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Welcome to Just Another AIO Blog, a site that is dedicated to the popular radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. We provide news, reviews on the latest episodes, articles, features, and we also are home to Adventures in Connellsville, a unique look at the town next to Odyssey through book form, We also provide a U.S.S. Response page that gets updated every other day. This page provides a response to recent comments on The Soda Shop Message Boards. And just recently, we started a unique Adventures in Odyssey podcast: called JAAIOP, or Just Another AIO Podcast. Feel free to post comments or subscribe to this site by email or with Google Friend Connect. Thank you!

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Saturday, July 21, 2012

Weekly Review: Called On In Class 7/21/12

Today I will be reviewing the episode Called On In Class...

I dislike Cartoon Network. That may seem like an odd statement considering I'm reviewing an Adventures in Odyssey episode, but for this particular episode it's NOT a weird statement. Cartoon Network's ridiculous situations, bad portrayal of adults, and unrealistic and stupid story-lines sicken me. Odyssey was never like that. Odyssey has always been realistic and uplifting.
The first scene in Called On In Class is certainly intriguing. It was set up quite well, with Trent narrating and showing all the students carols problems. I'm one of the few AIO fans who likes character narration. I think it's a good plot device, and it gives us a fantastic peek into the characters thoughts and world. Sure it can be a little too much, but I still enjoy it.
Now, if you skipped the first paragraph and just read the second, you would think I thought this episode was great! On the contrary, I didn't like this episode. It's worse than Seeing Red. The first scene is probably the best. Until Trent said, "I - Trent DeWhite, will be, called on - in class." I thought this could be a good classic schoolyard episode, something we haven't had in a while. But the episode went downhill from there. Way downhill.
So Brenda, the bothersome (Notice I didn't say 'annoying'!) girl of this episode, is bragging about how good she is at public speaking. Oh, joy. I didn't particularly enjoy Brenda Frazier in For Trying Out Loud, so I wasn't too excited to see her again. She also had a bit of a personality transplant, considering she was an obnoxious bully in For Trying Out Loud and now she's just an obnoxious person.
I got very, very tired of Trent's silly, unrealistic, and stupid imaginings very, very quickly. Frankly, I didn't care whether he got out of his predicament at all, I just wanted the episode to be over. Sorry Odyssey! But go read Jacob Isom's review of Called On In Class and you'll see I'm not the only negative person in this world. (Just kidding, Jacob! Sort of.)
I also disliked the ridiculousness of Trent's imaginings.

Governor: That was positively stinky! I'm calling the national guard!

Trent: Oh, no! The attack dogs are coming!

See what I mean? AIO was never like Cartoon Network, until now. I was very disappointed in Bob Hoose for that.
But though there were many things that I disliked about this episode, there were a couple things that I sort of liked, though they didn't make up for the rest of the episode. The first scene for one. The second thing that I sort of liked was the story of Abel McKalister. It may have been predictable, but I still sort of enjoyed it. It was great to see a little more of Odyssey's history.
When the episode finally ended, I was left with mixed feelings. I was annoyed, frustrated, and even a bit sad that Odyssey would produce this.
Needless to say, I highly disliked this episode. I don't want to say I hated it, because, like I said, there were a couple of good things about it, but I highly disliked it. It's not the kind of stuff you would think AIO would create.

Called On In Class Rating: 3 Stars

Thanks for reading this rather negative review!

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