The Odyssey Scoop - Episodes: Reviews for "Game for a Mystery"

Reviews for
"Game for a Mystery" [658]

*All ratings are based on a 5 star scale unless otherwise noted.

Review by Joshua

Rating:

the episode game for a mystery i think has three life leson first take care of your things becasue if mathew parker and taken care of his game instead of just hidding it he wouldn't have lost it. second don't jump to conclusions like mathew did because it just made the situation worst because he might have lost a friend becase he accused him of stealing his game when all he had was his shoo print around were his game was. and the most important lesson do what your parents ask you to do when they ask you to do it that way the entier insident could have been avoided because his game would be safe in the house when hew was out side trimming the hedges. and that is my reveiw.

Review by NC

Rating:

I liked this episode. Barrett seemed too whiny and childish to me. That is my only complaint about the episode.

Review by garreted

Rating:

ok so, ,,this new idea of the "Jones and Parker sleuths" or whatever they're called, is sounding promising, i really enjoyed the the chemistry between Mathew and Emily, and the fact that they are continuing on with some of the Kidsboro characters really made me happy! this episode opens up a whole new platform of episodes for AIO. i hope to see more of the "Jones and Parker" mystery episodes soon!

Review by Christian

Rating:

I thought "Game for a Mystery" was very nicely done. I love the Jones family. They fit into odyssey quite well. Emily reminds me of Mandy at times (which is good). Barrett seemed a bit whiny...but that's okay. I though Emily and Matthew sounded great together and can't wait til the next Jones & Parker mystery comes. (Hopefully soon!)

Review by Original Joe (Blog)

I liked the mystery aspect of it. Though I don't think anyone would be able to figure out the mystery like Emily Jones (or, as a matter of fact, Colombo was still at square one when the episode was finished). It was very confusing. I liked how they incorporated Nelson Swanson from the Kidsboro world into this episode. I also liked the comedy as well. Overall, it was a good episode. Tell me what you think in the comments.

Review by Marvin D. (Blog)

Rating:

I love Emily Jones! And I think Barret is crazy. I imagined him much older, though. Hmmm.

And all of the stuff that Emily observes are....freaky. She sees everything! And I don't think that she and Matthew were flirting. I also think Simon is very funny. And Nelson was in it! Hurrah!

The "Mystery is our middle name" is a good slogan. And I love the theme music. This episode reminded me of Heatwave, how Jack would narrate and Oscar would say certain things. Funny thing, I just listened to Heatwave today! o.O

We learned a good moral out of it, don't get addicted to certain stuff.

Review by Audrey (Blog)

I kind of wish that some of the new characters sounded a little older

I don't care for Emily's narration

Barrett's kind of insane

It was kind of nice to hear Nelson

Would two kids really be able to know all that?

The "Jones and Parker Detective Agency" theme music reminded me of veggie tales (I don't know why)

Review by Freddy Jay (Blog)

Rating:

First we meet Emily Jones and Barret Jones-new characters

Introduces Verminoids game Barret likes playing. I like Barret and Emily's Dad. Great dad humor.

Barret has an interesting imagination. Kinda like Jared, except his is probably more sue to playing video games. Quick to assume..

Matthew talks a little like Eugene. Seems more and more like a kid Eugene.

Emily is very interesting. Observes the minor details. Good at making deductions.

Very interesting mystery.

Nelson from the Kidsborro series is also in this episode.

This portable verminoids game sounds very updated. Register online, etc. We see more of Matthew's technological smarts side.

Review by Christian A. (Blog)

Rating:

This episode is good. It reminds me of another episode called The Bad Hair Day. In that episode a comic book and a pocket knife are missing. They look into it, and Rodney and his gang thinks its Charles that took it. It turns out it was a raccoon. I think it's interesting that they included a raccoon in this one, only to have that option turned down due to deductive reasoning on Emily's part. The end of it was somewhat unexpected. I never would have guessed the culprit. Too bad the game ended up getting ran over...Great mystery episode, maybe not action packed, but intriguing none the less. I'm really liking Matthew. His sense of knowledge, and sometimes big words. More and more like a young Eugene. I liked it.

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).

Review by American Eagle (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

Pretty good overall. It wasn't very thrilling, though, which I'm hoping will return to the new season.

Review by Laurie (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

Good episode!! Not terribly exciting, but still good.

Review by NateMaxwell (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

I think the relationship between Emily and Matthew can almost be described as flirting which is why I somewhat disliked it. Nelson's Cameo in a non Kidsboro episode was pretty sweet. Garret seems like a nerdy Jimmy Barclay which makes me happy. I also liked how Chris had us look in Proverbs, She hasnt given us an assignment in awhile! All in All I think the episode will be a stepping stone for many more fun adventures with the Jones and Parker Detective Agency. It was OK so I give it Three Stars.

Review by Crazy 4 Pugs (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

It was okay, but a little boring. Maybe they're overdoing the slice-of-life theme in this album?

Review by King Butter Turtle (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

Main Thoughts

I wasn't very impressed with this episode. There just wasn't really anything especially entertaining about it.

Theme

I'm surprised that we still haven't heard the whole theme but, at least we got to hear more of it this time. I really like it!

New Characters

New character overload! There wasn't nearly enough distinct introduction to each new character. It was just like, "Hey, I'm Emily and that's my brother Barret and those are my parents and then there's these two other kids and we're all going to do all these short, confusing scenes because our voices all sound the same!" Isn't that like the cardinal rule of writing radio drama. I pretty much got it straightened out the second time but still, I think Emily's name was only mentioned twice, it was never explained why Matthew was just kind of there.

Barret was portrayed very negatively. It seemed like he's the Jimmy of the family and Emily's the Donna. (I know, I know, I got to stop comparing everyone to the Barclays but, you have to some standard of excellence ) But, he's the one who plays trombone, right? So, I think I'm going to like him. Also, didn't he sound a little bit like Nathaniel?

Emily was... interesting. I'm not quite sure how her and Matthew fit together and the whole detective thing was pretty cheesy but, we didn't find too much out about her yet so, I'll wait to decide.

The parents were awesome.

Nelson's back! Ugh! I really hope they give up on using the kidsboro characters because I didn't like... any of them.

Mystery

I thought the mystery was very poorly done for the simple fact that the listener had no way of figuring it out other than the little bit of foreshadowing. How were we supposed to know the size of the teeth marks on the garbage? Did they forget this is radio? From the latest podcast, I was expecting a very Encyclopedia Brown, Perfect Witness type episode but, found the mystery to be hard to get caught up in.

Credits

Chris has been doing more complete recaps this season. I like that. It was getting to where all there was time for was to say the names but, now she's doing a more full review of what was learned.

Wow! That's a lot of new names. With the exception of Chris Anthony and Christopher Diehl, I didn't recognize any; new actors, new writer, even a new composer.

Other Notes

Zapazoids has finally been replaced as the cool video game in Odyssey.

This episode was very kid centered, with the exception of the minor parent roles. It almost felt like Kidsboro.

I'm somewhat surprised to still have not heard from Wooton one third into the season, with him being a main character and everything.

Review by EMBEE (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

Everything I wanted to say has already been said. 2.5 If I had to round, I'd round down.

Review by Bennett (Town of Odyssey)

Hmm.

That wasn't very good at all. I don't have time to list all my reasons--but it was a little insulting to children's intelligence. "Clutter" and "Inspiration Station" were decent 'Odyssey episodes'. This one wasn't. Poor story, script, pacing, dialogue...I was completely disappointed.

In case some of you are wondering, I will be writing a full review of the album, as well as each episode, in celebration of the "new series". However, just so you know, I feel bad being so negative about this one.

Review by V-lady (Town of Odyssey)

I was unimpressed. In order for episodes of this style to be entertaining, it's usually best if they contain lots of humor, fun music, ect. In my opinion, it didn't really have any of those things. That and the overload of new characters pretty much ruined it for me. And what's with Barret? He seems to only have one volume...loud. In a whiny, over the top sort of way. Ugh.

Review by Catspaw (Town of Odyssey)

I think I enjoyed the first half more than the second for this episode, because I agree with those who have said that the solving of the mystery was disappointing. I didn't really feel like I was involved in it. It's fun to try to piece things together, but here we really didn't have the information to do that. I did like Emily and Matthew working together, and I can definitely see some fun future potential for their detective agency, but I felt like this episode could have been better.

Review by Jeremy (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

Another horrible episode. I'm surprised I'm the only so far to give it only 1 star.

Review by Sapphire (Town of Odyssey)

Rating:

I didn't like this episode as well. It was kind of stupid. All that fuss over a video game. It was cool how they kept you guessing the thief. I liked that Nelson Swanson was in it. Emily is a pretty neat kid. I don't like her brother Barret very much. He reminds me of my brother. Always playing too many games and not enough work.

Review by Gandalf (Town of Odyssey)

Gosh, I must be out of whack the majority here. I actually like this episode (for what it was). Sure, it's not one that's going to make anyone's top 5 list, but it wasn't a bad slice-of-life, introduction to the Jones family.

Reminded me a lot of "Heatwave"...

The solution was a bit strange, but not stranger or more stupid than "Broken Window" or other past Odyssey mysteries ("Heatwave", "The Case of the Candid Camera", "Mystery at Tin Flat", and "Sounds Like a Mystery" come to mind, but I'm sure there are more).

I can echo some of the previous complains though.

Actors do resemble each other a bit too much. Are we really going to be able to differentiate Emily from Olivia? I'm not sure...

The story was badly advertised. There was no way of solving the mystery before the characters.

Deluge of new characters doesn't work so well... When 2/3 of the cast is completely new to the show, that's a bit rough. (Now that I write this, I think back to "Family Vacation" and how that featured only one character that we already knew, yet the show and the Barclays are classics now.)

One thing that no one mentioned is that I'm becoming concerned about how childish the new season really is. Not that any of these shows are bad, per se, but they certainly don't appeal that much to the mature audience. Let's hope at least some of the album 51 episodes find some way to appeal to older listeners.

Review by ummm (Town of Odyssey)

This season has some good zingers. I think David Parker and Barrett have had the best ones so far.

David Parker - "wawawawa ok thank you what no what weird."

Barrett - "thank your for the nature walk.." "so long. thanks for the distraction."

Matthew - "sometimes i can almost feel my brain flex."

By the way, what about Jared and Dwayne playing GLOOBERS!? That game was way cooler than Zapazoids.

Review by Taq (Town of Odyssey)

I found the episode hard to follow, but on the bright side I really like Emily! She's authoritative and smart, and I hear she learns a lesson in humility later this season.

Back to 2010 Episodes