Episode
Reviewed: No
Way Out / No Way In (546,
547)
Writer: John Fornof
Director: John Fornof
Production
Engineer: Allen Hurley
Music
Composer: John
Campbell
Original
Airdate: 5/22/04, 5/29/04
Rating (out of 5 cones):
Episode
Summary
Whit finds himself in a strange and dangerous situation that he can't
understand or control.
The
Review
Part
One >>
The room. No doors. No
windows. No way out. And yet… Whit is in there, wondering where he is, why
he is there, how he has gotten into an un-enterable room, and what will
happen to him. A suspicious man named Lester welcomes him from his sleep and
discloses very little information about himself and a series of strange
numbers. If this was real life, it would just be a matter of pinching
one’s self to make sure he or she is actually in a room such as this with
a man of slow taste. As I listened to No
Way Out, I was forced to
pinch myself to make sure I was actually listening to an episode of Adventures
in Odyssey.
In all the years of
quality radio drama, I don’t believe I have ever heard an episode quite
like the one I am critiquing now. No
Way Out
was a new avenue for John
Fornof, who, might I add, has recently conducted writings for the Mysteries
in Odyssey book series. To me, this episode sounded as if it was dragged
from an old, forgotten, dusty book from the 1930’s, refurbished, and
re-catalogued and reformatted to fit the airwaves of radio. Odd yes.
Strange? Indeed. Did it remind me of science fiction? Most certainly. Is it
science fiction? No.
The episode itself,
unlike many mysteries on the show before, has a way of grabbing a listener
by the ears, making sure there is a reason to pay attention, all for the
sake of confusing him or her. My initial listen to the episode was an
unpleasant one and I was questioned with, “Can you pay attention and find
out the truth as it is revealed?” No
Way Out
took a different direction than previous action-adventure, mystery
shows. Instead of a simple mystery genre that reveals facts at appropriate
times to cue the listener in on what is occurring and why it must occur,
this episode leaves the listener on the edge of their seat. No questions are
answered every few minutes as can be expected. When I listen to an episode,
I naturally expect all the answers to be delivered within a reasonable
amount of time. However, this episode didn’t let me have my own way; it
got its own. I’d never seen any episode of AIO quite like this
before. Or should I say heard?
In general, I mentioned
that the episode latched onto my attention, giving me a desire to know the
answers now, in my time. Even with this positive and successful goal of John
Fornof, the acting didn’t exactly aid in keeping my interest. The new
character of Lester had such a watery voice and unsatisfactory tone that I
reacted to him as a cheesy character. The acting itself was merely forced by
the actor. Paul Herlinger seemed
to have lacked a motivation to do his best in this episode as well. In The
Caves of Qumran video by FOTF, Whit’s voiceover was horrible. As I
listened to scenes with Whit (Paul), I could not help but rewind my life and
step back into the first time I had ever seen The
Caves of Qumran. Acting, as a whole, could have used a little more work.
All other voices on the episode, especially that of Jason Whittaker (Townsend
Coleman), were as can be expected and spoke Emmy Awards better.
In regards to the
appearance of the Washington Family, I was not as displeased with them as in
episodes prior to this. Generally, I have not yet come to terms with the new
family on Adventures in Odyssey due to the overly rated, overused
sarcasm of the family. The kids are generally sarcastic in just about every
comment made to one another. That angers me. They don’t get along and it
angers me to hear the constant sarcasm. I especially had a problem with this
in Something's
Got to Change. Now we appear
to get a small break from the annoyance, thank goodness.
One standing out scene
in this episode includes Jason and Connie’s struggle to find out the
locations of the church bells and jingles. Their eventual epiphany that an
ice cream truck nearby has been caught on Whit’s message adds an entire
new dimension and spark to the show.
As
a whole, part one of this two-part experiment with the listener’s patience
(I call it one at least) has created a new way of portraying mystery/action.
Rating
(out of 5 cones):
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