Favourite/Least Favourite Episodes

[Jehoshaphat]

I really enjoyed C&C. I thought it was a little bit creepy at times but I enjoyed it. My favorite episode is either Basset Hounds, The Mortal Coil, and the one about Eugene and Bernard on the jury. My least favorite is probably the one with the birds in Album 51, I think?

[Laurie]

I have many favorite AIO episodes, too many to list here. My #1 favorite is Promises, Promises because it is the first AIO episode I ever listened to. My least favorite is The Great Wishy Woz, no offense intended to anyone who likes that episode.

[The Mysterious]

The Blackgaard Episodes are great. So is "The Last Great Adventure of Summer." "Snow day" is pretty awful, as well as the Bethany episodes.

[Scientific Guy]

The Blackgaard Episodes are great.

Oh yeah, totally with you!

So is "The Last Great Adventure of Summer."

Yes, yes! I feel you there!

"Snow day" is pretty awful...

you monster

[Steve]

There aren't a ton of episodes that I frequently revisit, having kinda fallen off the AIO bandwagon a few years back. But man, Heat Wave is a really fantastic episode. It really captures the feeling of being a bored kid in the middle of summer. On that note, I think VBS Blues and KIDS radio both capture some amount of nostalgia for me that no other episode does.

As for least favorite episodes, I'll skip the usual split episodes and go with either "An Agreeable Nanny" or "For The Birds" are among my least favorites. I remember having high hopes for the Parker family, but these episodes really cemented them as unlikable, bratty kids in my mind. I also hated any episode with Emily Jones when I first heard them.

[WindowWasher]

My least favorite is The Great Wishy Woz, no offense intended to anyone who likes that episode.

Agreed. I don't think I've ever been able to listen all the way through, that's how bad it is. My #1 favorite is Greater Love. I tear up every time I listen to it.

[Old Brad]

Favorites include (but are not limited to): 'Madge and Guy' and 'A License to Drive'.

Least favorites: excluding album 55, any of the episodes after album 53 that I've listened to I haven't really liked. That said, I haven't listened to many of the episodes after album 55.

[Calhoun07]

I am not up to date on the entire series yet, so this may change...

But I would say my least favorite so far has been "It's a Pokenberry Christmas"

I see what they were trying to do there... but I honestly feel the show failed. It didn't feel like a homage to It's A Wonderful Life to me, nor did it come off as a clever humorous parody like they have done with other tales (like Gifts for Madge & Guy.)

But Jimmy crying "Oh Daddy" was one of the funniest moments in the series, but I am not sure the laughs were intentional.

Too much of it directly lifted material from the movie and the writing just felt lazy and called in at best.
It's not the worst episode of the series but certainly my least favorite so far, and there's a difference between worst and least favorite in my book.

If I could find something good to say about this episode, it left me wanting more of the Barclays in Pokenberry Falls. It's disappointing they never got a series based in that town, even a 12 episode mini series. At the end of it, it left me wanting more.

[raspberryripple]

Is it wrong to continue a conversation from years ago? Oh well.

I actually liked Castles and Cauldrons! Not my favorite, but I did like it. My all-time favorite has always been Malachi’s Message, but a good runner-up is Life Expectancy (lyke if u crie evrytiem). I do crie evrytiem

Those are sort of emotional favorites though. Amusement/general enjoyment favorites are Flash Flood, Room Mates, or Poor Loser. I love Bernard (period) and Eugene together.

Least favorites (at least the freshest least favorites on my mind) are The Sandwich Initiative and The Toy. The Toy had a nice heartfelt message I guess, but I just found them both to be so boring. And we don’t even mention Icky and Kat and Balty and Bones (from the Club Exclusive albums). That one was an absolute cringe-fest. I couldn’t even get through the first listen. I stopped at Buck singing “Prankster Gangster” (uh haw haw).

[Monica Stone]

Is it wrong to continue a conversation from years ago? Oh well.

Nah, I love reading old threads so it's fun to reopen them!

I have many favorites. But I would say my top favorites (in no particular order) are probably...

-The Forgotten Deed
-Plan B, Parts 1-4
-The Top Floor, Parts 1-3
-A Sacrificial Escape
-The Battle, Parts 1-2

I could listen to these episodes on loop tirelessly (and I have). They never get old and I have heard all of them an unhealthy amount of times. I realize all of these episodes but one are apart of one saga or another. Hmm. As for a least favorite episode, I'm probably going to say "When You're Right, You're Right." It is not the worst Odyssey episode, but right now, it's my least favorite. It makes me want to grind my teeth the whole way through and makes me wildly uncomfortable.

I'm going to come out and defend "Castles and Cauldrons" because almost everyone is too harsh to it. This episode doesn't say, "Everyone who plays D&D is sinning." It's more of a cautionary tale of what can and maybe has happened. I think Whit even says roleplaying isn't necessarily bad and can actually be good for the imagination. Just certain kinds of roleplaying (like Len's) can be unhealthy and even dangerous. But also, I don't know enough about D&D to say anything too substantial.

[mortymoscowitz]

My favorite (and I think a severely-underrated episode): Top This

I know it isn't that flashy and it has a weird B-plot without any really top-tier characters. BUT Cryin' Bryan Dern's ridiculous attempt to boost his ratings never fails to make me laugh. I would have listened to a whole mini-series of episodes based around that. And the little easter eggs in here: the Springsteenesque "What are they saying" segment, the commercials in the background of the radio, just so much about this episode is hilarious and exciting.

Other favs: Hold Up, V.B.S. Blues, Mayor for a Day, Suspicious Minds, The Case of the Secret Room, Clara

Least favorites: The Day After Christmas, By Dawn's Early Light, almost everything post-album 50 (maybe this is a hot take, and there are *some* good episodes--I think Buck's family history is interesting and the GRC is good, though not up to the level of past sagas--but overall they just feel stale and charmless)

[mortymoscowitz]

Least favorites (at least the freshest least favorites on my mind) are The Sandwich Initiative and The Toy. The Toy had a nice heartfelt message I guess, but I just found them both to be so boring. And we don’t even mention Icky and Kat and Balty and Bones (from the Club Exclusive albums). That one was an absolute cringe-fest. I couldn’t even get through the first listen. I stopped at Buck singing “Prankster Gangster” (uh haw haw).

Agreed with all of this. To be honest, the Club exclusives are bad. We all know it. They're noticeably sub-par and pretty cringey. And for a show that's already been getting a bit more sub-par and cringey through the last ~20ish albums, that's a really rough spot to be in. I probably won't listen to the next Club season. I tried to think of a couple standout Club exclusives and honestly couldn't.

[Monica Stone]

To be honest, the Club exclusives are bad. We all know it. They're noticeably sub-par and pretty cringey. And for a show that's already been getting a bit more sub-par and cringey through the last ~20ish albums, that's a really rough spot to be in. I probably won't listen to the next Club season. I tried to think of a couple standout Club exclusives and honestly couldn't.

I disagree strongly that the club episodes are intrinsically bad. The club episodes have had some of the best stories of recent years. "Charlotte," "Unsinkable, Parts 1-2," and "One More Name, Parts 1-3" to name a few. There have been some great comedies, dramas, historical episodes. I don't think it's fair to wave off all the club episodes simply because they are "club episodes." I will admit this year has been extremely lackluster for club episodes, though.

[Catspaw]

My favorite (and I think a severely-underrated episode): Top This

I know it isn't that flashy and it has a weird B-plot without any really top-tier characters. BUT Cryin' Bryan Dern's ridiculous attempt to boost his ratings never fails to make me laugh. I would have listened to a whole mini-series of episodes based around that. And the little easter eggs in here: the Springsteenesque "What are they saying" segment, the commercials in the background of the radio, just so much about this episode is hilarious and exciting.

I am with you on "Top This!" I love that episode and it is one of my favourites. I never get tired of it. Obviously the Dern stuff is the best stuff, but I do like the message of the B-plot and I think having the slice-of-life relatable storyline helps ground the episode. It might have seemed too over-the-top otherwise.

[mortymoscowitz]

I may be a *little* harsh on the Club episodes. But when they're bad, they're REAL bad--(Icky etc., Walter's Flying Bus come to mind) or just very forgettable. Maybe that's more so the shift of focus away from the usual, memorable characters on to one-off historical or literary stories. To be frank though, I don't think it's just the Club exclusives. We're in a rut of some less-than-inspired episodes lately. (OR, and this is probably the real truth, I am just always nostalgic for the old episodes I've heard many times, so the new stuff *feels* subpar. It's probably that.)

[Catspaw]

I haven't listened to the Club episodes, so I can't comment on them. I am a Club member, so I could - I just haven't yet.

I really do think nostalgia plays a big part in how we view "old" vs. "new" episodes. I'm not saying there aren't other real factors as well, but I think it's hard to objectively compare something you've loved since you were a kid vs. something new you just heard as an adult. I think about that with movies and books etc. too. Would I like this the same amount if I didn't have decades of happy memories associated with it? Maybe not. Either way, whether things are objectively worse or not, if you don't like them as much, then that's still a fair way to make decisions about how to spend your time. If listening to an old favourite makes you happy, go for it!

[Wod Fam Choc Sod]

Some of my favorites: (note I said some, not all)
-The Green Ring Conspiracy Saga
-Every single history one...
-Prisoners of Fear
-The Launch
-For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
-Train Ride
-Malachi's Message
-I Slap Floor

Some of my least favorites:
-The Novacom Saga
-Accidental Dilemma
-Bringing up Dads
-The World of Whitonia
-The Labyrinth

[Monty_Whittaker]

Well, I'll still hold that my favorite is probably Mortal Coil, though there's a few others from other eras I'd say are up there.
For worst, however?

Legacy really ticks me off in Part 2, to the point I despise it, however Castles and Cauldrons takes the cake for misrepresenting RPGs in such a light that's just inexcusable and even without that is just not that good of an episode since the VAing is pretty weak and the plot is non sensical.

[Patterson]

So hard to choose a favorite, but Heatwave, Gone... ,Gifts for Madge and Guy, and Relatively Annoying are some that come to mind. Heatwave is like being a bored kid with your best friend coming up with a silly adventure. Gone... is sad but hopeful at the same time. Madge and Guy is just hilarious. And the grandparents in Relatively Annoying are like a parody of my grandparents(true for other people too, I'm sure).

My least favorite would have to The Feud of Mason County. I like some southern stereotype humor, but this is too cringey. A "feud" over fake bible verses? How did they even come up with that for a plot? Why?!! Some episodes are a lot more preachy about the moral, but most of the time those mostly make sense.

[Monty_Whittaker]

Okay, to be honest, I've grown a signficant dislike for Blackgaard's Revenge recently. Mainly because the episode itself isn't even that great, it doesn't make sense how it even happens, and it provides a lame ending to both Blackgaard as a character and him and Whit's conflict, especially since Blackgaard's best foil, at least in my opinion, was Jack, not Whit. And it provides nothing to Aubrey, either - it's just a pointless episode that's a waste of a good character who's story had already concluded.