578: "All Star Witness"

[Agent DeWhite]

Like many of you have mentioned, the actual storyline wasn't overly strong, but what I really liked was Eugene's geekiness, Whit's fatherness, and not wanting to interfere where he shouldn't, and Bernard all around. Ashley's actress's acting was on the poor side, but it wasn't too bad. All in all, I enjoyed it, and that's what counts, right?

[Laura Ingalls]

I give it 3/5 stars. I did enjoy it and can't really say much bad about it. For some reason though, it didn't stand out to me as great.

I did really like Eugene and Tom together.

[Mr.Whit]

yeah this is the third episode that puts them together as main stars
the other two are
ice fishing and flash flood

[STRYPER]

I woudn't quite put this on the same scale of humor as Ice Fishing and Flash Flood, but it was nice to hear them banter.

[MDB17]

this ep was alright

[Taq]

Observations and Reflections While Listening

-I knew it before he said it! I believe Eugene will make a great lawyer and surprise Mr. Jenkins. He was a good juror on that other episode in which he was influential in persuading the jury to find the man, Donald, not guilty, if I recall correctly.

-College overkill by Mr. Jenkins! Boy, am I glad for my parents. They weren’t pushy about college stuff at all.

-What’s the status on Tom’s grudges? He does have a history of that…

-And roleplaying, Mr. Jenkins was intimidating—good acting.

-Tom thought Eugene was a telemarketer at first, hahaha. Tom should know Eugene’s voice by now, but he is getting up there in years.

-Excellent scene with Whit, Tom, Eugene, Mr. Jenkins, and Ashley! It was honest, poignant, and had comic relief via Eugene.

-There was a happy ending; Whit’s connections save the day.

-I see Chris made a Scripture reference at the end, excellent.

-My criticism is that the situation with the scouts doesn’t fully make sense. Why would high school scouts come to only one game? Furthermore, there are other leagues in which high schoolers can play on in addition to their schools’ teams. However, the situation was still crafted in a manner that made it believable, so I shall stop my criticism here.

-I genuinely enjoyed this episode. 4/5

Addendum: I agree with Catspaw’s remark about Eugene at the end. It did seem out of character for Eugene to be monetarily demanding. It wasn’t worth the comic relief.

[Chandler]

Haha, I was looking through this thread and discovered that you guys already covered every single thing I think I thought when listening to this show. Great minds think alike, eh?

At risk of sounding like a parrot, I'll go ahead and say a few of my observations anyway. It may sound like I'm addressing stuff you said, but I really thought of it before I got on here.

• I've never understood why sports shows are so controversial among AIO fans. I don't like too many sports but a show about basketball won't kill me.

• Eugene's comment about not understanding why they couldn't hit the ball seems to prove that he knows nothing about sports.

• So Tamika's "team" was facing Campell County? Odyssey is in Campell County so I wonder what the name of the other team was.

• The idea of such a silly lawsuit is way too common these days. I read one just recently about a guy getting hurt trying to break out of a jail and he wants to sue the jail anyway! It's reminiscent of Rodney's lawsuit against Whit's End for falling through the skylight. Ashley's was a tiny bit more legitimate because she wasn't hurt from being stupid and she did notice a real change in Tom Riley's coaching of her. The whole high school to college thing was important to her, and assuming that things really worked that way, then missing out could have been a big deal to her family. That they didn't tell Tom what her plans were is strange.

• Are finances always tight at the Timothy Center?

• Eugene's rates are reasonable? I thought the ending was quite strange. He claimed reasonable rates but then racks up stuff like airfare charges without telling Tom! That just doesn't seem right for someone who practically forces someone else to use him as his lawyer!

• Ashley seems like a nice girl in the other shows she's heard in so it's surprising to hear that she's the one suing Tom Riley. Then we hear that she's not too fond of the idea at the beginning. At the end she's much more convinced.

• I think the courtroom scenes are well done, complete with the sound effects as they imagine the court setting. Since the writers decided not to have they actually go to court, we get treated to the scenes anyway. Through these scenes, we also learn much of the story.

• It's funny how Ashley's dad refers to himself as "Mayor Bill Jenkins." Can't imagine him doing that in realize but we listeners probably needed the cue.

• As soon as I heard he was Ashley's dad, I thought to myself, "Didn't he say he was resigning because he wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren?" I got out "Tom for Mayor" to see and found that I was right. This is a perfectly possible occurrance. Ashley could very well be from her father's second marriage and he could easily be about 60 years old. When he was resigning, you'd think he'd also mention his daughter but we know the writers weren't looking that far ahead so we'll just have to consider it a slight omission. I doubt that the writers were planning to have Ashley be his daughter when they formed the character of "Ashley Jenkins" but it proved a convenient and neat tie-in.

• The apparent tension between Tom Riley and Bill Jenkins seems a bit far-fetched. I could see him talking about them disagreeing over a highway but saying that Tom tried to prove him wrong over little things? I think that's an accusation that Philip Glossman could level and almost get away with but not Bill Jenkins. He resigned because he didn't want the mysterious person at the other end of his phone line to mess with Tom Riley's farm.

• When Bill suggested that Tom was holding a grudge, I was afraid he was right. We know enough about Tom's character to know that's possible.

• Eugene's voluminous research hearkens back to "Faster than a Speeding Ticket" when he so eagerly helped out Whit.

• Heh... it's funny to hear Tom saying all the things a lawyer would advise him not to say and to hear Eugene freaking out over it. It's reminiscent of Eugene's screaming in the background when Whit told the judge that he was pleading guilty.

• I was wondering at first why Ashley had only one shot at the scouts, but then I heard that the high school is in Richland, which is some distance from Odyssey. I was wondering it an All-Star game was the only possible way for Ashley to get into that high school, but it's a minor nitpick of mine.

• I love the way Whit knows everyone!

• Why didn't Whit just tell the scout that he was having him watch Ashely?

• Who does the scout's voice? Does anyone know?

• Why is the earth an oval shape and why did Tom mistake it for a softball diamond?

That's all for now!

[Me]

The was an oval because the earth is not a true circle (in two dimensions). It is slightly squashed, thus turning it into an oval when viewed from the right angle.

[MDB17]

Chandler about the Campell county thing my school is called Thopson High and there is also a Shebly County high when we are is shelby county

[Jonathan]

• I've never understood why sports shows are so controversial among AIO fans. I don't like too many sports but a show about basketball won't kill me.

I can think of two reasons.

1. They sometimes don't work with the characters they use and

2. They sometimes try to mimic sports movies, which on the radio really doesn't work that well.

[Chandler]

• I've never understood why sports shows are so controversial among AIO fans. I don't like too many sports but a show about basketball won't kill me.

I can think of two reasons.

1. They sometimes don't work with the characters they use and

2. They sometimes try to mimic sports movies, which on the radio really doesn't work that well.

I haven't seen too many sports movies. There was that Christian hockey one... oh yeah, and that hilarious part from Naked Gun.

[Nathan Hoobler]

Reviews from AIOHQ

Review from Alex, age 11
Rating: 4 stars
Still a good episode, but I think this is the worst episode of the season. Still a good episode.

Review from Nathan Ehnis, age 17
Rating: 1/2 star
Pityful. They resused old story lines to make a new episode and slapped this new girl in there (but don't get too attached to her she'll only mysteriously dissappear next year like Alex and every other old kid) and used the Bryan Dern voice guy (whom we've all heard way too much as different voices) and made him the "angry father" all to sue Tom. But the whole thing gets talked out in typical Odyssey fashion and it all ends happily ever after. I wish the Odyssey people would make more eps like No Way In/Out and Prisoners of Fear instead of using poor story lines like this every other show! Don't get me wrong I love Odyssey but stuff like this just screws up the entire show.

Review from Chris Cassidy, age 16
Rating: 4 stars
It was the good show

[Jonathan]

Again, I have to comment on this particular reviewers comments:

Review from Nathan Ehnis, age 17
Rating: 1/2 star
Pityful. They resused old story lines to make a new episode

With almost 600 episodes, it is only natural that some episodes are going to sound similar to each other. Just b/c they've had episodes with legal issues or sports episodes once before doesn't mean they shouldn't have them ever again.

and slapped this new girl in there (but don't get too attached to her she'll only mysteriously dissappear next year like Alex and every other old kid)

Ok, first off, Ashley Jenkins is not new. Second, not every kid actor can stick around. Unfortunate, but fact of life my friend.

and used the Bryan Dern voice guy (whom we've all heard way too much as different voices)

What, actors can't do more then one role? Corey Burton is very talented, and most of the time I can't tell he's the actor for many of the voices he's done (I've had to have been told for many of them).

and made him the "angry father" all to sue Tom. But the whole thing gets talked out in typical Odyssey fashion and it all ends happily ever after. I wish the Odyssey people would make more eps like No Way In/Out and Prisoners of Fear instead of using poor story lines like this every other show! Don't get me wrong I love Odyssey but stuff like this just screws up the entire show.

And here, I partially agree. It was the most realistic episode, but so what? It wasn't the best episode, but hey, considering how the season's been going, do we really have much to complain about?

And I too like the PoF type stories, but realistically speaking, if the vast majority of eps were like that (as you seem to be suggesting they should be), some of their epicness would be lost.

As Shadowpaw said several months ago, there is a fine line in between a negative review with constructive criticism, and a negative review with irrelevant/destructive criticism.

Unfortunately, your two most recent ones fall into the latter category.

-Jonathan

[Bennett]

Good response.


Anyone noticing that Nathan's posts of AIOFan Reviews are getting shorter and shorter to the point that no one will be posting there at all.

BC

[Catspaw]

I think that's kind of the point, isn't it? It makes sense to keep all the reviews together, which is why Nathan Hoobler posts them here, as well as a lack of time. If people post their reviews all here in the same thread, it's more organized that having them spread over several boards.

[Bennett]

I think that's kind of the point, isn't it? It makes sense to keep all the reviews together, which is why Nathan Hoobler posts them here, as well as a lack of time. If people post their reviews all here in the same thread, it's more organized that having them spread over several boards.

For some odd reason, you misunderstood me. Well, what I meant was; the amount of Nathan Hoobler's responses are decreasing...(who'se talking about having a problem keeping all the reviews together?)...and so are the number of posts here, too. It's not like it's compensating. The fact is, the people that posted reviews, normally were people who didn't come to the TOO (or the Town Hall at the time), and so now, since they're not members of the boards, they don't see any purpose of writing their reviews, if they're only being shown to a place where its certainly not as important (as well as a place where they don't go to) as one click away on the front page of a website. So, I don't understand how "it's kind of the point" to have "no one" posts their review on the AIOHQ at all...if the number of posts and entrees are not being made up here.

BC

[Catspaw]

Ah, I see. Yes, I agree, now that I know what you mean. Lots of reviews are good!