Episode Review: Episode 577:The Business of Busyness
Writer: John Fornof (#36) and Kathy Buchanan (#34)
Sound Designer: Glenn Montjoy
Average Rating of TOO Members:
74.6% (with 30 Votes)
Title:
The Business with Marvin’s Dinosaur Club
Characters:
Whit (#382)
Eugene (#170)
Connie (#272)
Marvin (#19)
Tamika (#14)
Elaine Washington (#9)
Ed Washington (#8)[/i]
Critics are calling this episode the worst of the season.
Haha. It isn’t a bad thing, trust me. However, to start off my review, I’d like to quote myself from 4 reviews ago.
Broadcast wrote: An episode that doesn't bring the series down makes my day
That’s where I’ll begin. This episode did bring the series down only slightly. First of all, I think we all noticed that Marvin’s voice is…well…changing. And, with that change, a few of us are expecting a change in maturity as well. To be perfectly honest, I felt the fact that he was part of a Dinosaur club nearly ridiculous. Sure, Jimmy Barclay was into secret agents longer after his voice change, but you have to admit that it’s not the same thing whatsoever. I think the writers didn’t take into consideration that the actor grew up since the last episode—nearly a season and a half ago.
Which is a shame, to say the least, because I believe most of us were really hoping to hear more of Marvin as a kid—as we did with Jimmy—but now, we won’t. Once Tamika grows up, that families outta here (unless they have another kid soon). Truly, it’s a shame that most of them didn’t make and appearance last season. We really need to hear the most of them as much as possible, even though they aren’t still sounding like a strong developed family yet. I thought they did previously, but my mind has changed into believing that now. They clearly aren’t well developed yet. Though, almost…
I mean, if you’d take a glance at the number of episodes that they’ve each been in, then you’d agree with me that we hardly have had time to get to know them. And, strangely, I found Ed to be the less developed character out of them all—appropriate, since he turns out to have been the one to show up in the least number of episodes.
I think they need to turn him into a George Barclay. George wasn’t always in every episode his family was in, which was what made him develop by himself. With Ed having his own adult storyline, with his own adult conversation, then we might get a better feeling of who he is. The three small adult talks with Whit so far hasn’t helped him much. He needs to get more involved with other characters, as well.
However, again, I still enjoy the family. I just wished they got used a bit better.
Which brings me nicely into my next point. Why does that family always revolve some sort of stupidity? Going through the list of their episodes, most of them have attempted to be funny or comical. I’d like to hear them just try to deal with a problem seriously and normally for a change. By stupidity, I meatn stuff like, “Chasing Cheese-doodles” or the “powder Puff Pamela deal”, or worst, the kitchen appliances jokes!
I don’t believe I ever expressed my discontent for the kitchen appliance jokes throughout Odyssey, and so, I am expressing them now. Lately, Odyssey has ended a scene, or had
attempted to finish a conversation, with kitchen appliance jokes. We have no idea what they’re talking about, and so it’s supposed to be funny by leaving it up to the audience to figure out. It happens a lot with the Wooton-epsiodes, and every so often, leaks into these slice-of-life episodes. I don’t understand what’s so funny about Eugene saying he’s going to bring a
meat slicer or a
spatula . I’m not being biased because I’m older and not finding the humor as funny, but I know for a fact that kids aren’t laughing at those jokes, well, at least none of the kids that I know. And, I certainly never laughed at them when I listened to Odyssey when I was younger—or perhaps that’s because they didn’t feature that type of humor. To back up my argument, I’ll go through several other episodes which have included the kitchen appliance jokes.
Speaking of dialogue, there was one instance of completely terrible dialogue from Connie that made me wince. It was the part where she misunderstood the phrase ‘hands-up’ and assumed they were going to rob banks. Yes, as I write this, I find this completely absurd.
And where was Katrina this whole time? I know I was the one who talked about the fact that Eugene being married doesn’t necessarily mean that Katrina always needs to be around, but I thought differently in this episode. The fact is, both Eugene and Katrina wanted to start off this organization, and it’s only natural to see Katrina lending a hand, especially when she saw Eugene wasn’t able to do it all by himself. Basically, that was the biggest flaw of this episode, because, if you think about it, it’s a bit silly that they completely left her out of the picture.
Finally, I didn’t see how helping Eugene out was the answer to the Washington’s devotions. Mind you, if the problem in the beginning was the way the Washington’s could find more time to spend together, then the whole plot would be wonderful, but I don’t see how going out and spending more time as a family was the same as the meaning of devotions; sitting down and honoring, praising, and learning about God as a family. It’s contrary even to what Chris taught to us at the end of the episode, when she brought up the story of Martha and Mary. From that story we know that, “Doing things for the Lord, isn’t the same as being with the Lord.” Which, in the end, the Washington’s were ironically doing the least important between the two. It’s a little strange, if you’d ask me.
Luckily, these flaws didn’t weigh down the episode too badly. At first I didn’t like the episode at all, but after giving it the test of time, I listened the episode once on Tuesday, the next on Thursday, and once more on Saturday morning. After all three listenings, I wanted to pull my ratings up to a passing level. The fact that this episode was pleasant enough with good well-developed characters was good. I’m not going to go through all the good things about this episode right now, but theirs a lot of things I did enjoy, like the fact that Whit, Connie, Eugene, and the Washington Family were playing their same old natural selves as they normally do—but, all together.
Oh yes, and Mrs. Rathbone’s pedicure.
EDIT:
Jonathan wrote:
edit-
Broadcast wrote:Why does that family always revolve some sort of stupidity?
This is what I was trying to get across when expressing my being not so thrilled with the Washington's part of the story. It's getting old.
Interesting enough, your review is precisely said what
I was trying to get across. You did a good job explaining that, where I partly failed. The family just isn't real.
When I began accepting the family, I simply assumed that we'd have them go through normal issues with one or two unliekely episodes here and there. Sortv'e like what the Barklays did with
Unto Us a Child is Born, however, I did notice while scanning through the family's history that the first episodes were somewhat real, especially, "The Defining Moment" (Perhaps since Marshal Younger seems to be the writer filling as the serious show writer). Oh sure, if I remember right, the reviews mentioned not liking it because of Marvin's poor acting and Whit's commentary, however, we didn't realise that it was the rare examples where they acted like a normal family throughout it (Even though only two of the current family members were on it).
I enjoy humor. However, I enjoy the subtle humor, especially when it's obvious that the episode doesn't require humor in the first place.
Come to think of it, their is something else that Jonathan made me think of that pointed out that I enjoyed of this episode, and that is Marvin's subtle background jokes. It's a little how Jimmy did it (yes, we know that we shouldn't be expecting a copy of the Barklays) but it was when people talked seriously, Jimmy would add it subtle commentary that was quite humorous during the midst of it. That's what kept the old shows interesting, in a way. Perhaps the family needs an argument, or a real fight, or perhaps a serious issue to come up. Besides moving, which wasn't at all dramatic, they haven't had one. Perhaps that would compensate for the lack of seriousness in this unrealistic family.
Also, I suppose this episode really did affirm that Xavier is not longer in the series. It's a shame.
Acting/dialogue: 3/5
Story/Originality: 2.8/5
Use of Characters: 3.5/5
Series Relevance: 3/5
Personal enjoyment/Entertainment Value: 2.7/5
Total: 15/25= 60%= SCORE:
AVERAGE-
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Rating Grid:
0%=Poison
0-20%=Complete Failure
20-40%=Very Poor
40-60%=Poor
60-70%=Average
70-80%=Good
80-90%=Very Good
90-100%=Terrific
100%=Perfect)
For Reviews with Similar Opinions and/or agreed by Author of this review, please refer to: Jonathan