Reviews
for
"Target of the Week"
[659]
*All
ratings are based on a 5 star scale unless otherwise noted.
Review by John Edo
Rating:
This is a wonderful episode of Odyssey. It is
also close to what happens in real life. The classic story
of a bully going down is in this episode. I had to laugh
(mainly because I went through a similar experience and my
principle believed the bully over the ten witness who's
stories were all the same). So sadly this story is a little
inaccurate (at least at my old school it would have been).
But it does show how justice prevails. The episode is a fun
episode to listen to.
Review by Ian C.
Rating:
I just listened to "Target of
the Week" and "Game for a Mystery". Ah, the traditional
"kids' slice of life" back again with new kids.
I
especially enjoyed "Game for a Mystery" but "Target of the
Week" was also good.
Just a little note: I wasn't offended
as I did not grow up in USA, but I know from interactions
with American-born Chinese (ABCs) that they are often very
sensitive to stereotypical characterizations of Chinese-Americans.
The
new coach for the Odyssey Coyotes is played a bit too much
inscrutable Charlie Chan and could risk offending some ABCs.
My suggestion to the Odyssey team is: Keep the accent, yes,
but drop the zen-like stuff is my suggestion. Have milder
stuff like what you find with the Hispanic references with
Camilla Parker. Make that ABC coach more of a normal human
being who just happens to be Chinese and have that accent.
You can throw in some cultural references once in a while,
but the fact is that no real normal Chinese person speaks in
these silly zen-phrases.
That said, the moral of this
episode was very well done. I always felt the tension with
these kids of shows as I was a perennial bully victim in the
Malaysian equivalent of grade school.
If we didn't have gun
control in Malaysia, I would have been the Malaysian
Columbine shooter -- I was so pushed to the wall that one
day in equivalent of 6th grade I brought a kitchen knife to
school and tried to kill my tormentor. Praise God, they
managed to stop me and the very next year I got saved and my
life took a drastic turn for the better!
I'm very glad to
see the principal taking proactive action to stop the
bullying in this episode -- many Odyssey episodes in the
past, the bully got away, which leaves less incentive for
children to not take revenge into their own hands.
All in
all, this was a very good handling of the bullying issue.
Review by Josh
Rating:
I have to admit, I was really
worried when I found out they were replacing Rodney with a
new bully named Vance King. And then I heard it
yesterday...and it was awesome! Vance King is what Rodney
would be if he was smarter, a little more compassionate, and
liked sports. I loved the pranks he pulled on Matthew, and
that makes up for his lack of personality compared to
Rodney. Rodney's personality was very distinct, and we
haven't found Vance's yet, but it's only his first episode.
I thought this was Matthew's best episode yet, and Nelson is
always enjoyable to hear. Now...about Coach Chang Fang. I'm
an ABC (American-born Chinese) and while I thought Coach was
HI-larious, I think they should add in an Asian family or
some Asian kid to Odyssey. Otherwise, it's like if there
were no Parkers and there was some grocery store clerk who
had a Hispanic accent, for example. I liked the storyline,
and I WILL MISS MARSHAL YOUNGER A LOT FROM
ODYSSEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sigh...but anyways, this was a
great episode, and I think this is my favorite episode so
far (out of the five I've heard) of Take It From the Top!
Review by Julia
Rating:
Review by Bookworm
Rating:
This was a good episode,
teaching kids to stand up to bullying but not to try and get
revenge. I liked the way Wooton said "By all that is
American and holy!" :) It was a good episode, and you guys
did a good job on it. , -bookworm out! :)
Review by Christian A. (Blog)
Rating:
I came into this episode with
average expectations, failing to remember that it was this
week's episode that was promised by Original Joe to be the
best of the season. I was looking forward to next week's
being the highly anticipated episode. I'm glad that I didn't
remember right, because, otherwise, I might have gone into
the episode with expectations too high to like it as much as
I did.
Here are several thoughts taht I had concerning "Target of
the Week":
-
There was overall, I
thought, excellent acting throughout the whole episode,
partly due to great writing. Even Andre Stojka surprised
me with his great job as Whit. Andre gives every
inclination that, given the right script, he can be a
great Mr. Whittaker. Also, I noticed that Georgina
Cordova did a great job as Nelson once again. We hadn't
seen him in a school setting before (excluding "The
Science Club" episode in "The Truth Chronicles"), and
the actress again did well playing a younger male of the
opposite gender.
-
It was said by Original
Joe that Wooton would be in this episode, and therefore
I did have high expectations for him. He did not,
however, reach those expectations. He didn't seem to be
his usual quirky self. (For those of you who vote in my
polls, I accidentally misspelled "quirky" as "corky",
and unfortunately cannot change it back. So if you like
Wooton, but didn't choose "corky" because you didn't
know what I meant, sorry!) I think the bad portrayal of
Wooton was partly due to bad writing. I don't know if
Marshal Younger is used to writing for Wooton or not,
but Wooton just didn't sound like Wooton to me.
-
I like the fact that the
Odyssey writers are bringing Kidsboro characters into
regular shows to interact with regular characters. I
really liked the interactions between Nelson and
Matthew. They genuinely sounded like two fellow
students, as well as friends. Again, there was great
acting. My favorite line in this episode was, "Warn me
before you speak to me!"
-
I also like the overall
real-world feeling of this episode. It really seemed
like a situation middle school kids would get into. I
liked the realisticness in that there wasn't really a
happy ending. Vance will still be a bully, Matthew
didn't convert him unrealistically. Nelson and Matthew
didn't get away with wrongdoing, got in trouble, and
there was a great message about apologizing.
-
I liked all of the new
characters. Vance King (and cronies) seem like they'll
turn out to be a good replacement for Rodney and his
gang (assuming they're not coming back). I loved the new
baseball coach. I think he was supposed to be Japanese,
and if so, he did a magnificent job (mostly due to good
writing). He genuinely sounded Japanese-American, not
just his voice, but also because of his emphasis on
nature and the way the world works. All of his dialogue
sounded like something out of an ancient Japanese haiku
poetry book.
Overall, this was a great
episode! Great, original, realistic Odyssey writing. Out of
10 stars, this episode deserves a 9.5.
Review by Audrey (Blog)
-
The boys in Odyssey sound
too much alike, I heard them talking in the fist few
scenes, and I couldn't tell who was who.
-
Not a big fan of the new
bullies
-
I wish there was more of
Wooton and Whit
-
The episode would've been
better if I liked baseball
-
The pranks were genius,
but I would have laughed if those pranks were pulled on
me. Then again, that would make for a boring show :)
-
I loved the coach!
Review by Freddy Jay (Blog)
Rating:
Yeah, more nelson. This
episode introduces Vance King. At first he sounds like a big
bully. Kinda like a Rodney but with a twist, not quite as
mean or tough.
A Wooton episode! Yes! Wooton as a baseball commentator?
Excellant, reminds me of when Lawrence tried. He made things
interesting in the game play.
Vance now sounds more of a prankster than a bully. Somewhat
harmless.
I couldn't help thinking of The Winning Edge and The
Defining Moment. These two are also baseball episodes.
I like baseball. A Player on the coyotes named Mcgwire?
Funny.
When Vance dropped the ball that reminded me of my own
experience on the field as a little league
player......course then again my glove wasn't tampered
with...
Matt's confession was an admirable one, and definitely a
hard thing to do. Great speech by Kent.
Conclusion:
This episode was pretty good. I liked this one a lot, and
not just because baseball is my favorite sport. Vance wasn't
the big bad bully I thought he was going to be. I wonder how
much we're gonna see Vance in future episodes? The baseball
game scene with Wooton helping Whit with the announcing was
a nice touch. Chris's wrap up was good too. I think the
theme was a good one to remember as well. This one is one of
those that keeps you interested even though it doesn't have
a lot of action and spies and stuff like that. I give this
one a 5/5.
Review by Original Joe (Blog)
Rating:
I like this episode. I liked
the comedy. Vance King seemed more of an evil character than
Rodney. You may not have heard, but this is the first
episode to have Jay Smouse in it. You'll hear more of him in
"When You're Right, You're Right." Wooton was great. Too bad
this is the last show done by Marshall Younger. But it was
good. Overall I give it 5/5 stars.
Review by Irwin (Town of
Odyssey)
Wow, this is my favorite
episode of the season so far! (Although they are all great!)
First they introduce a character to replace Rodney, who's
been there way to long. He seems to be a closer to Rusty
than Rodney, but he's got his own unique style.
They also bring back the Coyotes with KYDS radio commentary!
Throughout the episode I was reminded of The Winning Edge
and The Defining Moment.
Review by Sapphire (Town of
Odyssey)
I really liked this episode. I
loved that Whit gave advice to Matthew. I also liked that
Nelson was in it. Vance King reminded me of Rodney Rathbone.
I am glad he was nicer to Matthew at the end. Matthew's
confession was hard for him to do, but it was the right
thing. Kent's speech was great. Wooton was as funny as
always. I am beginning to adjust to Whit's new voice. I give
this episode 5/5 stars. This episode and Clutter are my
favorites so far.
Review by Joanne (Town of
Odyssey)
I loved this episode!
I felt like the story flowed really well, and was a great
slice of life story.
The characters were great as well! I am still getting used
to Whit but, I really liked his role in Target of the Week!
Over all it has been my favorite so far! Keep it up AIO!
Review by Bennett (Town of
Odyssey)
This is a nice strong slice of
life show. By the time I got to the end of the episode, I
was thinking--"now this episode sounds like it had a good
writer, who is this?" Oh. Look. Marshall Younger. Strange,
since I thought that he had left Odyssey.
Just a few quick points:
Wooton was simply a distraction during the episode, but he
was a very good distraction. They used him lightly, and with
a couple of pencil marks, could have gotten rid of him
completely from the episode. I think Wooton can be used too
heavily and therefore can become a little annoying--the
writers may try too hard to squeeze out jokes and humor from
him every 4 seconds. Here, he was used perfectly in a
secondary role. Oh yea, and he was funny here.
You would have thought... Whit would have learned his lesson
about having "colored commentators" after the Jimmy and
Lawrence
Matthew, Vance , Nelson , "Jay" and especially Kent were
each great new kids and each better come back. They are each
great and likable characters. These are the types of
characters that get me exciting about the new season.
Amazing how there are a lot of new characters already...
Revenge The official site says the main theme is revenge.
The episode would have only been mediocre if it wasn't for
the second half which there was an even better theme about
"placing the blame".
Coach Chang Fang: Hmm. Do any Asians listen to Odyssey? I
immediately started liking this character a lot--he makes a
really unique, distinct, and hilarious adult character--but
are there any negative Asian stereotypes the show is
treading on? Oh well I hope it's not a problem...and I hope
that we hear from him soon.
Best Lines: "You mean you felt a symbolic responsibility for
his error?" and [after there's a foul] Whit: "And it's
fouled off! We'll do it again!" Wooton: "Of course we
will"...
What was bad? Simple. "Target of the Week" What kind of
bullies have targets of the week, I'm wondering? A little
lame. Oh yea, and Bonnie. Oh, and squishy shoes. These are a
few of my least favorite things.
I'm voting "good" for this episode. People are always voting
"great" for each episode for some reason, but, these are the
episodes that Odyssey is supposed to be airing. So, nice job
on this one, guys.
Review by American Eagle
(Town of Odyssey)
This is the best episode of Album 51, by far. I love Vance
and Kent! I would love to see them in more episodes. Matthew
and Nelson were good main characters, and I had no issues
with them. Jay/Vance's "tell him what he's won" speech
reminded me of some of the cheesy humor in the Sherwood
Pictures movies, but that's a good thing.
Wooton is back!!! I'm not a Wooton fan or anything, but I'm
so glad another fun character is back. He was excellent. I'm
now totally used to the Andre as Whit, and the entire
episode flowed really well. I agree with Bennett's
"negatives", but they weren't annoying at all, and I can
totally live with squishy shoes.
Review by H Tide (Town of
Odyssey)
This was a fantastic episode.
Right from the beginning, it drew me in and kept me
anticipating what would happen next. It had a solid lesson
and while drawing memories of previous baseball episodes
like The Winning Edge and And the Glory, it still was
original and didn't copy too much from past episodes. I
agree with others that the kid characters are interesting
and have quirky personalities, which is always fun. And I
really enjoyed the addition of Coach Chang Fang. Although I
am Asian, I wasn't at all offended by his portrayal in the
episode but found him quite funny. All in all, the episode
deserves five stars!
Random thoughts:
I thought there was good continuity with the Odyssey Coyotes
and the Odenton Barons.
This is the fourth time we've heard the name Ken Blaylock
before (previously in Sheep's Clothing and in Tuesdays with
Wooton and The Highest Stakes (as the bus drive, Mr.
Blaylock). No suprise, really, since Marshal wrote or
co-wrote all four episodes, and is fond of putting the name
in them, but it was fun to notice.
Have we ever heard the National Anthem sung in an Odyssey
episode before? We've heard the instrumental version in By
Dawn's Early Light, but I don't think we've heard a vocal
rendition of the song.
Review by Jimmy Barclay
(Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
Has there ever been an AIO episode with an all male cast ? I
cant remember any females in the episode.
4 stars. I really liked it.
Review by EMBEE (Town of
Odyssey)
Rating:
I felt like Wooton's part of
the story was a little (for lack of a better word) underused
in this episode. When I listened for the first time, I was
like, "Yay! Wooton!" and I expected him to play a larger
role in this ep. Instead, he ended up just being used for
comic relief. I think that by not doing more with Wooton's
role, they missed out on an huge opportunity to have a
subplot that could've contributed to the theme of the
episode. Anyways, that's just my two cents.
Some of my favorite lines from this show:
"I like to wear them to prove that I'm not sneaking up on
people."
"For the love of all that is great in the U.S.!"
"I'm stupefied."
Lol about the whole Ken Blalock thing. I didn't catch it
until someone mentioned it on here, which surprises me 'cuz
I've heard the episode Sheep's Clothing (where they
mentioned a Kenny Blalock) like a million times.
Review by Catspaw (Town of
Odyssey)
I really enjoyed this episode.
It remained realistic but still felt like it dealt with a
real issue in a responsible way. Wooton's responses as the
game dragged on and on were amusing. As Whit was talking
about the runs that Odenton was getting, I was thinking
about poor Wooton being stuck there even longer before
Wooton even said anything, because I could feel his pain!
There's nothing worse than doing something you don't really
want to do and then have it take way longer than you
expected. It was very easy to relate to Wooton...plus I love
him anyway, so it was great to hear from him! I agree with a
lot of what has already been said. This was a very good
episode!
Review by King Butter
Turtle (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
Main Thoughts
-
I though it was very good.
It very well exemplified the slice-of-life-y-ness that
they're trying to get back to; the coyotes, KYDS Radio,
kids getting bullied at school, kids coming to Whit for
advice at the counter. It was a good story with
enjoyable characters. I also appreciated the humor in
this episode. I think it might be the first time I
notably laughed out load this season.
Vance King
The Coyotes
-
Tom Riley has been
replaced. Of course, Connie did it for a while but, it
really made me miss having Tom around. I still don't
think he should stay (unless they find an amazingly
similar actor) but, I would really love a good solid
replacement to stop by the counter for coffee and fill
some of his roles.
-
Have we ever had an Asian
Odyssey character before? I guess, it's about time, huh?
I liked the idea for his character but, for whatever
reason, it just wasn't very funny.
-
Was it just me or did the
coyotes game sound like at was in Yankee Stadium? In the
past it's been basically parents and a few loyal fans.
(like maybe 50 people) I know it's not too big of a deal
but, when they started stomping and clapping, ("We Will,
We Will Rock You") I found it to be so unrealistic that
it took away from the scene.
Other Notes
-
I can just imagine the
look on Jonathon Crowe's face when he was told about the
scene in which Matthew would be walking around in
squeaking sneakers. Regular footsteps are hard enough!
They were executed perfectly, though- sort of reminded
me of duck-man at the live show.
-
Jimmy Barclay's right,
there was only one small female role. I didn't notice
that until I read it. The only all-male cast in the past
(wow, that rhymed ) that I can think of is It Happened
at Four Corners.
-
I'm looking forward to
hearing from Connie and Eugene again next week. It's
been three episodes.
Review by King Butter
Turtle (Town of Odyssey)
I think Target of the Week is
my favorite so far, though Clutter was very good as well!
-
I really like Vance as the
Rodney replacement. He's still the overt bully but has a
different dimension by being a straight A student and
acting perfectly in class. Great! Dalton Kearn from the
Leonard Meltsner Arc had a different dimension as well
by having some kind of heart, i.e. he showed affection
for Everett. Not all bullies and villains are created
equal; I like that.
-
The duck squeaking could
be construed as lame, but I think it was supposed to be
innocuous (We don't want kids copying anything too bad!)
and humorous (It was outlandish and thus funny to me.).
-
I didn't even notice the
coach was supposed to be Asian, haha. I'll have to
listen again. Yeah, there have been a few Asians in
Odyssey, for example the guy of Japanese ancestry who
was on the U.S. side at Pearl Harbor and his son who
Bart was racist toward. For all we know any of the
characters that we don't have a cartoon depiction for
could be Asian, though I usually (rightly or wrongly)
assume everyone's white unless I have reason to believe
otherwise, e.g. muy bueno coming from the Parkers. All
in all, I'm not worried too much about this issue, just
making matter-of-fact observations. And Bennett, Asians
absolutely listen to Odyssey! I met a couple in
Colorado, I know a bunch on the board (10?), and I live
with some at home!
To sum up, Target of the Week
was a very good episode. It was traditional in that Whit
counsels kid and kid makes right, but original and not fully
predictable. I look forward to hearing more from Vance! Haha.
Review by Dallas R. (Town
of Odyssey)
Not too bad really. Like
others, it's probably my favorite episode this season. I
think the main areas have been covered pretty well, but I'll
skim over a few thoughts.
Vance, good, but I agree that he's not quite Rodney. Oh
well. Such is life.
Andre- Fine. Great as Whit, but not as good at announcing
baseball as Paul.
Matthew and Nelson were fine. I like them both better than
Grady. I think they'll be great to hear together in other
episodes.
I didn't like the Asian coach. I don't think that he was too
stereotypical Asian, but I don't like his new age comments.
My main complaint is still Wooton. It was great to hear from
him again, and I think he had some funny lines, but he still
doesn't seem to be quite himself yet. Maybe I'm the only one
who thought that, but he doesn't have the same heart or
feeling behind the character or something. It might just be
that Jess Harnell and Andre don't act as well together as
Paul and Jess. It'll be good to hear from him again in an
episode where he talks to Connie. The two of them have a way
of bouncing funny lines off of each other.
Review by Crazy 4 Pugs
(Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
It was pretty good. Vance can
never possibly replace Rodney, but the fact is that Rodney
should be about 35 by now, so it's about time they got
another resident bully I thought the Asian guy was stupid.
Waaaaaaaaay too stereotypical. I'm getting used to the new
Whit faster than I expected, but there are still moments
when I think "wait a sec, that doesn't sound like Whit."
Overall, maybe 4/5 stars (it was a good episode, even though
I don't really care about the characters.)
Review by StrongNChrist
(Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
Well......the new characters
are okay, I guess. Somehow they don't match the old ones
The bully is more childish then an actual bully. I
mean...the tricks he did? They were...rather stupid. Rodney
and Rusty both were much better bullies. Even Max was better
then the new bully.
I was just starting to get used to the new Whit.....but him
announcing the game...that was just bad. I was gritting my
teeth cause I couldn't stand his voice in the announcing. It
was driving me crazy.
But the story and the lesson was good...I'd say 3 stars.
Mainly because I somehow can't seem to like the new
characters entirely.
Review by Jonathan (Town of
Odyssey)
Rating:
...I liked Vance. If this is
the replacement for Rodney, I can live with him. He had his
own style and the actor was fantastic.
Speaking of stuff I liked, the plot was very well executed.
One of my complaints regarding Odyssey in the post-Novacom/pre-hiatus.2
period was that it too often seemed 'sitcom-ish'. Too
cartoony, too light, whatever word you want to put in to
replace sitcomy. If the lesson was serious it was bogged
down in really silly/unrealistic dialogue and actions (and
while I liked the Washingtons, a lot of their episodes come
to mind).
When this episode started with the plot seeming to center
around really odd pranks, I was concerned that this episode
was going to go down that road. And thankfully it didn't,
and in a big way. As much as I like to think I have forsight,
I did not see this coming. It was a great story device to
have them lose the game. And then to have Whit actually give
a kid advice. And then have the kid act on said advice,
insanely uncomfortable though it was. It was just really
nicely done.
I also liked Wooton. He was another reason I thought this
episode might become silly, but he was used well. Kinda like
Harlow wound up being used post DBD--sparingly and on the
side. Like when you sprinkle pepper on your beef. Perhaps
this is how Wooton--who for better or worse survived the
character purging of the hiatus--should be used from now on.
Oh, and if I were Whit I would've offered more in that
bribe, Wooton would be fun to play off of as a co-announcer.
There were really only two things I didn't like. First was
the squeaky shoes. That was really distracting and made the
dialogue hard to hear when they were out walking. And two,
like JF, I thought the coach sounded rather new-agey. I
liked the character, definitely a unique one with a very
talented actor, but plenty of his lines made me squirm a bit
in my chair.
So, conclusion, this is my favorite episode yet of the new
season. Great slice-of-life ep. 4 stars.
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