Reviews
for
"A Penny Saved"
[#692]
*All
ratings are based on a 5 star scale unless otherwise noted.
Review by
Gracie
Rating:
 
When I first heard "A Penny Saved" I really
liked it, but when I read the reviews, a few things came to
mind that kind of bothered me. (1) I don't think that Wooten
should be getting so emotionally involved with Penny when at
least I never got the message that she for sure is a
Christian. I wish that he would make sure she's a Christian
before he starts asking her out to movies. (2) It reminds me
a lot of the episode where Liz's dad loses his job and Mandy
and Jared go looking for her. I don't really like it when
they "rewrite" episodes, but that's just me. :)) (3) For
some reason, both Connie and Eugene have kind of been
getting on my nerves lately, especially Connie. She just
doesn't act "normal". It seems like she's gotten a lot more
immature since Mitch left. (By the way, I was really
disgusted that they missed the perfect opportunity to bring
Mitch back in the Green Ring Conspiracy! :P). But other than
those things I'm really enjoying this album so far!!!! I
especially like "Wooten Knows Best"!!!!!
Review by jennifertwt (Town
of Odyssey)
I thought it was a good episode, but see now
I need to go back and listen to the Green Ring consipiracy
again if they are going to pick up where it left off in this
album. I like the I Corinthians 13 tie in but really wish
they had titled the episodes out of that chapter like ON
Earth as it is in Heaven, and yes, I will mention that at
every opportunity.
Review by Gaius (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
(out of 10)
So we're in the post-GRC era, and Trask gets
20 years in prison, thanks largely in order to Penny,
Connie, and Wooton (who only did it because he got locked up
in a train, but got out anyways). I was disappointed we
didn't get to hear anything from Trask, though. It feels
good, however, to hear from Polehaus again, dry humor and
all . It would have been fun, though, to see some of the
devices from the Middle Ages used. I was reading about them
a few months ago. . .let's just say they aren't pretty. At
all =P
There's a celebration party at Whit's End, with all the "normals",
and now Wooton starts to get just a little on my nerves with
all his wisecracks. Connie finds out that Penny's not doing
so well, and so she decides to go find out what's wrong. Of
course, the next day, Wooton gets stood up (or more. . .sat
down) when Penny doesn't show up at the theatre, and that
does it for Connie, who's off to the college to find her
with the word (Hurry!) At the college, Connie and Wooton
goes to talk to Professor Bruce, who really strikes up on a
bad note with me. It wouldn't surprise me if he were evil.
Such a mean man, really. Wooton keeps butting in every time,
and then Bruce makes rather rude remarks about Penny, and
Connie defends her. And then it's made clear that Penny
probably won't have a job anywhere at the campus.
At Penny's room, they try in no avail to find her (with
Wooton continuously making corny remarks), and Connie talks
to the "chipper young feller" who also believes Penny was on
the wrong side (moral angst, as he calls it). Once the
conversation is over, he rather audaciously asks Connie to
go out with him sometime, but she says she doesn't like guys
with moral angst. Moral ambiguity? Well. . .that depends.
Yes, I'm ambiguous. What's it to you?
After another search for Penny (somewhat similar to Whit
talking to that guy about Mitch in the Novacom saga), Connie
kind of lays in on Wooton about his humor. . .which reveals
that he's using his "frivoulous humor" to mask his concern
for her. Oh, brother. (Oh, sister.) That doesn't explain the
rest of the times he was annoying. But still, it's a nice
little moment, and we do get a little hint that Penny and
Wooton. . .well. . .*leaves it at that*
Penny, meanwhile, has to spend the night in the park (or
tries to, after an officer comes to "help her"). After he
leaves for awhile during their interesting conversation, she
finds out how to open the trunk of her car. Someone
mentioned how it kind of seemed that Penny was drunk here.
To be honest, Penny did sound. . .different. This scene also
reminded me of Living in the Gray, with Felicia (who sounds
like Penny), and Jimmy's being homeless. And just like
Felicia, Penny ends up in jail (after having her rights
read).
The gang at Whit's End is busy discussing Penny's current
plight, and strangely enough, Polehaus calls and explains
the situation. Yep, none other like Penny would be having a
party in jail. Of course, unless you're Wooton Basset. . .At
the jail, they update more on the situation, and then go in
on the party. For a second. . .I was afraid it would be
something. . .seriously out of hand. It was so good to see
Penny so happy about Connie, Wooton, and Whit. The good
thing is, Penny is happy about getting to wear the orange
jumpers she moped about in GRC.
Connie and Whit and Wooton set Penny straight and Connie
takes Penny out, and Penny's touched. At least Penny was
serious right there, even if she decides to tell Polehaus
that vermillion curtains are in order. Oi vey. And Wooton
tries to get arrested too. Jeez. LOCK 'IM UP!
At a picnic, the trio reminiscies over the past experiences,
and the conversation is finally. . .serious, considering we
have two of the weirdest characters together. We do see that
Penny had a "father" relation with Trask, albeit it wasn't a
true one, but it still will hurt in the days to come. And so
the three toast with raspberry soda, even if Connie can't
really drink it. Hey, cranberry juice is better. *Way*
better.
To be honest, once looking over it, this episode was kind
of. . .simple. Basically, it's like "Connie and Wooton
search for a hurt Penny." And also, I didn't quite get the
feel of what this show was supposed to be about. And
Wooton's started to get more annoying. I do hope he doesn't
get much worse. However, I suppose we'll see how Penny,
Wooton, and Connie go on their adventures in the days to
come.
Review by Lee (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
I thought this episode was rather amusing,
(the parts with Penny made me laugh) but also quite shallow.
I didn't really get much of a point out of it, so I'll give
it a 3. It just seems like Wooton and Penny are good for the
occasional laugh, but they're mostly goons.
Review by DanP740 (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
Penny's voice is even more annoying than the
new Connie-yelling-voice. And they still sound too similar
to each other. And yeah, like someone said, what the heck is
wrong with Penny and her car?
Barely gets 3 out of 5...
And does anybody seriously just walk up to
someone and say "hey, you're cute. Wanna date?"
Review by Steve (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
This episode only got two out of five because
of the line about "moral angst."
Other than that, I really wanted to beat up all of the
characters because they were so annoying. (And by the way,
the title has next to nothing to do with the episode [except
for the word "Penny"]. It's not a salvation story like it
sounds like it should be.)
So yeah, pretty poor episode. Not one I'll be too excited to
hear again.
Review by Sapphire (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
I enjoyed this episode. It dealt with a good
topic. There are many people out there who feel guilty about
testifying against a friend in court. I wish it was more of
a serious episode, but I guess you can never have a serious
episode when Wooton is in it. So, that's my only complaint
about the episode. Not my favorite episode, but it's not my
lease favorite. I give "A Penny Saved" three stars out of
five.
Review by 31899 (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
I found this episode was better than the
first episode of the season. It was more believable to an
extent. The whole prison thing was rather odd.
One up from the last episode giving it 3 out of 5.
Review by Dallas R. (Town of Odyssey)
I guess I'm in a minority here, but I
actually was pleasantly surprised by the episode. I wasn't
expecting much since I don't really like Penny that much,
and I really didn't like her and Wooten during the Green
Ring Conspiracy, but I thought their chemistry was much
better here. She's still not really a Christian though...
The story was pretty silly, and didn't develop very much,
but I think that this is sort of necessary when continuing
on storylines after a long saga. After so many episodes of
serious, in depth story, it's nice to hear the characters in
something light and fluffy again. They did the same thing
after Darkness Before Dawn with "Welcome Home Mr. Blackgaard"
and after Novacom, with "Between You and Me." I think Wooton
and Penny worked much better in this type of episode.
I was glad to hear Wooton back to being a little more like
his old self. He actually had a few lines where I thought he
showed some maturity again. I loved where he says he's using
witty humor to cover up his true feelings. I do that a lot,
and it was nice to know that Wooton really was hurting in
the whole situation, and not just frivoluously laughing it
off as he was letting on.
Overall, it was a good, humorous episode that made me laugh
multiple times. I think it was the right Post-saga approach.
Review by Christian A. (Town of Odyssey)
Rating:
(out of 10)
My initial perception of the episode when I
finished listening the first time, like Marvin's, was that
it was very simple. I agree with Ben Warren (the Odyssey
Scoop's reviewer) that this felt much like episodes after
Darkness Before Dawn and The Novacom Saga that were merely
transition episodes. Rather than having an original premise,
it merely ties up loose ends that were left at the end of
The Green Ring Conspiracy. The only problem with that is
that not really any of the issues addressed in the episode
were problems at the end of the GRC. Sure it was nice to
know that Dr. Trask got what was coming to him, but we could
have deduced that outcome for ourselves. He was captured and
taken into custody, and there was loads of evidence stacked
up against him, so who wouldn't have thought that he'd be
found guilty on all charges? But I never would have guessed
that Penny would be so depressed about it.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to another episode with
Penny in it. In my opinion, apart from the part that she
played in helping the folks from Whit's End get more
information about Dr. Trask, she could have been taken out
of the album, and I wouldn't have missed anything. I really
disliked her character and the influence she had on Wooton,
and she was just a flat character that didn't intrigue me in
the least. Now in this episode, she became more round,
because the episode revolved around her, but that didn't
make me like her much more. I understand how she would have
been really bummed to have to testify against a man who was
a friend and a father to her, but I thought the extent of it
was slightly unrealistic, and then her quick turnaround at
the jail was even more so. I don't think this single episode
gave the writers enough time to flesh out Penny's problem
and then fully resolve it. Yes, there was a semi-satisfying
explanation during the picnic scene, but even that was not
much. I probably would have liked the episode more if it was
maybe a two-parter that gave me more chance to be
emotionally connected to what Penny was really feeling.
I was glad to hear from Detective Polehaus again. It seems
like he might become the new Officer Burke or O'Ryan who
shows up for any Odyssian crime. I liked that he seemed to
be one of Whit's End's regular customers. I look forward to
hearing more from him. His humor was pretty good, as usual,
and his chemistry with the other characters remained great.
Wooton.... I had mixed feelings about him in this episode.
On the downside of things, there were, as has been the
writers' ongoing habit, many times where a serious subject
was being addressed, and he threw in a punchline that was
supposed to get me to laugh, but really just made me groan
on the inside. I actually did think he and Connie made a
good team though. It seems right for him to be sharing his
feelings with her, rather than Penny, or even Whit. I dunno,
but they just seem to go well together. I liked the little
exchange about how he uses humor to cover up true feelings.
Maybe that was Mr. McCusker's way of apologizing for all of
the times in the GRC that Wooton killed the sobriety of the
moment with a joke. If so, then it was an acceptable apology
that made me think for a while. But I still wish he and
other writers would hold back on the jokes just a bit.
Wooton isn't merely loved for his jokes. In fact, I think
since Jay has really taken up that position now, Wooton
should primarily be loved for his openness and honesty,
which we got to see in this episode. He was always great
with kids and a good spiritual example to follow, but
recently all he's been is the court jester who comes around
to lighten the mood, but who ends up being a nuisance most
of the time.
I liked how Connie was wanting to be a faithful friend to
Penny throughout the episode. As others have mentioned, I
think it's great that Connie finally has someone her age
with whom she can socialize and connect emotionally. (I
personally just wish that someone wasn't Penny.)
I thought the scene with Professor Bruce was a little weird.
Why would he be so annoyed at people who put a counterfeiter
behind bars? Sure he was a respected professor at the
college, but all that time, he was ringleading a nationwide
counterfeiting operation aimed at financially tearing down
America from the inside! That's about as bad of a
non-violent criminal you can get. But the scene with the
college student was pretty funny, freeing my mind back up
with some great humor. Some have asked why he was so quick
to ask Connie out, and I wonder if those people have ever
been around secular college kids. It was very realistic. I
listen to a radio show where a guy goes and witnesses to
kids on a college campus. And most of them are just like
this guy was: morally ambiguous and postmodern--no respect
for right and wrong, only caring about their personal views
and opinions. (Note: I know that I have many readers who
attend college so know that I'm not meaning this to be a
generalization of all college kids, just the majority of
America's young people.
The thing that I liked least about the episode was that it
really didn't feel like it belonged in a collection about 1
Corinthians 13. I have to admit that I totally forgot that
the episode was supposed to be describing an aspect of love,
and I didn't realize that that was supposed to be the moral
of the story until I read somebody else's review on the Town
of Odyssey. To me, the episode felt like it was just a story
meant for entertainment (though it did a poor job had that
been the only purpose), like the rest of the GRC. I didn't
notice that an aspect of love was being demonstrated at all.
Now, of course, I see how that would have worked, with
Connie and Wooton, relentlessly pursuing Penny to help her
and understand her feelings, but I really didn't get it
while I was listening. Maybe I was the only one who felt
that way.
So I wasn't especially interested by this episode. It met my
expectations as well as a Penny and Wooton episode could, so
it wasn't all that great. Maybe my thoughts are just clouded
because I'm tired, and I'm being overly negative, but I
don't think this would be an episode I'd want to listen to
over and over again. Unfortunately if and when I get the
album, this show will most likely be on the same CD as
Wooton Knows Best, so I'll sorta be forced to hear it
multiple times. Oh well.
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