Weekly Review: Seeing Red 6/30/12

     Today I will be telling you more about the big surprise, as well as reviewing 'Seeing Red' with my usual in-depthness. Enjoy!

     Connie is becoming obsessed. What is this?
     Connie: How can you rearrange your shop at a time like this?
     Joanne: At a time like what?
     Connie: Isn't it obvious? I'm losing Mitch!
     No Connie, it's not obvious, as we didn't think you would be so annoying and immature as to throw a temper-tantrum about your crime-fighting boyfriend who lives on the other side of the world and misspells Celsius in his letters to you; I mean, it's a wonder he even bothers writing letters to someone so bratty! Was that a run-on sentence? I hear Mitch uses those a lot.
     Okay, that's enough. It's been established that I did not like the way Connie behaved in this episode. I understand the writers are trying to add a little humor by dramatizing Connie's personality, and it was mildly funny. But I was laughing at Connie, and if you want a main character to be likeable, the audience shouldn't be laughing at her.
     But that alone doesn't make this episode horrible. Actually, I didn't think this episode was particularly horrific, I just get really bugged by the first scene. I mean, people who have never heard AIO are turning on their radios and hearing an adult whine about her boyfriend! This is not a soap opera, this is Adventures in Odyssey, a kid's program!
     If you get the impression that I hate Connie, I'm sorry. I don't hate Connie, except in this episode. But enough about Connie. Let's get to the Liz/Mandy storyline.
     Mandy has a crush on Seth! Wow! I, personally, never saw that coming. It's a bizarre and awkward pairing, considering that Seth is played by a girl and - yeah. Also, Seth is the spiritual evangelist with a crazy, celestial mom. You wouldn't think of him as being the type who would attract girls. But still, I can't think of anyone else Mandy could have a crush on.
     Anyway, Liz and Mandy are doing that laughing thing that girls apparently do when they like someone. Being a boy, it was kind of awkward for me to listen to, to be honest. But I survived.
     I must say that the only part of this story that I really enjoyed was Jack and Joanne's fight. It was very interesting to see the two characters have a fight. They're kind of opposites. But opposites attract, I suppose.
     Connie's tantrum is reminding me more and more of Olivia in Anger Mismanagement. I know, I know,  I'm going eight years into the future, but I had to point that out. Except there's one key difference: Olivia was getting angry on behalf of Amber; she was annoyed that Valerie was being mean to her. But Connie is annoyed because Mitch isn't making her the complete center of his busy, action-packed life. Olivia was angry because someone else was being hurt. Connie is angry out of selfishness, she wants Mitch to pay her as much attention as possible.
     The 'Mrs. Gruden' thing is actually hilarious. I love Mandy's line:
     "I just wanna watch Seth. I hear he's the best."
     In which Seth replies, "Thanks."
     So Seth is completely blind to these two girl's affection for him. He wants to evangelize, not flirt.And then, Mandy and Liz ask him who he likes better. I would feel so embarrassed if I were Liz and Mandy. I mean, to walk up to someone and ask him/her who they like better? How old are you girls?
     Okay, you've got the impression that I did not like this episode. That is not a false impression, as I in fact did not like it very much. But it began Connie and Joanne's road trip, which was quite a good saga, and the Jack and Joanne scenes were well-acted and well-scripted. I enjoyed hearing them apologize to one another.
     However, as I listed above, there are many things I didn't like about it. Overall, it was pretty entertaining, but not a good episode.
   
     Seeing Red Rating: 4/10

     Yep, so far, that's the lowest rating I've given. But I didn't like this episode. Now to the big surprise. I'm going to say, since the big surprise is not far away, that there will be two new pages added. That's the big surprise. These pages will become big parts of the blog, but I'm still not telling you what exactly these pages will contain. You can speculate on the TOO and Soda Shop, where I have posted speculation topics. That's it for today. Stay tuned tomorrow for those two new pages, plus a special interview! Thanks for reading!

     Oh, I almost forgot! I posted something about how I wrote a review of Sergent York on The Soda Shop, and the Old Judge (creator of Twists and Turns) suggested that if I found the review, I should post it on my website. It's not as long as my normal reviews, and it's just for Part 1, and I probably won't be doing the other parts, but here it is anyway! Wow, this is a long post!

Review: Sergeant Alvin York Part 1

     In 2002, AIO released their first four-parter, Plan B, a fast-paced Novacom episode with dramatic twists and turns and lots of action.
     Now, AIO returns to the four part episode with a simple idea: A Kid's Radio episode about a World War I hero. Naturally, I was skeptical. I wasn't sure that Kid's Radio would be the best format for a four part historical drama. I've always enjoyed Kid's Radio's one part parody more. I believe storytelling would be a better way to present this.
     But I have to say, Dave Arnold did a pretty good job. Once again, he does some heavy research. Sergeant York is certainly just as thought-out as The Jubilee Singers or The Amazing Loser with all it's musical trivia. I admire all of Arnold's hard work when he writes an episode.
     Now, to the episode itself. I was rather annoyed at the pairing of Eugene Meltsner and Red Hollard. I felt as if AIO was trying to rekindle the humorous friendship of Eugene and Bernard Walton with an imposter by the name of Red Hollard. Perhaps if Red didn't have to be like Bernard in every conceivable way, I would like his character more. Will Ryan's acting is as usual, quite good. I enjoyed Eugene's narration quite a bit more than I enjoyed Red's, mostly because of the reasons above.
     The story begins with Alvin York, a trouble-making man living in Tennessee. He's walking with his friend, Everett. They see some beautiful young lady and try to flirt with her, though they do not succeed. They soon realize that she goes to church, something that they think is beneath them.
     Alvin is a carefree man, living for the moment. I enjoyed Jon Curry, a newcomer to Odyssey, as Alvin York. His tone matches the Southern fighter that York is quite well. But, unfortunately, Alvin's friend Everett gets in a bar fight and dies. That kind of disturbed me. AIO has dealt with death before, (Karen, Greater Love) but with Never For Nothing fresh in our minds, do we really need to hear about another rather unrealistic death? Honestly, the man who got cheated in cards, Frank, the man who killed Everett, didn't seem angry enough to throw someone to the floor. Also, I felt it was too quick to kill someone. For crying out loud, we haven't gotten to the war part! But you can't change history. If that's what happened, it happened. They could have at least shown some other scenes with Everett before they killed him off. He was in about three or four scenes.
     The character of Arcie Pyle is an interesting one. Almost a grandfatherly figure, Pastor Pyle helped Alvin come to Christ. Gracie Williams, the lady in the first scene, is happy that Alvin turned to Jesus, so that they can court with no guilt. I resented Gracie Williams at first, as it seemed she didn't care enough about the massive spiritual significance of turning to Christ.
     Towards the end of the episode, Alvin is told that he will be drafted for World War I. He says he won't go. But he has no choice. All in all, it was a relatively good first part, though it might not live up to the other episodes in Album 55. I'm not as eager for the next part as I was during The Labyrinth, but I still believe this will end up being a very valuable addition to The Deep End. Classic Odyssey is back. The best is yet to come.

Rating: 7.5/10