923: Please Adjust Your Frequency

Archived reviews of Adventures in Odyssey episodes!
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Patterson
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923: Please Adjust Your Frequency

Post by Patterson »

Episode summary from Aiowiki: Buddy Norman, Zoe Grant, and Jay Smouse create a radio play for a school project, but each of them has a wildly different idea about how the story should end.

This episode was hilarious! I must have missed hearing this episode the first time around. My new favorite Jay episode. 10/10
I loved all the different endings and Jay and Buddy's adlibbing. The overdone sound effects were great along with Jay's different accents.
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KODY 105
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Post by KODY 105 »

The re-working of the story was amusing. I need to give this another listen-to. It's about kids, and they build each other up, and also engage in creative ventures. I realize Jay Smouse is supposed to be the Rodney Rathbone replacement, which he struggles to do, but he's entertaining in his own way.

4/5
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Bob
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Post by Bob »

I liked this episode more than I expected. Having four different endings gave variety, and with one or two exceptions early on, Jay's dialogue is vintage-quality.

I perceive this episode as being fundamentally about teamwork and filling your roles instead of trying to 'outshine' others and bring attention to yourself. In a loose sense, it is a little similar to "Two Sides to Every Story", in that you're hearing multiple stories where each person is trying to give themselves the stand-out part. Buddy and Zoe both want to be the lead, when Jay is given the chance to run the program, he turns his bit part into a larger-than-life Mafia 'godfather', and even Vincent 'gets bored easily' and randomly throws sound effects in to make his role in the process stand out more (which sets us up for some brilliant ad-libbing).

As far as the endings go, I think it's pretty obvious that Zoe's is the worst one. We know she has previously been able to discern weak script elements ("Always Do Your Best-ish"), so I'm curious if she would have written it that way if she wasn't also playing the role. Jay's over-the-top gangster parody gets credit for at least being entertaining, but it lacks artistic merit and is too cliched to have gotten them a good grade.

That leaves Buddy's original and second endings as the top two options. Someone opined at the Soda Shop that his first take may have been better than the newer one. Of course, practically speaking, it isn't, for the simple reason that there's no way that Zoe would agree to play it that way, and satisfying her is a necessary part of getting it produced. But from a pure writing and plot perspective, it's more ambiguous.

The thing that separates the final ending from the others is that it gives everyone an equal part; there's some back-and-forth between the three characters, and they all have something to contribute. There is still a case, too. However, there is no real 'villain', which may make it weaker from the perspective of someone who wants the detective to 'crack the case' and bring someone to justice. I suspect a lot of detective-saga fans do like that kind of black-and-white ending. Which one you think is better may depend on what audience you're aiming at.

Buddy is written as a bit of a stronger character than I remember him being in the past, but I suppose that makes sense, as he's growing up and getting more comfortable with his peers (enough to verbally joust with them). If he had a crush on Zoe at one point, he's apparently gotten over it.

In the typical 5-star system, I'd probably give it a 4, although I suspect '3.5' is probably more accurate, when you're comparing it to other episodes in an all-time sense.
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