The Disagreeable Reviewer

I actually really liked this episode. I was sort of expecting not to enjoy it very much, but while it did have a weak moral, it made me laugh all throughout.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't yet heard the episode, you probably don't want to read on. : )

Mr. and Mrs. Parker stayed very true to their characters. I loved the ending scenes with all of the funny things that Mr. Parker says, and the things that Mrs. Parker had to correct him about laughing at. It was a fairly odd scheme that they came up with to test their children's trustworthiness. I wouldn't have thought to go to a college and find a drama student and ask her to act as a British (Cambridgian), Mary Poppins nanny so that I could find out how my kids would act with a pushover.

Olivia grew on me more in this episode. She stayed true to how her character has acted before, but she really is starting to sound more and more like the 11/12-year old she's supposed to be. I thought it was interesting though how sometimes she treated Matthew as the leader rather than putting herself in that position like she has in earlier episodes. I cringed during the banana fight because of the disgusting sound effects that added to the grossness that was already there just because of the bananas. (I abhor bananas.) When Matthew walked up in the middle of the fight, and the girls brought him into it, I was reminded of the hose scene in Our Best Vacation Ever. All throughout the episode I was reminded of the Barclays when the kids were bickering. I really think the Parkers will slowly start to become the central, well-loved family that the Barclays were. Who knows, maybe someday we fans will be able to say that they have just as special a part in our hearts as the Barclays and the Washingtons.

Matthew was great in this episode. Ever since The Inspiration Station, he has definitely been my favorite new kid character, and this show continued that. He always had some great idea to resolve the current dilemma, and it usually gets him in trouble. And he constantly threw in comments that made me laugh.

Camilla was a different story. Not that I didn't like her character in the story, but she was just so foolish! I mean, seriously, War of the Jurassic Aliens! Really?! Why would she even consider even wanting to watch that? Isn't she a girl? Well, I guess she is a girl who likes sports, a tomboy, but still! I thought it was great though that Whit knew exactly what movie she was talking about, and that that movie was so violent that the movie rating system had to be changed. ; D

Now to Maria/Charlotte. It struck me as weird from the start that she had a British accent, and seemed to be trying so hard to be British. Especially since I knew that the most recent Official Podcast had interviewed her about her experience as Gloria in Camp What-A-Nut. And she was trying to sound like Marry Poppins too: "Only a spoonful [of sugar]" and "Spit-spot". I was just waiting for her to say "supercalifragilisticexpealido-cious"! Until I discovered why she was acting so weird, I was wondering when she'd stop being such a pushover. And was it just me, or did she sound a lot like Dalton Kearne's guard from The Top Floor when she finally revealed herself as Charlotte?

This really was a great, very entertaining episode. The only problem was that it didn't seem to have a moral. It seemed like the writer just came up with this great idea, and then tried to throw in a lesson somewhere. It was kind of like the Novacom Saga, where most of the episode was just for entertainment, but they were concerned that someone might mention that there was no spiritual application, so there was a small something thrown in.

But aside from all that, I did really enjoy this episode, and I can't wait to hear another Parker family episode.

I give it a 7.5/10. Please comment (even if it has to be long ; D)!