Episode
Reviewed: Grandma's
Christmas Visit
(678)
Writers: Kirby Atkins, Dave Arnold, Paul McCusker
Director: Paul McCusker
Sound Designer:
GAP Digital
Music:
John Campbell
Scripture: Luke 2
Theme: The true meaning
of Christmas
Original
Airdate: 12/18/10
Review Written by:
Ben Warren, Staff Writer
Rating (out of 5):
Episode
Summary
The Parker's grandma comes for a
Christmas visit, in the middle of an elaborate Christmas
celebration cooked up by Eugene and Connie. The Parker family
parents wonder if it's possible to have a Christmas without
stress.
The Review
Anyone else have post-Christmas blues? For that matter, does
anyone have any post-season blues?
Grandma's Christmas Visit
embodies a lot of what was wrong this past season. Browsing through my past
reviews, I noticed I used the word "chaotic" quite often, particularly when
describing the preposterousness of
Wooton's Broken Pencil Show,
the childishness of Fast As I Can,
the hectic A Thankstaking Story,
and the hyperness of An Agreeable
Nanny. Part of me was yearning for a slower, smoother, and more thoughtful
episode. Those episodes lacked the heart and emotional punch a more pensive, and
more delicately crafted one could have brought about. As an older fan responding
to the changes of his favorite radio show, I will not rashly state that "this is
becoming more and more common", but I will accuse the show of poorly structuring
its seasons, failing to find a comfortable balance between the number of heavy
and light episodes it chooses to put into an album.
After all, isn't this the main problem with the weaker albums? "Album 34:
In Your Wildest Dreams" would not have been
so universally despised had it included heavier, hard hitting episodes similar
to
Someone to Watch Over Me,
Castles & Cauldrons,
or
The Mortal Coil
amidst its absurd episodes. With a few exceptions, like sagas, I believe sillier
shows should be followed by ones which call for a different emotional response.
The result would be a more emotionally engaging album, with each episode
standing out from the rest. Consider how the heavy episode
The
Mortal Coil was followed by the light
Best Intentions. If both had been made to be serious
or silly, the power of either one would have been diminished, correct? By being
drastically different in tone, they both end up complimenting the other. Other
successful pairings include
Buried Sin
and
Gloobers,
Home, Sweet Home
and
Clara,
and any episode before or after a BTV episode. Many of us falsely believe the
strength of an album depends on the strength of the episodes themselves; we
rarely pause to consider how well these episodes fit together. While "Album 52:
Cause and Effect" is an improvement on
"Album 51: Take it from the Top", both are
made up of episodes that blend together far too much, use a similar tone, style,
characters, humor. Consider, in comparison, how different the episodes in "Album
32: Hidden Treasures" are from one another.
Every show in it has its own distinct personality.
I will avoid giving the stereotypical criticism of the show, accusing
Adventures in Odyssey of catering to the modern ADD child who needs faster
scripts, with a joke uttered every two seconds, and irritating voices. Part of
me believes this to be true, but I am also tired of bringing this point up. In
the case of
Grandma's Christmas Visit,
the show's unfocused and disorientating feel was probably deliberate. In the
same way "Wooton's Broken Point" provided the listener 25 minutes of "chaos" to
prove a prove a point about, uh, "points", the chaotic aspect of
Grandma's Christmas Visit
was used to make a point about "peace". Unfortunately, the way the theme was
executed ultimately became the show's downfall because I didn't remotely care
for the events occurring within the chaos. As it is,
Grandma's Christmas Visit
merely consists of one uninteresting thing after another.
As
Unto Us a Child Is Born
has shown to us, it isn't impossible to care about the "chaos" that is often
connected with Christmas. In that episode, Jimmy Barclay, much like characters
in
Grandma's Christmas Visit
did, proposed a new way to celebrate the birth of Christ. What follows are a lot
of crazy things: Mary Barclay goes into labor on air, forcing Jimmy to re-cast
the parts of Mary and Joseph--in addition to figuring out sound-effects for the
show. Then, Eugene and Katrina, who have been wrestling with their relationship,
are cast as Mary and Joseph, and must act out some romantic dialogue; awkward,
considering the then current state of their relationship. Now, this is all
chaotic...but it is also very interesting, isn't it? There's conflict, but more
importantly, there's drama. All of this crazy silly buffoonery couldn't possibly
be irritating because the scene also acts as a defining moment for two major
story lines in the show: Mary's pregnancy, and Eugene's relationship with
Katrina. This is how you make seemingly mindless chaos interesting, folks.
If the story is meant to be humorous, then make it important, or relevant to us.
[But not too important, or else you risk undervaluing an important event, which
is what happened to Eugene and Katrina's wedding in the terrible
For
Better or For Worse] Give me a reason to care. Give me
drama. I enjoyed A Thankstaking
Story, among others, this season. However, when a season is constantly
churning out these sorts of episodes, you begin to feel a little like Mrs.
Parker in today's episode...
...you start longing for the silence.
Hoping to write a more positive review, I decided to listen to
the shortened-for-radio version. As with
A Thankstaking Story, I was
prepared to declare the radio version the better one, assuming it would trim all
of original version's unnecessary fat. Needless to say, I was SHOCKED. The radio
version is, frankly, terrible. In it, a couple of scenes with Mrs. Parker have
been cut, and her storyline awkwardly begins halfway through the show. I'll
admit there is too much going on in this episode, but why cut out the most
interesting part?
Grandma's Christmas Visit
is made up of three awkwardly pieced together sections. One could easily assume
three different heads went into this script. And there were. It was
collaboratively written by Kirby Atkins, David Arnold, and Paul McCusker. The
episode feels slightly disjointed, reminding me of
Peace On Earth and how it was created. Phil Lollar
writes in The Official Guide: "The original concept for this episode
dealt solely with Whit being too busy to enjoy Christmas. Chuck Bolte came up
with the idea of the Barclays getting robbed, and Paul McCusker blended the two
stories". I always enjoyed
Peace On Earth
because it provided two perfectly written stories with one smoothly
transitioning into the other.
Grandma's Christmas Visit
doesn't feel like a complete story, but merely "moments" that don't go anywhere.
Adventures in Odyssey has always been great at creating excellent
Christmas shows. Older fans I've spoken to, who no longer listen to the show,
often cite
Back to Bethlehem
as their favorite for its cleverness in delivering the Christmas message. But no
listener can forget Barclay Christmas episodes;
It's a Pokenberry Christmas as a clever parody of the
classic film;
The Visitors
for its poignant and somewhat conflicting message on sacrifice;
Peace On Earth for a pertinent story capped off with a
wonderfully heartwarming final scene. Even the show's lesser-praised
concoctions,
The Popsicle Kid
and
The Day After Christmas,
though occasionally cringe-worthy, tug at heart strings. I'll even admit : did
too, once or twice. The last scene of today's show with Whit and Grandma is
wonderful, and it is one of the best moments the season had to offer. Stojka's
piece of dialogue, "The calm after the chaos. It's a particular kind of
beautiful" is well delivered--a terrific line to end the season with.
Unfortunately, this nice scene is not good enough to forgive the journey
preceding it.
I have concluded that
Grandma's Christmas Visit
came out at the wrong time. I wonder whether I needed an episode to focus on the
contemplative side of the season; one which didn't force me to hear about
season's chaos. It is for this reason that I immensely enjoyed
Silent Night, the last great Christmas episode the
show has produced, which had a refreshingly different feel from hubbub depicted
in
A Christmas Conundrum.
Grandma's Christmas Visit
could have even gone the route of
A Lamb's Tale,
providing an emotional roller coaster, going back and forth between silly and
peaceful moments. That episode is, I believe, Odyssey's equivalent to Academy
Award Winning film "Crash"- a chaotic combination of beautiful, but starkly
different, moments.
So far, I have only made sweeping generalizations; I could have gone crazy
providing specific examples from the show. I will, however, comment specifically
on two characters: Connie and Eugene. They, once again, lack depth playing
Whit's "henchmen". I never imagined that it would come to this. These characters
have been reduced to filler. I know...I suppose these two can't always have
something interesting going on in their lives. And realistically, focusing on
Eugene's father, romantic life, or faith issues for 700 episodes gets tiring,
right? But, it'd be nice to hear them do something that doesn't involve
participating in childish activities, or even spiritual challenges. As it is,
there is no reason to find these two characters interesting. I do not want Will
Ryan and Katie Leigh to lend us their voices, but their characters. Perhaps the
show has gotten a little overcrowded with the attempt to develop its newest
characters. Considering how much air time characters such as Matthew Parker and
Emily Jones are taking up, it isn't so hard to see why this is the case. Or,
maybe, Connie and Eugene simply don't have enough interesting characters to play
off of. Bernard and Tom were always around to keep Eugene's character
entertaining. Mitch and Nick, more recently, created some interesting dialogue
for Connie's character. And, of course, there was a time when Eugene and Connie
could play off one another brilliantly and be entertaining. Unless I'm mistaken,
these moments are long gone...but thank goodness, right? After all, no one
really wants to hear Connie and Eugene bicker anymore.
Grandma's Christmas Visit
ends a satisfactory season with a less-than-satisfying episode. If you finished
listening to the show with ringing in your ears, and attributed it to the
ringing of Christmas bells, it was more likely due to Connie's screaming. This
episode could have been so much better. I was really disappointed.
Rating
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