

What I didn't like was Mandy's parents seemed like so annoyed as they were reading that script... haha. Yeah, I'm sure they would be annoyed, but it's like they probably would have done a better job for their daughter, not to mention they were in front of so many people. And I also thought it was dumb afterwords that they got into a fight about casserole being cold. My goodness, I'd hope they'd have deeper reasons for a seperation than that. And I'm sure it's implied that they did, and it was just a little thing that agitated them, but still...

Also, I thought it was really mean of Mrs. Straussburg to ground David for getting a detention... since he really didn't deserve one. Seriously, he didn't even explain what happened. I'd just say, "Uh, mom... something funny happened. I have a sense of humor and couldn't repress a laugh, and the dumb teacher gave me a detention." Actually, I'd have taken it up with the school principal! I did that before with the one detention I ever got, and got it dismissed!

The first time I listened to it I thought it was just average. I'm going to listen to it again now and review it as I go.

The opening was clever starting w/ the home videos and it sets the emotional tone for the episode when Mandy talks to her mom.

I do like the new David because I think it's good that AIO is letting him grow up and not be a little boy. (I wonder how old he is supposed to be?)

Of course, the frog dissection scene was funny.

I think it's really unrealistic for the teacher to call David's parents. A detention is not that big of a deal. And what does Mrs. Straussberg mean when she says, "Those are the rules"?

That scene where Mandy sees David through the window REALLY sounds like she thinks he's getting into drugs. That would have been a nice touch. Too adult though, I guess.

Nice acting by Mandy and David in the scene in his room.

Mrs. Neetchou yodeling... HA I didn't catch that last time.

Mandy's skit was really... emotional. Wow. That was really interesting. I hate the end. of it (i.e. Connie and Mandy: YAY!!)

I liked when her parents argue about the play, and that was fine acting by Aria Curzon.

Teachers... read in bed. Hee hee.

The rose thing was kind of lame. They should have been spray painting his house or something.

"I'll see you in Algebra"... LAME - O

But I like the end a lot... David and Mandy leaving and Mandy and her mom bonding.

The guy who plays David is Robbie Rist, who played Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch. He is 42 and it is too obvious for me. It is disracting, because he does not sound like a teenager.

I gave it 4 stars. Mandy's heart was in the right place. But she should not have done that in public. But it was good to see her plays are still around.


We havent heard from Aria in a while, She must be busy. It would be cool to get a review or behind the scenes from her, since she was on so much.

I voted a four, I thought the writers did a good job of drawing the listeners into the story and I also felt like the characters were real people and not just there for the sake of it.

4 stars for me. My complaints:

1. Robbie Rist. I must admit, he did better than my expectations for him in this episode, but he's not David. I understand if they couldn't get the original voice actor for David back, but couldn't they at least get a real teen? And the same goes for David's friend (although at least Greg Cipes is in his mid-20's). Also, though I seem to be in the minority on this one, I felt that the entire frog-dissecting scene was forced. It seemed like it was trying too hard to be funny, and it didn't work at all for me.

2. Mandy's play. I'm sorry, but no kid would do that to their parents! I'm surprised that they didn't just refuse to participate and sit back down before it even started. They knew what she was up to. And though I understand Mandy's hopes that this was her chance to get them to make up, did she really think she would accomplish anything by publicly embarrassing her parents by making them announce to the entire audience that they were splitting up, then acting out a fantasy scene where they get back together? The whole thing just felt wrong to me. However, maybe it was supposed to.

Now, these two points aren't as big of a deal to me as I made them out to be, and other than that I really liked the episode. It was very well-written and had some great scenes. I kind of wish that David's rebellious attitude could have been stretched out for a few more episodes, but I still really like the scene at the end when he stands up for his sister. Also, I loved Connie in this ep! She got a chance to be a mentor again, something we haven't seen much of in a while, and we got more of her mature side. I hope that she continues to help Mandy through this, because it would be great to see them bond. Also, I would love to hear more about Connie's dad.

And, as always, there's my $.02.

EDIT: one more thing: I was also glad to hear from Dr. Hawthorne again!

I don't feel like writing a full review, so,



On that note, is there anything that guy doesn't know or teach?

4 stars. Liked it, but not perfect.

Applesauce, I agree with you 100 %.

Here's my review

Ok, I gave it 3 stars, but not necessarily because I didn't like it, but there wasn't anything that really made me want to give it more....if that makes sense. I actually thought that were going to resolve this famliy mess really quickly like maybe a lot of it in this episode, but I'm glad they didn't because divorce situations really last a long time like my friend's divorce situation lasted for six months. I kinda have a problem with david, but he isn't horrible and he does decent acting. Very touching episode that shows the true problems families can tend to have. Oh, and I'm really happy that they've kept Nathan Carlson in to play the father as he used to in Tornado and earlier he played richard maxwell. Good to hear from Dr. Hawthorne again as well. Ok I'm done...