I don't know if I loved every episode, but aside from "A Thankstaking Story" and "An Agreeable Nanny", which I thought were the two weakest episodes, every episode kept me intrigued. I'm also beginning to understand why people are so divided on Emily Jones. Her character doesn't bother me and I think she provides a good foil for the other characters as she isn't perfect and is actually heavily flawed. However, as far as characters go, she's interesting and as a big fan of mysteries, her "mystery of the week" episodes I find quite fun. It's also funny that half of the episodes were mysteries in this album, even ones not involving Emily, which might be why I liked it as much as I did. Though between the last two albums ("Game for A Mystery", "For the Birds", "Stage Fright", "Fast As I Can", "The Owlnapping", and "The Malted Milkball Falcon"), I am getting a little tired of animal references. But then again, I'm not really an animal person.
My favorite slice of life episode might actually have been "Fast As I Can", mainly because I thought it dealt with the topic of social media and "friending" in a nice, modern way. I also enjoyed Eugene attempting to be more succinct and Matthew trying to avoid using his computer, which is something many of us can related to. "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show" was appropriately absurd, and I love how silly it was. Taken out of context, that episode probably highlights all of my biggest issues with Adventures in Odyssey in the modern era, but, as a self-contained episode, it works perfectly. Which is the exact reason I disliked "A Thankstaking Story" so much. Unlike "Wooton's Broken Pencil Show" which was appropriately zany for a radio show within a radio show, "A Thankstaking Story" made me uncomfortable thinking of these five individuals (two of whom they just met) sitting around speaking in bizarre voices and coming up with a story on the spot. Maybe I'm just not extroverted enough to get it, but I didn't buy the realism of it, which is something I used to appreciate about AIO. B-TV and KYDS radio, those are when I think the silliness is justified, but when it's "real people" being "characters", it does remind me that this show is really targeted for kids.
"Grandma's Christmas Visit" was a nice treat though, as it's been a long time since I've heard an original holiday-themed episode. It was odd listening to those episode in June, but I appreciated the unique tradition that I've never heard about before and I'm glad AIO is attempting to reach out to their very diverse audience. (But where's the Canadian love?!?) I also liked the Grandmother's comment to Whit at the end of the episode about needing the chaos before you can enjoy the peace. Similiarly, sometimes I feel you need the AIO episodes you don't like, to further appreciate the ones you do!
And, while this isn't exactly a gripe, I did find it interesting that two episodes featured adults being dishonest with the children. "An Agreeable Nanny" featured the Parker parents hire an actress to be their nanny to teach them a lesson, and Whit actually stole candy from the kids to teach them a lesson. I'm not sure I disagree with either tactic as I might do the same thing, but I did find it a shift in a philosophy on the program that used to teach the exact opposite. It gives me hope they might one day feature Santa Claus on the program!
Which leads me to my favorite overall episode of the album, which I'm assuming is most people's favorite as well, the two-part "Mystery of the Clock Tower." It reminded me a lot of "The Perfect Witness" in its execution and I realized that if AIO released more episodes with that kind of quality, I might become a regular listener again. No, the "mystery" aspect wasn't all that mysterious, but the setup was great and I loved hearing Whit/Connie and Eugene/Matthew both investigating from different angles, ultimately tying the pieces together at the same time. It makes me excited for the 12-part "Green Ring Conspiracy", which, I have heard before (the only album I did hear in the last 5 years), but since I heard it in the background and didn't know any of the characters, I virtually have no memory of it.
Lastly, since it bears mentioning again, I really love the new Whit.
