A Maze, Part 1

I'm going to do things a little differently for this three-parter. I don't know if I'll do it the whole season, but I'll definitely do it for The Labyrinth. I'm going to review the episode as I listen to it, not necessarily line-by-line like I did with the GRC, just enough that all my responses come as I listen to each new part of the plot.

The first scene is very interesting. It doesn't sound much like Odyssey, apart from the music. I don't know if we've ever had a scene in Odyssey where the only speakers are British. It was a smart way to bring us up to date on the happenings with Jason--an experienced agent who's bringing a new, young agent up to date. It actually reminded me of Cars 2, with the two British agent cars in similar situations, if that makes any sense.

Next scene. I'm glad they brought the Stilletto voice back. It makes Jason sound tough and crime-lord-y, but still likeable, like he's on our side. I also really like Reggie Fingers's voice, similar to the voice of the jailer in the St. Valentine episode--very genuinely British. I was afraid that Jason would be too much like he was in the GRC, where he seemed too ignorant and Uncle Archie was suspicious. He actually did pretty well keeping his cover, but Reggie was still suspicious. I was suprised Jason didn't put up a fight when they took him away. But I guess it was better that way.

The next scene just depicts the capturing of the agents, I assume from their van. I don't think they should have been so quick to trust the guy at the door, but oh well. The music at the end of the scene was epic. :D Then comes a commercial about the live show in Dallas. Interestingly, it had "Twenty-two Trombones" from Stage Fright playing in the background.

Back to the show. I loved the exchange between Jason and Microft about Microft's last name. That was priceless. But I don't understand who the girl is. At first I thought she was the young agent from the first scene, but she sounds like she's way younger than that, since she called for her mom and dad. It was a nice touch that Jason lost the "Grinder" voice once he knocked out Thugg.

The next part of the scene was a downer. It stinks that they already know that Jason's an undercover agent, and the episode has barely even started. But I'm sure it'll work into the plot somehow. It surprised me that the girl was in on it too; she played the part pretty well. And...now I guess I can start calling her Sue...I mean...Sew, since it's short for Sewer Rat. ;) Looks like Jason has a partner now.

After the squeeze through the vent, Sew goes off to find out what happened to the agents. The exchange between her and the policeman was funny. It's always great to hear British people cracking jokes. :P I loved that Sew had a cell phone. You sometimes forget that people in other countries have the same commodities we do in America. *gasps in surprise* He called Whit! Is Whit going to come and help him out in London? I actually hope not. I can't imagine that Andre Stojka would do very well in that role...

Okay, so now Jason's meeting the Jacobs. I already knew that they were the returning characters (that sort of thing usually gets around pretty quick), but I didn't know how Jason would come across them. I wonder why they're in London. Oh, what a coincidence. Mr. Jacobs has a symposium at the exact same time as Jason's in London for the meeting with Reggie. Go figure. And since when is Mr. Jacobs the breaking-and-entering, adventurous type? I mean, we've kind of seen that side of him before, but he seems really excited to be doing this for Jason. And Sew's take at an American accent.... If she was trying to sound like Buck Oliver, she did great! :P

After the next scene, I'm wondering if the younger agent with Agent Billings is working for Mr. Grote. She's so quick to condemn Jason as having gotten "lost in the labyrinth" with the bad guys. I don't think she can be trusted.

Oh man. I'm still laughing about the beginning of the next scene. Sew's accent greatly improved, and she seems to have gotten smart fast. She and Mr. Jacobs work perfectly as father and daughter. It's hard to believe she's young enough to pass as a middle-schooler. She seems to have a past in shady dealings. I hope she's worthy of trust.

Based on the next scene, it looks like Mr. Jacobs is in for some trouble. Hopefully he's smart enough to get himself out of it.

Wow, not only is Sew young, but she's small enough to fit in a suitcase without making it look bad. And yet she knows enough about "life in London" to get away from the hotel security.

No!! The episode's done already! Well, I guess it was pretty long. They fit a lot into this first one. I can see why people were so excited about it. Unlike with the GRC, I'm actually very eager to hear next week's episode, and it will be very hard to wait.

Well, that's it for my review. Thanks for reading! Tell me in the comments whether you like this form of reviewing or not. And be sure to tell me your thoughts about the episode as well.

Mystery Image

This picture was posted on the AIO Facebook page a few days ago as a teaser picture. I'm not on Facebook, so I didn't know about it until AIO Wiki posted it the other day. The only clues we are given about what it might be a picture of are the initials RC and VS. Also, as someone else pointed out, you can see the word "Fingerpainting" in the grey rectangle at the top left.

People over at AIO Wiki speculated that since this looks very similar to the Kidsboro Book #3: The Creek War cover, RC and VS might stand for "Ryan Cummings" and "Valerie Swanson". Commenters were saying that there may be a repackaging in store for the book series with Gary Locke illustrations, since this picture definitely appears to be by Gary Locke. Here's the cover for The Creek War:

I've read the book, and I know that in that picture, Alice is driving the sled, Ryan is in the second spot, and Jill is in the third. The characters have the same hair color and positions in the new picture, so I think it is highly probable that this scene is what we're looking at. And the "Fingerpainting" part may just mean that this was a finger painting that Gary Locke had done. From the video we've seen before where he drew Eugene, we know that he uses a touchscreen to do all his painting.

I don't know for sure, but this is definitely going somewhere, and I'll be looking for more news to share should any more come up. Thanks for reading! Please comment!

Are You Game for a Mystery?

This episode was okay. But it didn't really live up to the usual standards of an Odyssey episode. The only episode similar to it is "Heatwave", which I happen to not like very much either. It was fine in the mystery sense, but it didn't seem to have much of a backbone. However, there were several things I liked and just a few things that I disliked about "Game for a Mystery".

Likes:

• I very much liked both Emily's and Barrett's voices. Although, did anyone else think that, in some scenes, Barrett sounded almost exactly like the younger Trent DeWhite? I don't know who voices him, but in the scene where he interrogates Nelson, I kept hearing Trent. (I hope I'm not alone.) I also thought that Emily did a very good job as the narrator. My favorite line in this episode was, "Shame is a prison, Nelson, and you're its inmate." That was funny because it did not sound at all like something a ten-/eleven-year-old would say.
• I defenitely agree with those who have said that Emily's amazing clue-finding skills, nearly equal to those of Sherlock Holmes, are a bit unrealistic. But why run a detective agency unless you're really good at finding clues.
• I like the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Jones. The only problem I had with it was that they sounded a little old to be playing the parents of a 12- and 9-/10-/11-year old.
• I loved the squabble between Matthew and Emily at the end over the motto of the detective agency.
• I liked the re-mention of video games after a lull since Living in the Gray Part II. Although, I would have liked for there to be a character like Mr. Whittaker who talks to Barrett about using time wisely.
• The new music was a big plus; it gave the show a whole new feeling.

Dislikes:

• One big problem I had was that for the first time in a long while (excluding "The Inspiration Station Part 2" which didn't count because it was the second part of an episode that did include major characters), there were NO main characters at all! They could have at least, like, put Wooton in a scene delivering mail, or have the kids walk in to Whit's End to finish the episode. That is why this episode didn't feel much like Odyssey to me.
• Another thing I noticed was that this episode didn't follow the usual Odyssey outline of two stories going on at the same time, switching back and forth, from story to story as the episode progresses. I realize that this occurred in "Clutter" as well, but it was better handled in that episode.
• I highly disagree with those who say that Matthew and Emily were flirting with each other. I think it was another reflection of Odyssey days gone by when boys and girls could have innocent friendships without being teased. Back then, I don't think anyone would have even thought of such an occurence much less talk about it (excluding the fact that you couldn't blog or comment back then, it was all, "Why don't you write and tell me about it?")

All things considered, this isn't an episode that I would enjoy listening to over and over again. It just didn't seem much like Odyssey to me. Out of 10 stars, I give this episode a 5.(5. maybe). Please comment!