Reviews
for
"The Labyrinth"
[#703,
704,
705]
*All
ratings are based on a 5 star scale unless otherwise noted.
Part One
Review by Christian
A.
Rating:
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.
Review by Bmc
Rating:
I liked this even better than the green ring.
Somehow it reminded me of Cars 2, one American agent (jason
as mater) and 2 British agents (mc missile and shiftwell)
and the foreign villain (Mr grote as professor zündap). I
love pixar and cars 2 was one of the best. Plus the
laberynth was a cool spy related episode. I\'m really
interested in spies and agencies so this episode was
awesome. I also liked the way Jason was a better person in
this saga, not cocky or show off or stupid or bratty (as he
usually is ) he was way better. I liked sue as well:)
Review by
Leopards and Zebras
Rating:
I was quite surprised with
this episode! It sounded like our favorite old time
episodes! They had two OLD!!!!!! characters come back and
help, and it really was top notch! The sound and script were
excellent as usual, and it didn't feel childish to me,
(yeah, it's been a while) I was on the edge of my seat the
entire time and still am...considering they haven't released
the other two parts. ha ha ha! Well any way, Congrats
odyssey! You deserve these five stars!!!
Review by whittaker96
So far, it's been better than
certain parts of the Green Ring. Although it was super
surprising and exciting to hear Dale again, I'm still hoping
for more old friends! Mr. Fingers was good, but honestly,
the agents were playing off the typical dumb cop stereotype.
Although, I will give them credit for giving Agent Billings
a possible interesting backstory. The child sounds like
Rachel Fox, and I do like how they also have the Scotland
Yard detective (although he's probably not). I'm still
hoping Mitch is out there...somewhere. Overall, okay part 1,
and I'll be listening to this and the Ceiling Fan over and
over to keep me occupied until March...83/100, B-
Review by
Dallas R.
I thought it was pretty
decent, but different than I expected. Sort of felt more
like listening to Radio Theater than to Odyssey though. It
was weird that Jason was the only post-hiatus character
involved. The British agents really reminded me of Cars 2
also.
I'm not sure how I feel about Dale Jacobs appearance. I
would have loved to hear Dale Jacobs back in his familiar,
Odyssey reporter role, but to reappear after all these years
overseas acting as assistant spy seemed really odd. I think
it might be confusing to new listeners too, where as a
simple Odyssey news reporter wouldn't have needed
explanation. Richard Maxwell would certainly have fit
better, and if not him, why not have a present character
play Dale's role. I think with a few rewrites, Monty might
have been a much better choice. Seemed too forced almost.
Anyway, I shouldn't judge so much before I hear all three
parts. Good stuff, and I can't wait to hear the rest.
Review by
rickyderocher
OK, I just listened to this
episode and I have to say... 5 stars!!!
First off it feels great to be able to listen to a new AIO
episode that doesn't stink. Ever since the re-launch album,
Odyssey has pretty much been a painful experience - part of
this is from a toning of the episodes down to a younger
audience appeal. It seems like AIO has been aimed at 7 year
old lately - with the older AIOs while still for kids - had
a wider age appeal to them. And another reason is the geeky
annoying kids like Emily Jones, etc. Green Ring Conspiracy
was OK - though they ruined the dramatic tension at the end
with the retarded attempts at humor with Wooten and the Ditz
Princess. (Penny Wise or whatever her name is - with the
voice from the radio underworld - arrgghh!! Her voice
reminded me of Jimmy's drunk girlfriend in Living in the
Gray, by the way) I mean little bits of humor in a dramatic
scene are OK but come on, it was like having Harlow Doyle
pop up in the Final Conflict in the climax tunnel scene and
having him dance the polka in a chicken suit while on
unicycle while gurgling kook-aid. It totally ruined the
dramatic effect.
So anyways, back to this episode... The voice acting is
great. The plot line is cool - what with all the Mi5 agents,
and all. Having Dale Jacobs in the episode good too.
Overall, a very promising episode, hopefully they keep it up
for the next two and don't disappoint me with a bad ending.
(If Emily Jones and Matthew Parker show up and help solve
everything I'm going to scream). As a side note - it's
interesting to have an AIO episode set in London as that was
the original plan for Way Laid in the Windy City - but at
the time they didn't have the voice talent to pull it off.
Part Two
Review by Knight
Fisher
Rating:
After being a really good plot
last time all it is now is the Hardy Boys. The plot thicken.
The Hero gets captured. The villain explains his devious
plan. The hero escapes and saves the day. And didn't Grote
believe he didn't have the code a wee bit to quickly?
3 Stars, nothing new.
Review by
Christian A.
I thought it was interesting
that there was a "previously on Adventures in Odyssey"
segment before the show. We haven't had one of those since
probably...The Top Floor? Or maybe it's just that all of the
album versions take them out, so I wouldn't know. Anyway, I
thought it was kind of weird. It seemed to be mostly a
time-filler, because it lasted a looong time: almost two
whole minutes!
Now to the first real scene. I was hoping for a chase scene,
but the episode starts with Dale and Sew back with Jason and
Ann, and they brought Jason's secret suitcase with them.
Does anyone else think that Ann sounds really young? I think
she sounds just like Alicia Jennings in The Myster of the
Clock Tower. She doesn't fit very well with Dale. I liked
her old voice much better. I wonder what happened to the
actress? I loved how Dale had to explain the Alamo to Sew.
That's another thing you don't think about very
often--Americans are typically some of the only people who
know and care about American history. Hmmm. Jason wants Ann
to hide the secret stuff from him so that he won't know
where it is, if asked. I wonder who he suspects he might run
into....
Is anyone else wondering what I'm wondering? Are you going
to eat those french fries? Are you going to eat that cake?
Why is Sew so crazy about food and yet at the same time so
easily able to fit in Jason's suitcase? Already I'm starting
to not like Ann so much. Turn himself in? What kind of an
idea is that? And then she almost sounded like Wooton when
she said, "I'm still stuck on the part about Reggie Fingers
being a real name." Ugh. But then she gets helpful when she
knows what the Julius House is. Asian artifacts, Mr. Grote
comes from Hong Kong. I'm thinking Jason's going to find Mr.
Grote there....And apparently Jason's thinking the same
thing. Off to the next scene!
Oh, wait, no, not off the the next scene. Off to a
commercial. Even more time-filling! Okay, now back to the
episode. Sew's gone? That can't be good. Maybe they'll meet
up with her later. I don't think they'd just take her
totally out of the show like that without a
goodbye-and-thank-you scene.
Now we're at the auction. And they find some
climate-controlled vases connected to *insert epic music*
The Prominent Company. Really? The Prominent Company? That
is a very generic name for such a high-profile organization.
I guess that could be the point, but whatever.
Okay, the auction's about to start. Seriously? We're already
in the hundreds of thousands?! What kind of money do these
people have? Is this in pounds or dollars? So, Lord
Brownlough is winning everything from The Prominent Company.
And Jason goes off to talk with him? That's sort of unusual.
I would have thought he'd stay more undercover than that.
I can't tell if Lord Brownlough knows anything or not. His
comments before and after he knew anyone was listening
weren't suspicious, and he seemed to have a good enough
explanation for his actions. Maybe he's being totally
controlled by someone else.
Next scene, our favorite Odysseyans are leaving the auction,
but an alarm goes off. Somebody collapsed at the loading
dock, maybe from something toxic. I would have hesitated to
believe it, thinking it was a show staged by Mr. Grote to
cover something up, but apparently Jason's going with it.
Now Jason turns to the "Alamo" backup plan. I don't know why
he's having Dale enter the codes on the computer when he
could do it himself. I guess we'll find out. Uh-oh. Jason's
getting unsure of himself. That's never good. He agrees with
Dale that everything may end in tragedy.
Okay, so now Sew's back, and she knows about the accident
with the toxic chemicals. Apparently the whole thing was
real, and it was one of Reggie Fingers' men who passed out.
And now the crate is in the hands of the Hazardous Materials
Squad. I wonder where that will go.
Then Sue, again, gets ready to show off her skills and she
and Jason head to "the back way in" to Intensive Care.
Wow! That was a surprise. Agent Billings shoved Jason back
into the hallway. It would seem that he still trusts Jason
enough to get him out of trouble. But I wonder what he was
doing there... *more epic music*
If I could say "what the heck" I would. Well, I guess I just
did. That next scene was really weird. Apparently Billings
is really, really mad at Jason for not contacting him.
Really mad. But he has some really good information about
Koflax and its connection to Mr. Grote. Oh no! That's the
connection the event at the British museum! It wasn't the
Hazardous Materials Squad that took the crate; it was more
of Reggie Fingers' men! Grote's going to suffocate all those
world leaders!
This story is getting better all the time. The plot elements
are way more exciting than those of the Green Ring
Conspiracy. Suffocating the President of the U.S.A. and the
Prime Minister of England, along with several leaders from
Asia is on such a much larger scale than the GRC that it's
hard to believe Grote was in charge of both. Wait, now Sew
is the traitor?! I wonder what Reggie had to do to her to
get her to go along with him. Or has she been working for
him the whole time?
YES! We finally meet Mr. Grote! I really like his voice.
It's the perfect mix of deep and Asian to sound sinister and
villainy. What? Jason just lunged at Grote? I agree with
him, "Such violence is uncharacteristic of you,
Jason....Please." What was that? Well, at least he still has
some sense left in him: the codes Dale entered into the
laptop were destructive to Grote's whole computer system. Oh
wait. No, it's not just destructive. It sends all of his
files to the authorities...and then it destroys the system.
And I love it that all Mr. Grote says is, "This is
unfortunate." He is the greatest villain ever! Wait. The
"worm" doesn't activate until midnight? What's up with that?
Why not just have it activate as soon as it was uploaded?
Now Reggie Fingers is off to find out more information from
Jason, "by whatever means necessary." But now the episode is
done, and we have to wait until next week to see what kind
of torture will be inflicted upon him. Thankfully this isn't
as much of a cliffhanger as we got last week. But we still
don't know what will happen to those gathering at the
British Museum that night. This is so great!
Review by
Finnick Odair
I'm with Christian: This is
way more compelling than the GRC (though, tbh, I'm not
really a fan of the GRC in general).
I do think it makes good sense that Mr. Grote was in charge
of both, though; can all of one's criminal operations be
this large-scale? For all we know Mr. Grote was preparing
this Labyrinth scheme while the GRC unfolded...perhaps the
GRC was even going to help fund the Labyrinth scheme (not to
mention the many "henchmen" on various levels he would gain;
you never know when those might come in handy).
I'm tired and was multitasking while listening, so I'm going
to have to listen again in order to get more details, but I
kind of assumed Sew was caught and told to bring Jason,
after which she could go. She was, of course, double-crossed
again in this regard (she brought Jason, but was then not
allowed to leave).
I like how Mr. Grote didn't show up in the GRC, seeing as it
rather was of a lesser scale.
I also quite like Jason's code on Mr. Grote's computer
(system, is it?). Whether he's bluffing or not, that's just
the sort of thing he would do. (Incidentally, I think I hope
he's not bluffing because that could make for some very nice
action later on (time bombs--gotta love 'em).) I actually
didn't think it was strange that Mr. Grote suspected a bluff
this early--it could be strange, it just didn't strike me as
such. Someone in Mr. Grote's position would naturally be
inclined to suspect things like that; he did seem a little
worried (as much as someone that smooth can seem worried).
[Closing statement about how I am very much looking forward
to the next episode and how I like this adventure quite well
so far]
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