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 Episode
Reviewed:
The Lost Riddle
(722)
Writer: Bob Hoose
Director: Paul McCusker
Sound Designer:
Jonathan Crowe
Music: John Campbell
Theme: Guilt
Scripture: Ephesians 4:32
Original
Airdate: 11/24/12
Review Written by:
Ben Warren, Staff Writer
Rating (out of 5):
Episode
Summary
Emily and Matthew
discover a series of riddles from decades past
stuck in the corner of her locker.
The Review
 Can
there ever be "too much of a good thing"? In the world of Adventures
in Odyssey, I don't think so. In a period that was widely advertised
as a "reboot", there have been an awful lot of pre-hiatus characters
re-appearing on the show―Jason, Monty, Jack,
Joanne, and now Dale Jacobs. For older fans like myself, this is a dream
come true. But is it too much?
"I'd honestly prefer they just develop the characters
they have to a point where we actually really like them, instead of
bringing back all kinds of characters to the point where you can't
even really keep up with the cast unless you're a HUGE fan of the
show. When they keep bringing people back, it just gets confusing to
the newer listeners."
This comment was made by The Ceiling Fan's Garrett
Vandenberg, responding to another comment made by a fan wishing Clara
could return to the show. There's a point to be made here. Shows that
re-introduce characters for purely nostalgic reasons simply end up
alienating new listeners. New listeners would certainly be a bit
confused if, all of a sudden, the Barclays moved back to Odyssey, Nick
Mulligan was back working at Whit's End, Jack Davis started delivering
pizzas again, and Oscar started teaching gym class―hold
on, those all sound like really great ideas, actually.
However, there's a difference between bringing back characters like
Clara and bringing back a character who was part of the early fabric of
Adventures in Odyssey that never should have left in the first
place. In a period that has unintentionally shed some of the core
characters that made Adventures in Odyssey the special place it
is―Jack Allen, Bernard Walton, Tom Riley―it
simply makes sense to grab hold of the quintessential Odyssey characters
that disappeared for no good reason, at all.
Next to George Barclay, Dale Jacobs was one of my favorite fathers on
the show. For a while, his character had downgraded to Officer O'Ryan
and Doctor Morton status, appearing in small cameos whenever someone of
his profession was needed.
The Lost Riddle
introduces him to new listeners a way that doesn't require people to
know that he was in the older shows at all. We see his future usefulness
come out quite clearly in
The Lost Riddle―assisting
with investigative duties and, overall, creating new possibilities for
story-lines. In addition, his return also adds a more realistic, mature
sounding voice to counterbalance the currently high number of
goofy-sounding characters on the show.
I'm taking a while to review the rest of the episode, but maybe that's
because I don't have much to complain about.
The Lost Riddle
is the very best Parker/Jones Detective Agency episode I've heard yet.
This mystery both engaged and seemed to matter. I never cared about
finding Barrett's video game in
Game for a Mystery,
but I readily followed Emily and Matthew throughout this mystery because
it had lured me in so well, peaking my curiosity from the get-go; why
did the riddle matter? We didn't know. Overall, the clues were
interesting, plentiful, and well-thought out.
Many have compared this episode to
Buried Sin,
and understandably so, since
The Lost Riddle
follows virtually the same plot: person has a secret, person hides a
secret in the hopes of confessing it later, but, alas, the secret isn't
discovered until many, many years later. But, much like this past
season's The Bible
Network, this episodes takes a classic idea and makes it its own,
changing the mystery entirely, lighting the tone, and adding an ending
that feels both original and emotionally touching, too.
Granted, as involving as it is, there are a few things that occurred in
The Lost Riddle
that may make you stop and think. I'll touch on three of them. 1) First,
you might have noticed after listening to this episode that there's
probably no better way to infuriate someone you've wronged than to make
them try to figure what wrong you've done by sending them a series of
riddles. How Kenny Rutherford ever thought that was a good idea is
beyond me. 2) Secondly, if Dale Jacobs was in High School 25 years ago,
there's the obvious question: how much time has really passed in Odyssey
since the show started in 1988? Surely not 25, since Dale would have
been a teenager when we first met him. 3) And, finally, after listening
to this episode, we must now assume that Matthew Parker has the vision
of a hawk since he was able to spot in seconds what decades of students
failed to spot in Emily Jones' locker. A bit strange, if you ask me.
The Lost Riddle,
admittedly, does not have the power and gravitas of
Buried Sin,
but it is nevertheless a very involving, well-thought out, and
kid-friendly story about the power of guilt and, more importantly, the
power of forgiveness to heal. I quite enjoyed it. Although, at the
moment, anything with Dale Jacobs is an automatic win in my book.
Rating
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