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So, what did you guys think of this episode?

Penny, why??

I heard this episode twice; once last night at 11:45pm exhausted and again today with a more attuned mindset. I didn't want to rant about this episode simply on the first impressions of a tired mind. Gotta say, I was disappointed.

I love Penny when she is written well. Unfortunately, I find all too often that she is written poorly (or perhaps the writers are trying to retcon the character she used to be). I didn't like Penny in this episode. I think Penny being frustrated at life and its constant changes is in-character. But the way she reacted to everything is not. Her reactions to the simplest of things were so bombastic, childish, and worst of all, uncharacteristic. Yes, Penny is young at heart and does often process things in a youthfully innocent way, but she still functions as the adult she is. After she explodes at Mrs. Beecham, her parents proceed to coddle her feelings. "It wasn't that bad!" they say. When Wooton pipes in with an observational point about Mrs. Beecham's awesome memory, Eleanor hisses, "You're not helping." It's probably instinctual for parents to react in such a way, but not only do her parents treat her like a child, so does the episode. And that's my problem.

Her encounters with others were...strange. In particular, when she meets the new art teacher and when she reunites with Mrs. Beecham. The scenes basically went like this:

Penny: I don't know if I necessarily agree with you, but that's an interesting view on teaching students.
Lincoln Harper: Great! It was nice meeting you. *walks away*
Penny: Wooton, I cannot believe that man!! AAAHH!!

NEXT SCENE:
Penny: Oh, Mrs. Beecham, why are you retiring? The school needs you!
Mrs. Beecham: I'm old and tired. I've done this for a long time. I'm ready for a change.
Penny: Aw, I understand. *two seconds later* QUITTER!! HOW COULD YOU?!

Gah!! It's so jarring and annoying narratively. Plus, Penny isn't one to explode in such a way. She ruminates on her feelings and overthinks until she lets her thoughts get the better of her. It doesn't help that her motivations are written weakly.

This episode isn't without merit, though. I really liked Wooton in this episode. Her parents had some funny lines and I liked them here way more than I did in "A Wise Surprise." Also, the scene between Penny and Wooton at the end is pretty cute. It was the sweetest Penny and Wooton scene in a while and I liked it a whole lot.

Yeet. If you disagree on my points, counter-argue because I dislike not fully enjoying episodes and I'd love to see other perspectives.

Monica Stone wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:13 pm

Penny, why??

I heard this episode twice; once last night at 11:45pm exhausted and again with a more attuned mindset. I didn't want to rant about this episode simply on the first impressions of a tired mind. Gotta say, I was disappointed.

I love Penny when she is written well. Unfortunately, I find all too often that she is written poorly (or perhaps the writers are trying to retcon the character she used to be). I didn't like Penny in this episode. I think Penny being frustrated at life and its constant changes is in-character. But the way she reacted to everything is not. Her reactions to the simplest of things was so bombastic, childish, and worst of all, uncharacteristic. Yes, Penny is young at heart and does often process things in a youthfully innocent way, but she still functions as the adult she is. After she explodes at Mrs. Beecham, her parents proceed to coddle her feelings. "It wasn't that bad!" they say. When Wooton pipes in with an observational point about Mrs. Beecham's awesome memory, Eleanor hisses, "You're not helping." It's probably instinctual for parents to react in such a way, but not only do her parents treat her like a child, so does the episode. And that's my problem.

Her encounters with others was...strange. In particular, when she meets the new art teacher and when she reunites with Mrs. Beecham. The scenes basically went like this:

Penny: I don't know if I necessarily agree with you, but that's an interesting view on teaching students.
Lincoln Harper: Great! It was nice meeting you. *walks away*
Penny: Wooton, I cannot believe that man!! AAAHH!!

NEXT SCENE:
Penny: Oh, Mrs. Beecham, why are you retiring? The school needs you!
Mrs. Beecham: I'm old and tired. I've done this for a long time. I'm ready for a change.
Penny: Aw, I understand. *two seconds later* QUITTER!! HOW COULD YOU?!

Gah!! It's so jarring and annoying narratively. Plus, Penny isn't one to explode in such a way. She ruminates on her feelings and overthinks until she lets her thoughts get the better of her. It doesn't help that her motivations are written weakly.

This episode isn't without merit, though. I really liked Wooton in this episode. Her parents had some funny lines and I liked them here way more than I did in "A Wise Surprise." Also, the scene between Penny and Wooton at the end is pretty cute. It was the sweetest Penny and Wooton scene in a while and I liked it a whole lot.

Yeet. If you disagree on my points, counter-argue because I dislike not fully enjoying episodes and I'd love to see other perspectives.

Penny's voice was pretty annoying through the whole thing, not to mention her personality as well. This episode was originally a Clubhouse article, so maybe the AIO team thought "this sounds like a good episode idea", I think one of the reasons why I didn't like this episode so much was because it was based off an article. They were trying to make everything so close to the article that something's sounded weird in the audio episode (maybe it's just me). It is interesting that Wooton mentioned...children, maybe there is something behind that, I don't know.

Pardon me while I agree with everything being said.

Monica Stone wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:13 pm

I didn't like Penny in this episode. I think Penny being frustrated at life and its constant changes is in-character. But the way she reacted to everything is not.

For sure. That was pretty much my basic thought after hearing it the first time: I did not like Penny. I can see her getting annoyed with the changes around her hometown, but I think she overreacted in...everything (particularly during the pizza incident).

Monica Stone wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 01, 2020 10:13 pm

This episode isn't without merit, though. I really liked Wooton in this episode. Her parents had some funny lines and I liked them here way more than I did in "A Wise Surprise." Also, the scene between Penny and Wooton at the end is pretty cute. It was the sweetest Penny and Wooton scene in a while and I liked it a whole lot.

Yup. I'm stuck between liking and disliking this episode because of this.
Generally, I didn't really like this episode. But I did like certain aspects of it, such as Wooton and Penny and the theme. So I guess I'll give it a 3 out of 5.

Carl wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:23 pm

This episode was originally a Clubhouse article, so maybe the AIO team thought "this sounds like a good episode idea", I think one of the reasons why I didn't like this episode so much was because it was based off an article. They were trying to make everything so close to the article that something's sounded weird in the audio episode (maybe it's just me).

I...did not know it was a Clubhouse magazine. That makes sense; it feels like an article from Wooton's random ramblings or something akin to that. Good memory!

Carl wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:23 pm

It is interesting that Wooton mentioned...children, maybe there is something behind that, I don't know.

Technically, he mentioned grandchildren But it stuck out to me as well. Honestly, I feel like the only thing that should be holding the writers back from writing in a pregnancy/parenthood storyline for them is the weird aging in Odyssey. It would seriously complicate things and it would actually reflect on how much time is passing in the show. But if the writers really wanted to, they could make it work. Wooton, in particular, would make an awesome dad!

Here's the thing that's really interesting to me about the episode: What do you think of the teaching styles of Mrs. Beecham versus Lincoln Harper? I see merit in both of them.

Monica Stone wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:09 pm

Here's the thing that's really interesting to me about the episode: What do you think of the teaching styles of Mrs. Beecham versus Lincoln Harper? I see merit in both of them.

That's a hard choice. But I'm going to have to go with Mr. Harper.
I mean, it is cool that some kids could get their work hung up. And yes, it could be a huge confidence booster. But I can imagine that might make other students feel bad - perhaps some may think their their work isn't as good and therefore won't try their best. Or else students might think that their art is bad and are afraid of people seeing it. Either way, in my opinion, Mr. Harper's method seems wiser.

This episode was okay. I pretty much agree with everything that has been said so far: I didn't quite like Penny's reactions to everything. It was a bit much, even for her. But I'll focus on the positives in this episode.


First off, I liked that this episode featured a nice reappearance of Jason J. Lewis! He is heard in one scene as Lincoln Harper, the new art teacher replacing Mrs. Beacham. I loved his performance as Tim David Michael in "Your Honest Opinion, Please", so it was good to hear from him again. I hope we hear more of Jason J. Lewis in future Odyssey episodes.

There were quite a few parts in here that made me laugh:

Penny: Why are you retiring, Mrs. Beacham?
Wooton: Uh-oh.
Mrs. Beacham: I've been doing this a long time. I'm tired.
Wooton: Yeah, yeah. Look at how tired she looks, Penny!
Mrs. Beacham: Excuse me?!
Wooton: Oh, uh, I mean, no, no, no, you look great! Real fit, you’d probably beat me in a 5K!

I also found the part with Mario refusing to wash another pan quite hilarious. And Penny suggesting they make trampolines with the pizza.

Oh, and the sound design in this episode was really good! Especially the scene with Penny taking a bite of the pizza. Whew. That was quite... um... graphic. You could literally hear the rubber substance of the pizza, along with the chewed up pizza rolling around in Penny's mouth. Pretty gross actually, but I liked how well done it was. Excellent job, Jonathan Crowe!

The moral was spot on. I liked that. Very relatable.

I'll just say that I didn't receive the February 2016 Clubhouse Magazine, so I was unaware that this episode was based off of the story in it until I read it on the Club. Now, it's a pretty cool idea to turn the February 2016 Clubhouse Magazine story into an episode, but as Carl pointed out, it somehow didn't quite work.