Speaker 1: And now Audio Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This is the show
that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD. Sutter. This is episode two hundred
and twelve. This is going to be a fun one.
We've got some audio drama updates to get to here shortly.
Lots of exciting things happening. I've got some feedback from Blake,
Jeremy and PJ to get to at the end of
the episode. But before that, ATC contributor Michael Schrader is
going to be joining me for a review of album
seventy six of Adventures in Odyssey Keep It Together. So
it's going to be a fun discussion. But first let's
jump into the updates.
Speaker 1: We interrupt this program to bring you a special report.
Speaker 2: And in other news tonight.
Speaker 1: A brief look at the headlines. Now.
Speaker 3: They want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining
like this.
Speaker 2: Just a quick little reminder as always, if you have
some news about an upcoming or recently released family friendly
audio drama that you want to let us know about
that we can share with this community, please let us know.
Head over to our news submission form at PFM, dot
link slash atc News or click the button in the
sidebar on our website, and we would love to check
out what you've got going on. Well, let's jump into
a few recent releases to kick things off. First of all,
some exciting news. A Bit of time Travel is back.
They've released a new episode, their first episode since twenty
twenty one, and it's called The Light and the synopsis
is a young man named Lawrence Hartwright travels to nineteen
fourteen to commit a murder. Oh my goodness, exciting stuff.
Ben Kimp is the writer, director, and sound designer of
this series and this episode in particular. He let us
know we hope to release more episodes later this year,
so more coming from this show. I love this show
so much. It's one of my favorite independent audio dramas.
Ben is a great writer and the way he approaches
this anthology show with just really interesting uses of time travel.
Every episode is a different sort of story and setting
and they're just also interesting. And in case you don't know,
I was privileged to be able to play a lead
character in one of the early episodes. So it's a
great show. If you haven't checked it, out. Check it out,
and ATC contributor Christopher Green wrote a review of the show,
which is linked in the show notes if you want
to check that out. But excited to have a new
episode from this series a bit of time travel and
the cast in this one includes Mark LaPoint, Thomas Sargent,
Kim Rasmussen, Tricia Rose, Bethany Baldwin, and Benjamin Crispin. And
the music was composed by Cole Brumley, who he may
know from his Adventures Nodyssey podcast All Things Adventures Odyssey.
So again, check this out. It's called The Light. There's
a link to it's listing on Podchaser, so you can
subscribe in your favorite podcast app. And it will be
also coming to Drama Fi very soon as well. And
if you'd like to hear my initial reaction to this,
it's in ATC backstage. Next up, we've got two recent
releases from Heart Matters, their first two of twenty twenty five.
The first one is called Lifetime and it was released
in January. It's a time traveling sci fi drama that
teaches every human life has purpose. Some of the cast
includes Bethany Baldwin, Rose Beasley, and Caleb Bresler. There's also
an initial reaction to this show in ATC backstage. The
second release from Heart Matters so far this year is
called Super Distracted, a comedic superhero story for kids, and
that was released in March, and they said this audio
cartoon teaches about the need for tech balance and being responsible.
Some of the cast includes Gracie Schin, John Daynert, Tricia Rose,
and Jeffrey Dixon. Both of the audio dramas are available
to listen to for free in the Heart Matters app
which is linked in the show notes. I've mentioned this before,
but I love how Heart Matters also, I think with
every single release so far has included some bonus materials,
and so in the case of these, there's discussion questions
which help you use these maybe in a homeschool curriculum
or just in your family, to incite discussion about the
topics that are raised by these shows. So really really
cool stuff. Next up another new release, Time to Listen
a brand new show from First Acts Productions. It's a
new micro audio drama series and it's available exclusively at
Window Seat. There are six episodes of the show that
have just dropped, with six more planned for late summer
or early fall, and a bonus Christmas episode. These are
all around five minutes long and serve as both standalone
micro audio dramas, but will also tell a larger story
throughout the series. Glenn Haskell, the writer and producer, said
there were so many great people involved in this first set.
These first six episodes include the talents of Elliott Fisher,
Glenn Haskell, J D. Sutter, Hunter, Adkins, Randy Strew, David Hilder,
Truett Fisher, Ian Lalam, Austin Peachey, Lisa Loalam, Rose Beasley,
Kara O'Brien, Noah Cecil, Nathan Hobbs, Ryan Haskell, and Daniel Roth.
This is a really fun show that I was privileged
to be able to play a couple of small characters in,
and it's a fun show for the younger listeners about
a grandfather who just takes time to answer questions and
also ask questions of his grandkids to help them think
about some of the things that they're facing in their
day to day life and turn those into discussions about
scripture and the Lord. And it's just really fun. So again,
available exclusively in the Window Seat app first six episodes
out now all right, moving on to a couple of
items for upcoming releases. First up, he vanished below. This
is the Thriller Mystery Show from Caleb Brestler and Craig
Hart slash LRT Media and Caleb just released the trailer
for this show and it sounds amazing. If you'd like
to hear my reaction to that trailer that is also
in at see backstage. But some familiar names involved in this.
Of course, Craig Hart and Caleb Bresler are part of
the cast, but also Joshua and Nicholson, who we heard
in the Harry Moon production that we've talked about here
on the show and on the blog in the past,
and who was also a speaker at Sonacon. Just a
great talented voice actor there. And also Chloe Elmore who
we recently heard in Jake Muller Adventure's Blood. So some really,
really great talent in here. Caleb said, I couldn't get
all of the cast members into the trailer, but rest
assured there are great performances you won't want to miss.
Production is moving along, no hard release date yet, however,
we wanted to share the trailer to wet the appetites
of future listeners, So that is linked in the show
notes to go check that out on the website. And
of course I think I've mentioned this before, but there's
also a form there where you can put in your
email address to get notified of updates on this production.
All right, our last bit of news for this episode,
Robin Hood rising to honor from LRT Media and Eternal
Future Productions. We've got an update on season two. They said.
We were excited to announce that sound design is done.
Alicia Hanson said the sound design was more complicated this season,
and it was a fun challenge creating a rich landscape
that supports the exciting turns and drama we have in store. Ooh,
that sounds awesome. She added, music by our talented composer
Dominic Trice is thirty five percent complete and we can't
wait to hear what he comes up with next. Oh,
exciting stuff, really really cool to see progress on this project.
I'm excited about listening to this one. You know, I
said that was our last item, but I was mistaken
because I just remembered that I need to tell you
about the audio Drama Alliances production of The Hardy Boys
and The Tower Treasure. Oh. My goodness. If you don't know,
I am serving as producer of this project and Craig
Hart is our director. We are making amazing progress on
this and this is going to be a feature link
production and we are really moving along. As of the
time of this recording, we're probably around seventy percent done
with recording our actors. We're already working on post production
and so voicetrack editing has already started. The tracks I'm
hearing from the actors coming back are so fun. This
is going to be a fantastic audio drama. It's going
to be released for free on the Audio Drama Alliance website.
So link is in the show notes to check out
the page on the site that has more detail about
who all is involved. The entire cast list and some
of the crew members who have been announced so far
are all listed there. There's a timeline of the project
and I'm really really excited about how this is coming together,
how it's sounding. I'm really thrilled to be a part
of such an iconic series and bringing this story to
the audio drama medium. It's been so so fun. Be
sure to head over there and follow our progress on
The Hardy Boys and the Tower Treasure. All right, well,
let's bring Michael Schrader onto the show and talk about
Adventures and Odyssey.
Speaker 3: It's a murder mystery sort of cross between William Shakespeare
and Nakaba Christie.
Speaker 1: No, it's not that I didn't like it, it's that
it wasn't a good play. This will be one of
the best shows we've ever done.
Speaker 2: Such an amusing show.
Speaker 1: What was that line you coined? I never knew acting
could be so much fun.
Speaker 2: Well, it is great to talk about Adventures and Odyssey again,
and I'm thrilled to have Michael Schrader back on the
show to talk about album seventy six of Adventures and Odyssey.
Keep it together, Oh boy, are you ready to do this?
Speaker 3: I will try to keep it together, Okay, told you,
and the thrill is mutual.
Speaker 1: JD. I'm excited to talk about this album with you.
All right.
Speaker 2: Well, I got to say that it is quite a
warm day here in Phoenix. We are skipping over spring,
jumping right into summer, and so the ac is running
full tilt, and so I apologize if there's any noise
in the background, try to filter that out. But just
wanted to give you a heads up just in case.
But you know what, let's let's just keep right on truck.
And what do you say, I say, let's truck. Well,
let's talk about album seventy six. This one we're a
little bit behind, just a little bit, And this one
came out in almost a year ago, April and May
of twenty twenty four was when it aired on the radio.
And so we're going to talk about these six episodes.
The album runs right at two and a half hours,
but that does include a seven minute bonus track a
little bit behind the scenes on the recording of the
righte Al Realizations. So I guess a little over two
hours and twenty minutes on this album. And as with
all of our Adventures and Odyssey reviews, this is going
to be spoilery. So if you haven't heard this album,
I'm not sure why you haven't heard it yet because
it's a year old, but just lots of time, yes,
but just a heads up, we're going to go into
all the details if you're new to the show. We
don't do this for our other reviews, but with Odyssey,
that's the one where we just go hog wild. I'm
full of cliches today, hog wild and keep on trucking
and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So the question is if you'll be able to keep
me from spoiling future albums that we've heard but haven't reviewed.
Speaker 1: And I'll do my best. Tokay, spoil them is what
I mean?
Speaker 2: Please don't because I have not heard album seventy seven yet.
Speaker 1: So what JD? You're killing me? All right, Well then
I'll try extra hard.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's dive into this. Will you do
us the honors and read the summary?
Speaker 3: I will, Maury Ridell, You're under arrest when Odyssey's resident
hacker is accused of a serious computer crime, Suzu Cooper
and mister Whittaker race to investigate what really happened, but
the newly formed team isn't united. Emily Jones's past dealings
with Moury cloud her desire to help. Why should she
believe he's innocent? Meanwhile, Jules Kendall gets a unique opportunity
to use her musical talents with the band, but joining
them could mean hurting a friend and lying to Connie
and Buck. Meltzer's new life takes an intriguing turn when
Jason Whittaker arrives in Baltimore with a spy job for him.
Friendships are on the table, and loyalties are up for
grabs as everyone in Odyssey tries their best to keep
it together.
Speaker 2: Well done, And this is an interesting sort of I
don't know a thread that runs through this album, and
I think this might be the first time in a
while where there's been sort of a through line across
all six episodes keeping it together and friendships and talking
about the importance of those things. I mean, we have
that sort of theme in Realizations and in the Jewels storyline,
and then the whole thing with Buck, so that's kind
of cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I realized that there was that
through line, and there's the question about betrayal running through all.
Speaker 1: Of those stories, So yeah, that is very interesting.
Speaker 3: I tried to sound I thought about trying to do
a poll House impersonation, but I oft it to just
go with my regular voice, so welcome.
Speaker 2: Well, you're gonna have to drop that on us at
some point.
Speaker 3: I guess what I'll do is I'll drop it on
you and then I'll just see if you realize it
was Pollhouse, and if you don't, I'm just going to
keep on moving.
Speaker 2: So as always, our executive producer is Dave Arnold and
our producer is Nathan Hubler, and we'll get to the
specific roles on each episode as we go through them.
So that brings us to the first episode of the album,
The Ridell Realizations, Part one, which is episode nine seventy six.
This is a three parter, and another interesting thing about
this is they're quite short. So part one is twenty
one and a half our twenty one forty Part two
is twenty one forty five, and part three is twenty five.
But the second and third parts have the previously on
Adventures Odyssey thing at the beginning of both of them,
so that takes up a good chunk, So you know,
they're they're kind of not the standard twenty five minutes
on these first two, especially of new content. You know,
with this change of the of the I guess the
release schedule of Adventures Notsey going foar that one of
the things that they talked about was being able to
have a little bit more freedom in the episode link
as well, and I think that's one of the considerations
why they may not be putting future episodes in the
radio Oh sure calendar, though that hasn't been decided yet,
but they are thinking about that, and that's probably one
of the big reasons is if you don't have to
have a standardized episode length for radio, then you have
a little bit more freedom to play around with that
and maybe even have some longer episodes. So I think
that would be interesting to see if that happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that wouldn't have been starting with these episodes, right, No, No,
just happened to be shorter.
Speaker 2: Right yeah. So yeah, these are you know, just over
twenty minutes. So anyway, part one, we have this whole
thing with Maury Marvin Plotkin. What an interesting name.
Speaker 3: I like how Morey kept making reference to how it
sounded like a made up name.
Speaker 2: Yeah that is, yeah, that's true. I did hear that,
but it didn't I don't know, I didn't dawn on me.
And what how funny that is? It's very meta.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but I like it. I like Marvin Plotkin's name.
I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 2: So these episodes were written and directed by Phil Lawler,
with sound designed by Lucano and music by Jared Depesqual.
And so you know, it's been a while since he's aired,
So if you haven't listened to them recently. You know,
we have the whole situation where Maury is accused by
pole House of basically stealing a bunch of money online.
As he kept saying, it's like, it's such an old
person way of saying that, right, did you just get yeah,
exactly exactly. I thought it was funny.
Speaker 3: And speaking of Detective pole House, I thought his voice
sounded really strange at the beginning of this episode.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that at all.
Speaker 3: When he started talking, Because I'm always excited for a
Detective poll House episode. He's like in you know, I
don't know posts album like fifty, He's like one of
my favorite new characters that they introduced, and when he
started talking, I was like, there's something sounds off about
his voice. And then in some of the like Adventures
and Odyssey groups on facebooks, people were asking about it too,
but especially the way he said something. He said something
about this young man and the way he said this
young man, I don't know what it is. He's like
this young man here, And I was like, what is
going on with this voice? But you didn't notice that
at all?
Speaker 2: Huh No, I didn't, Yeah.
Speaker 3: It just and then it got it sounded more like
him as it went on, But initially it threw me
off when I was just first listening to it and
Phil Ahller got on there and when people were commenting
about it, and he said, well, he's an older actor,
and I was like, oh, don't tell me that about
Detective pole House.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Phil Procter been around for a long time. Yeah,
Odyssey is not his first Rodio in terms of audio drama.
He's man, He's been around for a very long time.
And I think it's so great that they got him
on the show.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: I really like his acting in all all the different
roles he's done, and especially especially this one. But Detective
pole House wasn't a huge a huge part of these episodes.
He's just in that first one really, as in the
initial arrest.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And I should also say I know that
I've talked about these episodes a little bit with other
people when when I first heard them after they first
came out, and I honestly cannot remember what my initial
reactions were at the time. So if you are somebody
that I talked with you about these episodes and my
opinions now are different in this review, that's just because
upon my re listen, I'm feeling a little bit differently
about them, so.
Speaker 1: Are.
Speaker 2: I do have memories of talking with somebody, and I
just cannot remember who it was and and what I
was saying at the time. But now you've got me curious.
I think I need to listen again and see if
I can pick up on that with Phil Proctor and
see what was going on there. But I didn't hear that,
and I thought, overall the cast was really great. There
were a couple of moments. I don't remember which part
of this one. It could have been in two or three,
but there were a couple of moments where Atticus Schaeffer
as Maury just he brought a real sensitivity to Maury
that I haven't really heard before. I thought he did
a really good job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did too, especially with the well and I
don't know if this affected it at all in a
positive way. But he was having to record all his
lines separately from the other cast members, as the bonus
feature talked about, because of a family emergency, so they
recorded all their lines together, and then he came in
and recorded all his lines afterwards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I would.
Speaker 3: Never have known that if they hadn't said that in
the bonus feature. I thought that they mixed that so well,
and he did. All the actors did a great job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, totally. And it was funny because Phil in
the bonus feature he was saying, you know how it's
really skeptical about this actually working, and I'm thinking, that's
how us indie producers do this stuff all the time.
We're never in the same room at the same time,
and we make it work. Well, I know that's how
he did Iliot House, right, Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe that was really hard.
Speaker 2: I do know that it does. It is a better
way to do it when everybody's there at the same time,
but you know, sometimes you just can't do that. And
it just goes to show that how how good these
people are at their job, like they can make it work,
and not just the actors, but you know the post
production folks too.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and shout out to Luke Gano for he
said he had every new line queued up. He just
split all the tracks in between Maury's lines. That would
have been a lot of work. Yeah, and Maury said
his line and then he went with it. He Allison,
my wife grew up watching a show that Atticus Schaeffer
was in who plays Maury, and so we watched a
couple of those episodes. So I've been seeing like younger
Atakus Schaeffer in his other role, and so now I
like see his actual actors. Sometimes when I hear the
hear the Maury lines, which is funny.
Speaker 2: Well, and if you look at him, like he looks
like a Maury, I think, so obviously he's older than
the character, but take away the facial hair and there's Maury.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's a great actor.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, in the beginning, you know, we heard in
that summary about Emily being a little still a little
hesitant about this whole team thing and and specifically about
trusting Maury, and I mean, I get it. I totally
get it. I think I said that in our last
review talking about the whole Emily Rydell dynamic. I get
where she's coming from, you know. Yeah, and uh when
and when she walks out of WIT's in there at
the beginning, Cooper, he's like, man, that's cold. You know.
I was like, that's such a great line. It's simple,
but the way he delivered it, I was like, that's
so good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree the I think it's
good that they they didn't go straight from you know,
all the stuff that happened with the Right Dells before
to Emily just being their best friend and working on
a team with them. You know, I think it's important
that she had to overcome some of the stuff that
she did, and I think with lesson, you know, when
he goes out and talks to her about how how
do we practically love our enemies? You know, is kind
of what I took away from what he said, because
it's one thing to say that, but then what does
that look like to love your enemies and to forgive
things that have been really tough and still not completely
you know, trust the people who did it, because especially
if it's somebody who's like deceived you before, that's really
hard to start trusting them again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agreed with his overall point. But you know,
there's there's people in the fandom who are like to
criticize Andre his version of Wit and say that, you know,
wits too soft these days in some ways, and they
never see the the firm you know, I don't know,
the more assertive wit, And I'm like, he was definitely
pretty estative there in that scene, and I was feeling
a little mixed feelings about him. It felt like he
was he was trying to guilter into helping me a
little bit.
Speaker 3: And it is there is that added element because you know,
not that we need to get into all of this again,
but but I know this has been talked about a lot,
but he he played a part in Emily's you know,
had a hard time trusting him again too, which I
also understand, and I would have a hard time trusting
him after he knew what was going on and didn't
do anything about it, And so there was that added
awkwardness a little bit because he's not just the authority
figure that doesn't ever mess up, but there is a
little bit of that. I don't know, you're like complicity,
Maybe I don't know that. Yeah, it feels like he
hasn't and being their guardian. So I know when I
first listened to it, I felt that awkwardness that you're
talking about. I felt the tension when he was he
was getting on her, and I was not sure how
I would.
Speaker 1: Respond to the situation.
Speaker 3: But the main point was true, you know, what he
was saying was right, But but I did feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know what we in the previous I
think it was the previous album right where we had
that scene between her and whit before where he apologizes
and everything. Yeah, and I still think that was a
really great scene. But too, even though it was a
lot of time in our world between those events and
in this album right right, we got to think about
Odyssey time here, so this is not not a whole
lot of time since then, And so put those in perspective.
You know, they had that sort of making up a
scene and now he's like, Okay, you know, we need
to move on. You need to do the right thing here.
So again, I agree with what he was saying, but
I guess I'm really emphathizing with Emily. Here's an interesting
thing too, And I think people who've listened to this
show for a long time will remember I was not
an Emily fan, and I just never really liked the
character all that much. And I really didn't care for
the Jones and Parker Detective Agency episodes either. I just
thought they were cheesy for the most part. I mean,
there were a few that were okay, But so she's
not been a favorite of mine. But man, ever since
this whole thing went down. I'm really on team Emily here.
Speaker 3: If there's anything that came out of the Right Dell Saga,
it's GD now has more affection for Emily.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I never had that aversion to Emily. Well, I can't
say never. There was a couple episodes early on where
she was being a jerk but to like Matthew or something.
But anyways, but ever since, like probably the Green Ring Conspiracy,
I'm like, I like her as a character, and I
liked the idea of the Jones and Parker Detective Agency,
and I liked the idea of them having a nemesis
like you know, Emily Sherlock Holmes to Maury's Moriarty, Like, I.
Speaker 1: Liked that as an idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it didn't seem to pan out that way.
Maybe it didn't, Like I know, they did like some
Clubhouse magazine stories, uh with it, which those maybe filled
in some of those things. But when when, even when
I heard some of the initial right El Saga stuff,
I was excited about the potentiality of the bigger story
arc that they were building. I the first one where
the I guess it was probably the key one. I
was like, oh, they're building something. This is cool, But
where I fell off the train is I don't like
the episodes where you seem it seems like you're having
just a regular Slice of Life Odyssey episode or even
like a mystery episode in the real world, and then
it turns out it's all in the Imagination station in
the kitchen, not to put to Pine a point on it,
or even like the one with Eugene where they brought
back the I can't remember captain what's his name, Captain Quid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and out to see I think.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden at the end, it
just kept getting weirder and weirder, and then it was like, oh, yeah,
that was all in the Room of Consequence, And that
always feels like such a cop out to me.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, come on.
Speaker 3: Why so you like, this story just got bizarre and
so we turned it into a something that wasn't real.
Speaker 1: And those stories always make.
Speaker 3: Me uncomfortable because it messes with reality in a weirder
way than like the Imagination Station episodes.
Speaker 1: Dude for me, because so anyways, I don't really like
those kind of stories.
Speaker 3: But so and I haven't really gotten the team thing
on a Relesten, Like, I haven't been excited about the
team episodes when they first come out, but on a relesson,
I can see more of what's being done, and and
I've I enjoyed the more on a Relsten honestly.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of where I was at with all
the right el saga stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a long rambling just because you know,
this is my only platform to talk about this stuff,
so I just thought i'd get it out there.
Speaker 1: You can cut whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Hey, that works. That works, So we should say Emily
played by Christina Pocelli, and she does a fantastic job
with the character Suzu. Right Ell is played by April
Hong and Cooper Calhoun by Preston Butler the third all
of them just did a really great job with these
three episodes here and then part one ends with Maury
being arrested like he'd originally been taken in for questioning.
And then at the very end of this episode he's
like pull House is like, all right, that's it, I'm
arresting here. Okay, Well let's end on a cliffhanger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is a great cliffhanger.
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, and Chris's wrap up talks about holding grudges,
and the way she framed it was a really, really
good lesson, and I thought that was one of the
one of the better raps that have heard in a
while where it really felt I don't know it applied
definitely to what we heard in the episode, but just
the way that it was written I thought was really
good for kids to hear as well.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, absolutely, going back to that idea of the
lesson of how to treat.
Speaker 1: People that have hurt you.
Speaker 3: The biblical illusion I thought of was like Joe ab
and Abner and Samuel, where ab his brother is killed
by Abner and then David wants to bring him in
to the kingdom because Abner is going to be able
to help bring all these other tribes together into the Kingdom,
and Joe ab cannot forgive him and ends up killing him,
you know. And this was like an anti parallel, I guess,
because Emily does forgive Morey, but like the temptation to
justify our own poor behavior just because somebody's heard us
in the past and not see the potential of that
person as they're starting to make steps into the Kingdom
of God is a really important lesson for us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, this is just.
Speaker 1: A random note.
Speaker 3: But it was funny when Cooper first walks in and
Morey's like, hi, a Coop, and He's like, Coop, that's
where chickens live. I don't think so or whatever, And
that felt really natural because I was like, yeah, that
sounds weird for Mariy to call him Coop. But then
I thought other people call him coop. Doesn't that like
Buck call him coop.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 3: I think they do. I think that is a nickname
that other people. But he was just like, sorry, not you, Mory. Yeah,
my friends and my own age.
Speaker 1: Call me that, not you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody let us know if that has happened before,
because now that you mentioned that, I think it may have.
But yeah, he's he's There's all kinds of little nicknames
going on too, because Cooper's calling Emily boss all the
time in.
Speaker 1: These which I think is really funny. I really liked
that for some reason.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how I feel about it. It just
stood out to me. It was like the first time
I was like boss, Okay, okay, I guess she is
wits trying to put to be the leader of this team,
so I guess it makes sense. Well, I guess that
brings us to part two. And like I said, the
previously on took up a minute and a half at
the beginning, and the rap at the end takes up
a minute and fifteen. So out of our twenty one
minute episode, we lost about almost three minutes there. My
math is not precise, don't figure it out. It's but yeah,
so a much shorter part of this of this saga.
But one thing that did jump out at me in
this one was cops are not going to release a
computer that was used in a crime back to the
person who was accused of committing said crime, Like, that's
just not going to happen. I thought that was a
little bit interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a small town.
Speaker 3: Yeah, detective pullouts just kind of waving the hand because
it's there.
Speaker 1: I don't know, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Mean he wasn't supposed to touch it, he wasn't supposed
to use it, but they did release it back. And
usually if something's taken into evidence, that's been gone forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is interesting. I mean, Wit pulled some strings,
you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like he's like, look, I run this town
all right, give me another small town thing. I don't
know if it's a small town thing or but it
feels so weird to me that the kids are always
running around on their own to all these different places,
Like Cooper and Susser just like go to that guy's
RV to talk to him.
Speaker 1: Whi's like, okay, they're together.
Speaker 3: But then Emily goes by herself, which I would not
advise after they already suspect him of something. And then
they're gone for a while when Maury runs off, which
is like, hey, we've been trying to get a hold
of you. Where you guys been, Like we've been locked
up in a closet.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: That's just like a small town thing, and kids should
have autonomy, but yeah, in this age, it doesn't feel
like it's very wise to do that, especially in Odyssey
where people are always trying to take over the world
from there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good point. Yeah, I mean the world has changed
quite a bit since I was a young kid running
around town, and I mean we used to go everywhere,
ride bikes all over the place, no parents, you know.
I mean, we've been gone all day long, and it's
a different world these days.
Speaker 3: It is yeah, which I am kind of nostalgic for that. Yeah,
all the kids just being able to go and have
adventures and have a good time. But in this episode
in particular, are these episodes, it just struck me as odd.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of that time where Cooper and Susa are out,
you know, running around doing their thing, there's a scene there,
or there was part of a scene where they're talking
about the whole idetic memory that Suzu has and Cooper says,
I didn't know you could do that, and she said, well,
I didn't know you could draw, and he says touchet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, because the drawing thing did feel like
it just came out of nowhere, and he's like got a.
Speaker 1: Website and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wondered if that was an added skill so that
he wasn't just the jock, like this strength guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe. I mean, it's an interesting way to add
it into the canon or the character biography, you know,
just to and and work it into the story. And
just that little interaction there just between the two, it's
like it serves the episode, it serves what's going on
in the story, but it also is showing that these
kids are still getting to know each other too, and
this whole team thing is still early stages and they're
they're figuring out how to work together and compliment each
other's skills.
Speaker 3: Right right, And I do like that they all have
their different things that they're bringing to the table, which
is the obviously the point, you know, of the team,
that Emily brings leadership and deductive skills, and Susu has
these mechanical skills, and Maury knows all this stuff about
the computers and and Cooper can tackle people and draw.
Speaker 1: So I do I do like that.
Speaker 3: That's and I think the rap even was talking about
that about the Body of Christ exactly how we all
need the different skills, and so I do like that element.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And another thing about the team episodes, I was just
noticing that the first episode that was called the Team,
it was when Cooper was in trouble and they were
helping him out. And then there was one it wasn't
the whole team, but it was just Emily and Susu
in that episode with where Wit apologizes to Emily and
Susu was in trouble in a sense and Emily was
helping her out, and then Maury is in trouble in
this one, and then in an upcoming one that you
may not have heard yet, Emily's in trouble spoiler alert exactly.
So they're running out though, So you know we're about
to wrap it up here and album maybe.
Speaker 1: Well you know what's interesting too.
Speaker 3: Sorry, this is just one more random note about that,
because WIT's trying to bring out the leadership qualities in Emily, right,
and so there was a point where Cooper says, what
should we do, mister Whittaker, and witt says Emily like
he defers to her, And I thought that was that
was a good moment from which it was just subtle.
Speaker 1: But he's just like, I'm not the leader of your team.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So yeah, it was so subtle I didn't even
I didn't even pick up on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know this in this particular episode part two,
I love that that whole sequence with the conscience scene
with Marie, Yeah, and just having those different voices. You know,
it's his conscience talking to him, but it's in the
voice of all these other people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I was listening closely and I'm and I may
be wrong, but I don't think as it progressed. The
things that they were saying were not dialogue that they
had actually said before. It was his conscience filling it in,
but it was coming into his mind through their voice.
And then of course at the end we have Jesus
and Dave Arnold making a cameo as Jesus again, which
is a cool touch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like that too, because our conscience does work
that way, where sometimes it's in what we know other
people would tell us, like the advice that we know
that they would give us, but the Lord's using that
and then But I liked how it kept progressing until
it was just the voice of Jesus at the end.
Speaker 1: That was very cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the sound design for that was really neat.
You know, have sort of it starts off with each
character individually and it's all processed so you can tell
that it's not them. They're in the scene, and then
they start kind of swirling together and talking over each other,
and then it goes it kind of drops back down
and then we have the voice of Jesus. Yeah, it
was really handled really well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: At first, when I was listening, I was like, I
don't know what I think about this. Scene, But in retrospect,
I really liked it. I thought that was a really
clever way to do that, and there were some funny
lines in that, like Maury's saying, Oh, you're my conscience.
I didn't know I had one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And you mentioned this a moment ago, Marvin
Marvin Cooper tackling Marvin and him having the ability to
tackle people, and that's how we end the episode with
him tackling Marvin and then Yeah, and then having to
rush Suzu off to the hospital because she gets injured.
Marvin Plotkin was voiced by Michael and I can't remember
exactly how the last name was pronounced, if it was
Ornstein or Ornstein, forgive me. I heard it in Chris's
rap and I typed it into my document, but I
forgot to. I never can keep those straight because they're
spelled exactly the same Steinstein, and everybody pronounces it differently.
So Yeah, Anyway, he was fantastic. I loved his voice.
I thought he was great for that character, and I
like that.
Speaker 3: He wasn't just a like he was doing something wrong,
but he wasn't just like an all out villain that's
like willing to hurt anybody. Like you could tell when
Suzu fell backwards, it startled him, you know, like he
wasn't intending to hurt her, but he wanted to scare
her to get the information he wanted or whatever. Yeah,
and he had a temper, and he was obviously stealing
from people, so he's doing what was wrong. But he
wasn't just like, you know, I'm just gonna hurt everybody,
you know, that wasn't. He had a distinct what he
was willing to do and what he wasn't willing to do,
you know, although they weren't like sure what he was
going to do, like when he was in the hotel
room and stuff.
Speaker 1: But I did.
Speaker 3: I liked that character development for him. I liked that
it felt real, you know, right, even if his name
wasn't I don't know, but like the way that he
was acting, that is how.
Speaker 2: People think, you know, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Like the way he was justifying himself.
Speaker 3: I don't know if this is in the next episode
or not, but he was justifying himself also just the
scam had going on, and he was saying, I always
left them something, you know. Yeah, and but Carly she
just takes everything or whatever, and I want to ask
you what you thought about that that scam, because I
thought that was that was an interesting mystery to solve
of him doing this scam, you know, taking money away
from these elderly people, but not enough that they realized
or could you know, pitt it on him.
Speaker 1: What were your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it made sense. And I mean because
there is a ton of fraud and scams going on
in the world today against seniors, so it's not an
uncommon thing. Unfortunately, it's it's horrible that this is happening.
Most of the time it's through online things and you know,
spam calls and stuff like that that these folks fall
for those scams. So this is a little bit of
a different take, and it's seemed very like realistic and
believable to me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, me too, And I liked that.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're writing something and they've done so
many different kinds of crimes and had different mysteries for
people to solve, and so you know, at some point
you feel like, well, what else am I going to
talk about? And this felt pretty original, you know, in
terms of like what was going on and what he
was trying to do and so I thought this was
a yeah, a really interesting story. I like that because
it's focused on what's going on with the team, but
I like that the mystery had a lot of substance
that felt realistic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, you're talking about how he is
the villain of this story, but he's he doesn't view
himself as a villain, and that's a big key thing
in storytelling, and I know that it's a big thing
for Phil as he's writing and as he teaches storytelling
to other writers. You know, the villain doesn't see himself
as the bad guy. He has his motivations, he has
his reasons for doing what he's doing. He views himself
as the hero. And so yeah, making sure that he
comes across us that way in the story and not
just a villain for the sake of being a villain,
and that's that's lazy writing. Yeah, So I thought I
thought it worked out really well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And he ended up being kind of like the
sub villain, with Carly being the overarching EO. That was
even though she was working for him, but she was
the one who was pinning it on Maury, and you know,
and stealing the money ultimately.
Speaker 2: Right, right, which was a really cool twist. And speaking
of Carly voiced by Jessica de Mooney, great great voice
talent there. I thought she was really good as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she she had such a snide tone that she eyed.
Speaker 2: So when you first heard that that scene with her,
did you believe that she was legit?
Speaker 3: Or the very first scene with her when she was
crying and all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when Morey's recounting his first interaction with her.
Speaker 3: I thought the actress was just overacting and and Alison
was like, that doesn't sound real, and I was like, well,
she's doing her best, okay, So I just took it
at face value. And I didn't like in that first scene.
I didn't think, oh, she's deceiving him, you know. Yeah, yeah,
but her reactions sounded like over the top, you know.
But I just thought she was over it. But look
at that she was. She was acting like she was acting,
and there it was exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I had that thought too. Yeah, I mean I
just thought, you know, she's he's recounting the story that
I shouldn't know. You know, I've I've listened to enough
stories and read enough novels that I should know that
they don't just randomly insert characters in there for no reason, Like,
but but I totally, I totally didn't pick up on
it at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I thought that was good.
Speaker 3: Speaking of things that seemed like they were randomly inserted.
Speaker 1: Was her so okay? Her names? It seems like her
real name was Marion.
Speaker 3: I forgot maryon something hill, yeah, which because that was
the name that he knew her by whenever.
Speaker 2: He competed against her before.
Speaker 3: Yes, but then she kept correcting him, saying, no, it's
Carly now and uh. And that was how she introduced
herself with the contest. And then her middle name. It
didn't sound like a made up middle name. She's like,
it means Indian princess or whatever. And I was like, oh,
that's going to come back somehow, but it never did
and maybe it still is. I don't know, but that
seemed so random to me. It was like, Wow, that
was that was pretty believable. I guess, like as a
name that she made up, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, yeah, I know that you mentioned it. Yeah,
I don't even know what it was said. I couldn't.
I couldn't understand the name, like what it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it sounded.
Speaker 3: He was like do wanna, She's like, it means a princess.
And even on my second listen there, because it's been
a while obviously since I listened to these the first time,
so I listened through again before daing this podcast, and
I was like, oh, yeah, I can't remember how that
comes back into it, but that's got to come back
into it.
Speaker 1: Nope, it did not.
Speaker 2: You're right, that is a little bit random. Yeah, why
not just give her a normal middle name? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah?
Speaker 2: And who actually introduces themselves with their full name.
Speaker 1: With I'm John Avery Whittaker. Yeah, I don't. I don't
people have to pry it out of me what my
middle name is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I think we've we've bled into part three here,
episode nine seventy eight, so we reached the conclusion of
this this little arc and the exchange there between Emily
and Maury at the hotel when they find the phone
and everything, and you you talked about this earlier. In
one of the earlier scenes he mentioned something about having
a conscience and he jokes about it. Well, then they
do it again and this time he's joking about it
with her and she's like, oh, your conscience on He's like, yeah,
apparently I have one or something along those lines. I
don't remember exactly what the line was, but it's sort
of like a callback to the one that you mentioned earlier.
But I thought that was a really neat moment too.
It's sort of like trying to rebuild the trust there
a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And and the way that because you know, Emily's
going to try to do the right thing no matter what,
but a good way for him to rebuild the trust
is to acknowledge that he has done something wrong. And
Wick kind of talks about it at the end of
the episode. He's like, I'm glad your contry a country
at Hart is a good thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is. It's important.
Speaker 3: And then Wick goes on to say, like, but you can't,
you know, blame yourself for other people's actions. This whole
episode felt to me designed to help Morey realize like, oh,
when I'm playing games with people and I'm putting them
in these compromising situations and I'm manipulating things, I'm not
just doing it in a vacuum. You know, these things
have consequences and it affects people's lives, and that was
important for him to realize in his character development, you know, yeah,
for sure. And he even made a joke about it
with Carly when he says she says, since when do
you care about rules and he's like, recent development.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And that line actually made me laugh out loud.
Speaker 2: Same here. Yeah, it was a really nice quip.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just yeah, the way he said it and how
quickly he said it so good.
Speaker 2: You know, we mentioned a cameo from Focus staff and
that was Dave Arnold earlier. Of course it's not so
much a cameo anymore. He's more of a recurring character
these days. Officer Burke by a voice by Marshall Younger.
He's back in these episodes, so that's always fun to
hear from him too.
Speaker 1: Yes, we love a good Officer Burke appearance.
Speaker 3: And he had a lot of lines in these episodes
since he was playing Maury when Adaka Schaeffer wasn't there. Yeah,
a lot got cut, but there's still one line of
him in there.
Speaker 2: I really liked the sound design. It's a little thing
and most people probably don't even notice it or you know,
don't call attention to it, but to me, it's just
like it just shows the level of detail that the
AIO team goes to But in that scene there in
the hotel, when Marvin leaves them, he locks her Emily
in the closet, and so Maury's out in the room,
she's in the closet, and so we have the conversation
between them. He's tied up, but her voice is muffled
a little bit, like there's there's processing on the on
the voice track there, so we can hear it's coming
through the door, and then when she bursts out of
the closet, it switches like it just it's little things
like that, Like I listened to a lot of audio
drama and most people don't go to that level of detail,
and it's those little things like that that really set
people apart, Like this is the cream of the crop
type audio dramas you know, and we wouldn't expect anything
less from Odyssey, But after, you know, this last several
years of really branching out and listening to all kinds
of stuff from different producers, it's just makes me appreciate
these details even more because so many people just ignore
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, well, and this isn't directly related to sound design,
but just in terms of paying attention to detail, this
This is so small, Like I don't even know why
I picked up on it, But there was a point
where Emily was calling somebody at the school because she
was going to go in as a reporter from the
Odyssey OWL and she she talks to Andy, and I
just like that they have the continuity because they've had
an episode where he became the editor or whatever, and
I like that they just kept like he's not in
the episode or anything, but they just refer back to
this character. You know, that's not a recurring character or anything.
It's not something that most of us would remember, you know,
But I like that they that they pay attention to
the detail, and they haven't always done that, you know,
there's been times where you know, the principle changes up
a lot or whatever the pastor you know, but I
feel like there's even more attention to those kinds of
details being paid for sure.
Speaker 2: Really, Yeah, yeah, I did. I did pick up on
that too, the name there and kind of going back
to the sound as anything too. Even the video chat
calls with Carly, Oh, yeah, you know the effects on
the voice there too, so you can hear you differentiate
between who's in the scene and who's coming over through
the computer and everything. So yeah, just really really great stuff.
Speaker 1: And yeah, even.
Speaker 3: The sound that the video chat makes when it's starting up,
like they're talking while it's booting up and you hear
the noise it's making, and then you can hear the
moment when she's on the screen. Yes, and that was
that was really well done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's even one moment where you actually hear the
computer starting up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that stuff.
Speaker 1: We're so proud of you, Luke.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it ends on a really interesting note, like
we have sort of a resolution with this particular story,
but we also don't have this this curly character hanging
over our heads here, like you know, she got away
and it sounds like she's not done with her revenge
against Maury, so and.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, and the last scene was very like it
was very good.
Speaker 3: But she's not the kind of character I would expect
to be, like, oh, she's she's not like a chairman,
you know. It's like, yeah, she's coming back, but she
but obviously she's coming back at some point. And there's
that other random character, Seymour, that was in the first
Team episode that was ye blackmailing Cooper for no reason,
and he said something like this isn't over or something
like that. So they and it's weird that those two
aren't connected. But there's just these two like floating people
who were who were left out there, which I'm guessing,
I'm guessing they're going to bring in, but like they
don't feel quite as compelling as like, you know, what
is Maury up to?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And or like when is Blackhard coming back? Or the Chairman?
But they're just these because.
Speaker 3: They're not quite that level. But I don't know if
they're going to come back in some kind of arc
where they're they're all working.
Speaker 1: Together or something.
Speaker 3: But it's just weird that there's a couple of those
characters floating out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting. I guess maybe it's because she's so young.
I think they said she's twenty years old. It just
doesn't feel as intimidating as as a Blackert or something who's.
Speaker 3: No offense to all you twenty year old young ladies
who would make excellent supervillains. I'm sure, but just in
this particular case, the Indian Princess, We're just not sure.
Speaker 1: I was just kidding.
Speaker 2: It did seem kind of odd. To have it, you know,
unresolved in that way.
Speaker 1: So it did.
Speaker 3: It felt like it could have resolved with her being
captured or whatever, but then there's this like, nope, she's
coming back, you know that.
Speaker 1: And the other one too, it seemed like that kid
should have gotten caught also.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm not sure why the lack of resolution,
but yeah, there'll be a payoff sometime.
Speaker 2: I'm sure if we don't ever hear from them, it
will be strange. But it's not like I would much
rather hear from the Chairman, which I think you know
is going to be happening.
Speaker 3: So yes, yeah, surely there he's gonna co opt these
like floating henchman villains.
Speaker 2: You know, who knows? Who knows? You have to keep listening. Yeah,
well that that wraps up the rightell realizations. There's a
lot to like in these. These are definitely not like
favorite episodes of mine. I enjoyed them. They were fine,
nothing spectacular to me, but I thought they were okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, same, and I like the character development.
Speaker 1: I'm interested.
Speaker 3: Phil Lawler dropped something in one of the recent podcasts
where he said, if you know about storytelling, morey is
as a type and he was talking about types of
characters in storytelling, and I wanted to ask you, JD.
I don't know if you heard that podcast. I was
wondering what you what you thought about it? I mean,
because Phil didn't like explain himself. It seemed like he said,
whoever has ears to hear? But that sounds like an
invitation for us to talk about it. But do you
see that as like, as far as Maury's character and
what they're doing with it, what would the type be?
Speaker 2: That is a really good question. And I know that
there have been some other episodes about the right l's right,
haven't their bare habits yet, so I don't have that context.
So and I'm sure he was, you know, considering that
in his comment too, So I'm not sure like he
said before that those allusions to well, with his name
to Mariarty and with his last name being sort of
a play or a twist on the word riddle, that
he's been setting him up to be sort of this
this guy who's sort of an antagonist to the good
guys for lack of a better term in Odyssey, but
with the shift now with him being I don't know,
a ward of wit and now this sort of change
in attitude with him that that totally changes who that
character kind of was set up to be in my mind.
Obviously they've had a plan what they wanted to do,
but I don't know, I really don't know what that
would be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why it's intriguing to me, because now he's
he's a redeemed character, you know. Yeah, because like the
when I think of types, I think of like Rodney
Rathbone is a type. He's a bully, you know, and
so they pull him out when they need the bully type,
you know. Yeah, but I'm not sure what Maury's type
is because he seems so specific and fleshed out, you know,
But I'm gonna keep thinking about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that is really interesting because yeah, you think
of a type is pretty pretty static, right like and
and so he's but Maury is not right, or at
least he hasn't been recently. Like there's there's obviously a
shift happening. So he's very I can.
Speaker 3: Kind of see it as like a type on the
on the team, you know, he plays a specific role.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in terms of in terms of that, did you
ever read any of the GK. Chesterton father Brown mysteries.
Speaker 2: It's been a very very long time, but I did
read a few of them.
Speaker 3: Well, there's this, there's a bunch of stories where it's
the same thief that he keeps catching and he ends
up converting him, and then he goes with him on
his mysteries and he's like the redeemed you know, villain
that's helping out the detective.
Speaker 1: Now, so maybe ah Mary's type, the flambo type.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, well, maybe maybe that's what it is. And
I know feels very well read, so it wouldn't surprise
me if there's some illusions there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of well read, I liked the C. S.
Lewis quote at the end that makes where he says,
a wise man once said, you know, you know what
I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: Help me out here.
Speaker 2: No I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm talking about. He said, it's
Ed's an as Land quote.
Speaker 3: So you could have said a wise lion once said,
But it's when Aslan's talking to Lucy and he says,
we are not told what would have happened or what
might have happened, and and Wit quotes that to Maury.
Speaker 1: Your face.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, no, that is great that you picked up
on that, because I missed it. It's it's been a
while since I've read the Chronicles of Narnia as well.
Speaker 3: So okay, Well, anyways, I liked the reference to C. S.
Lewis that Phil dropped in at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool. You know. I love that kind of
stuff too, even in reading a novel. I was just
talking about this with a friend the other day, just
a particular author who is always working in these different
literary illusions, and yeah, I just love that kind of stuff.
And some people don't even notice it, because some of
them are very, very subtle. But for the people who
understand them, I think it's always fun. And you do
have to be careful with that kind of stuff too,
because you don't want it to distract from what's happening
in your story, and you don't want it to seem
like people are just name dropping all the time just
for the fun of it. You know it's going to fit.
But I love it when that happens.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: Well. That brings us to episode nine seventy nine. Wright notes,
wrong key and this is the longest episode in this
album of original material. Because Realizations Part three is right
around the same length, but again, we had almost two
minutes of a previously on at the beginning of that one,
So this one's twenty five minutes long, and it's a
you know, we're back to the whole Jewels trying to
buck against punintended Connie's rules. And I have mixed feelings
about this. I like the character of Jewels, but it
does kind of feel like this has started to run
its course.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, I feel a little bit differently about this
because I think these episodes, this one in particular, was
something that really needed to happen in the in the
Buck and Jewels storyline or the setup for these where
this is going. So not to spoil anything, but I
thought this at the time, so you know, I can
say this without knowing the things that happen next. But
something that I was thinking about the other day is
that Honesty did something interesting with their main storylines, because
what are their main story arcs right now? Are like,
so there's the Rydell stuff, there's Buck and Jewels, there's Renee, and.
Speaker 1: There's like the Perkins family.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and all four of those the main focus of
those storylines none of them are Christians, which is an
interesting thing to do in a Christian radio show, but
it does pose an interesting dilemma because if the protagonists
of the stories are all non Christians, and if the
protagonists of the stories are being used to teach Christian lessons,
like has happened sometimes with Buck and Jewels, where even Jewels,
even in the midst of her rebellion, she's because she's
been influenced by Kanye and stuff.
Speaker 1: She'll help to teach lessons.
Speaker 3: And Buck is a pretty good guy, but he's still
not a Christian, you know. And then where all these
kids are listening and they're all excited about Buck and
Jewels getting together in a relationship.
Speaker 1: Well, what are we doing.
Speaker 3: We're setting up, you know, them to cheer for people
that aren't Christians to be in a relationship and what's
supposed to be a Christian audio drama, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so they had to.
Speaker 3: I think they had to, and I'm and I was
glad that they did, because I was thinking of this
in the King of my Hard episode.
Speaker 1: In my head.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm sure they are setting this up,
but this feels I don't know whether to like cheer
or boo. You know, like, I like, what are where
are we going with this? And you've seen all this
stuff where there's fans that they call him Buckles, and
they even alluded to that in the title of you know,
Buckle Up. That can't be allowed to continue without drawing,
without discussing it, you know, And I think that they
in order to tell a good story and in order
to teach a good lesson through the story, I think
it's important that they show the dangers and the detriments
of two people that aren't Christians being together in the
way that affects their mentality and their lives and how
they if they don't have that solid foundation. And so
I think we're in for a couple of hard storylines
with buck and Jewels.
Speaker 1: And I think that needs to happen.
Speaker 3: I think that's so important for the kids to see
that in order for like the audience kids, I mean
to see that just so that there's clarity on why
is it important to follow Jesus? You know, what does
that make a difference? You know that, Like we're starting
to see that with Morey, He's like hearing this voice
is conscience and we're seeing a change happening in him
with Buck, and though it's kind of been like they're
kind of becoming better people, but they have they have
clearly not committed their lives to the Lord. And I
think that if that was just left to like take
a story course of they have this happy like love
story where they're together, you know, that's not a good thing.
You know, there needs to there needs to be some
closure on that in one way or another.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So anyways, that's my two cents about it. I know
that's uh. I came across with a strong opinion. I've
been ready to talk about that, but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3: You you you were saying that you felt like it's
it's like we've done this so much, so tell me
more about that.
Speaker 2: No. I think that is a really good point. Just
looking at this episode in Isolation, though, it just kind
of feels like we're a little bit retreading ground because
we did the whole music thing already, right like right right,
and and and she even alludes to that Hollywood wasn't
for me. She says that Jule says that in this episode.
But anyway, we'll get back to that in just a moment.
But I want to say that this was written and
directed by Kathy Buchanan, with sound designed by Nathan Jones
and music by John Campbell. So again, I like the
character of Jewels, and I like the progression. I think,
you know, she's moving at a slower rate than Buck is.
I think in terms of, you know, trying to do
the right thing. I don't know. I don't know what
is a good pace. You know, It's it's tough how
much of this lifestyle of deceit and whatever else has
has been ingrained in her because she's still fairly young, right,
but living with those kind of parents that she had.
We saw the way her mother was, and we know
about her dad. We've been dealing with him on the
show for many, many years. We know what he's like.
So neither one of them are great role models. So
I guess it makes sense for her to really be
struggling with that. And yeah, it's it's it is an
interesting point that you talk about with the relationship, and
I'm totally in agreement with you on that point. I
I don't know you So you think maybe they're going
to set this up where there's going to be an
ending of the relationship or what do you think?
Speaker 3: I do think that I think there needs to be
a crash, and that that the only trajectory this could
I think it would be teaching a different lesson. If
they just continued in their relationship and then they both
became Christians, I think that would be communicating the wrong
idea about how that works.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Or even if they continue in the relationship, I mean
they could do like they continue in the relationship and
one of them became a Christian in the and then
they like but that they've definitely done that kind of
thing before multiple times, you know, which that's fine, if
you know, that's still a good lesson. It's important to
get that ingrained in each new generation of honesty listeners.
But and they feed off of each other in negative ways.
And I think that that if there's no consequences to that,
if it just starts to get positive, then that's a problem,
you know, And I don't I don't think that's been
clearly brought out prior to this. It seems like it
seems even the way like their character jobs, they move
around a little bit because in each episode, you know,
you need somebody who's going to be the conscience and
Buck and Jewels have served as that in different episodes
here and there, even though they're not in a good
place themselves, you know, and it's and so whenever that happens,
and they chalk it up to, well, they've been around
these great influences, which is true, and their behavior does
improve in certain ways. And yet we're not just trying
to modify behavior, you know. There needs to be a
transformation that only happens with Jesus, you know, right, And
yet like are the way that the fans interact with it.
Sometimes I am like, huh, I wonder what fans are
taking away with the like ten year old girl who's
excited about Buck and Jeweles finally being boyfriend and girlfriend
is she how is she thinking about this scenario?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, and and.
Speaker 3: So and Buck especially that is such a dangerous place
to be in because he is turned into such a
good guy and he's always been very like smooth and
polite and courteous, like even when he was a con artist,
you know. Yeah, and he keeps having these with him.
I felt like we did we over and over. We
kept going back to like, oh, and now he's slipping
back into his old life, you know. And yeah, but
I think the reason they kept doing that is because
until he if he just becomes a good guy but
who's not following God or believing in the Bible or
anything like that, that that could promote some good lessons.
But we need to address that in the world of Odyssey,
you know, like that needs to be addressed somehow. And
he has just kind of and he serves as like
jewels conscience in this episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, And I had that exact thing in
my notes. I said, Buck is suddenly becoming Jewels conscience
in this episode.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yeah, But then they they pull back enough
to where he says, and this is this is the
key moment.
Speaker 1: I think. Let's see.
Speaker 3: I think I wrote it down, the moment where he
says you should do it, when he's saying when he's
giving in.
Speaker 1: To what she wants to do.
Speaker 3: And I can't remember if that's in terms of like
joining the band without telling Connie, or if that's I
think that's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's it. He's like, well, if you if it makes.
Speaker 3: You happy, you should do it, even though he's got
doubts about whether this is a good thing for her.
You know, that's the moment where that was that needed
to happen in order for their relationship to progress, because
because he's he's giving in and saying, Okay, I've been
your conscience, but I don't have a moral grounding to
say why because he keeps saying you should just do
the right thing.
Speaker 1: And this is in a later episode, but Jason's like,
does Buck know what the right thing is?
Speaker 2: You know? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And that's like exactly, that's what I've been thinking, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and Jules even says, well, you keep talking,
you're talking in circles. You're seeing him do the right thing,
but what is the right thing? And you know, right, yeah,
that's a good point.
Speaker 3: Her worldview is very clear, like do what's best for you,
you know, and if there's people you care about, you
can help them out. But otherwise and that that is
going to lead to destruction, you know that can't continue
on on that path without it having consequences, you know,
that kind of thinking. And Jules, she her character. She
serves a purpose as a character as long as she's
an antagonist to Connie. Like those first episodes where she
was introduced where she had that really dark worldview about
life is a food chain or whatever it was. She
was saying at Connie's mom's funeral and all those dark things.
That is where her purpose as a character is fleshed
out the best. But if she's gonna be changing, then
her character purpose is going to change also, and that's
already kind of been happening. But they keep pulling her
back into this other way of thinking, which until that
way of thinking is completely changed, until there's complete repentance,
like that is where she's always going to go.
Speaker 1: You know. So I do think they're taking them somewhere,
that's it.
Speaker 2: I think you're right, they're taking him somewhere. There has
to be a trajectory for the care character because if
there's an overnight or instant change, it's gonna feel cheap.
It's not going to feel genuine. It's it's not it's
just not going to work. And and they've never been
about just neat and tidy packages, you know, that's that's
not it's not the it's not the best illustration of
exactly exactly. And this is serious stuff. But there is
a couple of parts where I thought it was quite
humorous where she's talking about this. I think she's talking
to Buck. Yeah, I think it was in a conversation
to Buck, I don't think it was talking to Bridget,
but she's she's exaggerating Connie's objection to the band. She's like,
they're not Christians. Pretty soon you'll be robbing banks and
plotting dance offs.
Speaker 3: And yeah, you can hear like, I've I know people
that think about, like, uh, the scruples of Christian parents
exactly that way. Yeah, like I've heard those things from
like friends of mine in the past, you know those
kinds or she another place she says, I don't know
if it was even in this album, but she says,
Connie wants me to marry. She won't let me marry
unless it's to a missionary or something something like that.
Speaker 1: So like, yeah, you see her her viewpoint coming out there.
Speaker 2: She's obviously, you know, in this particular scene, she's obviously
over exaggerating it on purpose because you can hear that
in her voice. So she's she knows that Connie didn't
really say that. She's not really saying that Connie actually
believes that, but she's she's also letting us know that
she's so far away from where Connie is in terms
of spirituality that she feels like it's okay for her
to characterize her sister in that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But right at the beginning, we have a mention of
Frankie's Barbecue Shack. Is this a new eatery? In honesty,
I've never heard this one mentioned before, unless my memory
is bad, which isn't possible.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think it has been mentioned. But I
like that they they you know, if they're gonna have
an edgy band playing there, they can't be playing at
Hol's Diner with you know.
Speaker 1: They need it.
Speaker 3: And I like that it's like off the interstate, you know, like, yeah,
it sounds like a real like.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a classy place. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: Can we talk about the bands now, Ravioli and deep
Fried Fear was it?
Speaker 3: Those are great band names, great, I have no complaints
about the band names.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, hilarious.
Speaker 2: And in the guy's names too, they totally sound like
rock band guys Runner Razin Dominic.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, yeah, I thought the same. I wrote down
the exact same thing.
Speaker 2: That's so funny, hilarious stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the great, great character characterizations. And I was very
caught off guard by Bridget being the singer in this
band that vultural places like I, I did not see
that coming. And she has a good voice for for
this style of the music.
Speaker 1: But like I liked her her voice voice, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's she was quite good. I'm assuming that that
was really the actress Keeley Marshall. I'm not certain of that,
but it sounded like she probably was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me.
Speaker 2: And we already know that Shonakan sing and she's got
a great singing voice too, And I really liked hearing
her in this one. I just thought, you know, we've
heard her do other styles of music, right, She's done
the Western stuff in what was that Legacy, and of
course in real life we've heard her sing with Will
Ryan and that's, you know, a Western sound. And then
she's done like the old jazz sort of standards kind
of thing, the pop songs and the pop stuff in
California California Dreams. And then in this one more the
straight up rock and roll or more modern rock style.
She just great in all of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she does. She does.
Speaker 3: It reminded me of like Hawk Nelson's music.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like that that kind of sound.
Speaker 3: And I like the differentiation of the characters of like
Bridget and Jewels that because again it's two characters that
aren't Christian. And it's so interesting the way they're using
Bridget in different ways, you know, because we see her
with her family and then we see her in this episode.
She's like the bad guy in this episode for you know,
but but she's She's another one of my favorite new characters. Honestly,
I love I love the role that she plays. But
she is such a jerk. Like when she's like talking
to the audience, it's just like are you even listening?
And it's just like how she talks to the customers
that the burger plays exactly.
Speaker 2: Yes, I thought the same thing was so funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's interesting to see her in these different settings.
And then there's like the one with where she's in
the Imagination station, you know, with Pastor Knox, which is
another setting, you know, And I like that they have
her in all these different settings.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I like the Perkins family as well, and I
think this character is interesting. It is kind of sad
though it felt like there was starting to be some
sort of a friendship between the two and then this
is this just like splits it right down the middle.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. We didn't have them as friends for very long.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And this is just a random line, but
I liked it's towards the beginning where when Bridget walks
off the stage and one of the band members says,
I need to punch something, and the other guy goes,
how about Ratz?
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, that was good. Yeah, And then we
have Jewels actually lies to Connie about these guys attending
church or in a Christian school and everything, and so
again this goes into this arc that this character is on.
It's an interesting choice though, you know, I'm sure they're
thinking very deep about how to do this, but again,
just looking at this episode in isolation, because you never
know who's listening to one episode and might not hear
something I didn't think. Again, you know, it's it's a
it's a tough balance to try to strike what they're
doing with this character and also making sure that it's
clear to the audience what you know, what's good and
what's right here and what's not Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, because there's no like happy resolution at the
end of this Yeah, and it ends with that ominous
note of Gunner saying I would do anything for you, yeah,
which creep exactly.
Speaker 2: It was borderline creepy. Borderline creepy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that gives me like a little pit myself.
Speaker 2: I'm like, uh, but it's it felt like sort of
like setting up something else where he's gonna obviously he's
he's got a thing for her. It would seem.
Speaker 3: Setting him up as an antagonist to Buck contrast to Buck. Which,
speaking of Buck, one of the motifs I really liked
in these last three episodes because it's like, there's the
three parter with the ry Ells, and then there's this
standalone with Jewels, and then there's a.
Speaker 1: Two parter with Buck.
Speaker 3: But the last three were almost like a three parter
because they're happening concurrently, right, And what I really liked
about how they like the phone calls and how in
both of these episodes. Sorry, you were probably about to
say that, but I just I really liked that device,
that storytelling device of hearing the phone calls from Jewels
end in this episode and then hearing them from Bucks
end and seeing what's going on with him in the
next episode.
Speaker 2: That was so good. I love that. That was definitely
in my notes. I thought that was really really cool.
It's similar it's different, but it's similar to the sort
of thing we had with the Snow episodes a while back.
Speaker 1: Yes, which I really like that too. That I thought
that was so creative.
Speaker 2: And this is Kathy Buchanan again, who I think she
didn't she write most or a few of those Snow episodes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, or I think they may be labor that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, but she was involved, if I
remember correctly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so but yeah, so she
does that here with these three episodes. Yeah, I thought
that was a really really cool thing too. One thing though,
before we move on to the last ones, a little
sound design note. Did you pick up on this the
effect that Nate Jones uses on Buck's voice when he's
on the phone. So we're hearing him on the phone
from Jewels perspective, right, and the effect on it was
really odd. It was very choppy, like it sounded like
his phone was like a bad connection or something like that.
You know, it was interesting, just a little. I mean,
it's not bad or good. It was just something that
I noticed. It was an interesting decision to use that,
and so I made sure to listen to very closely
to the phone calls in the next ones on my
read listen to see if it was the same way
for Jewels. But it wasn't. It was different, and that's
probably because it was different sound designers.
Speaker 3: I thought you had something you're like, because they have
different They clearly have different cell providers in Baltimore versus
odysty and.
Speaker 2: No, I did. I did think that maybe it was
you know, Bucks coming through to Jewels. You know it's
gonna sounded different on her end. Yeah, And so I
mean because there are different there are different sound design
softwares that have like pre sets for this. You know,
it's supposed to make it sound like it's on a
cell phone or whatever, and so it's it was just
obvious that he intentionally used a very distinct sound for
the way Buck's voice was coming through. So it was
just something that I noticed. But yeah, great, So this
one wraps up again. The raps in this album were
actually quite good.
Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, I've had a note about that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Chris talks about addressing pride here and using
our gifts properly, which both of those issues are obviously
on display here. So but there's so many people we
know this, We've I've heard this over and over the
people bail at the end of the episode before the
rap comes on, and they don't listen to the full thing,
and it's a shame. People really need to listen to them.
Speaker 3: I know, especially in this album, it felt like the
raps were really important to get across the point that
was being made or that was, you know, the lesson,
because some of these episodes were a little ambiguous and
was what was happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, morally, I've definitely heard people, even in my own family,
I've heard people that they as soon as Chris comes on,
they'd skip to the next episode. I'm like, don't do that.
You get to listen to the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 2: Well, that I think puts a rap on episode nine
seventy nine, and that brings us to making an Honest
Buck Part one and two, nine eighty nine eighty one.
And as I said, these were also written by Kathy
Buchanan and the sound designer on these where Lukeno and
Zach Schneider on both of these episodes, with music by
John Campbell. And yeah, as you mentioned, these two episodes
are happening concurrently with the previous one, and that was
just a really interesting touch they've they've not done this
sort of thing very often, so it's cool when they do.
As as you said that the phone call thing was
was super cool, and we hear little snippets on sort
of like each end of the conversation, so it's not
like the exact same phone call in both episodes. You
hear parts of it in one episode and then like
it will continue a little bit further or maybe it
started a little bit earlier in the other episode, or
vice versa. You know, it was just a really cool
way that they did it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that kept it from feeling just too repetitive, like
exactly this scene before.
Speaker 2: Ye, but we right at the beginning, we hear Eugene
is in Lisbon. Yeah, so you know, I sort of
poked fun a little fun at the I think it
was the well I was thinking it was part two
of rydal about the cops giving the computer back to
them after I was used in a crime. But I've
heard some people say in the fandom, you know, there's
absolutely no way the police would recruit Buck to help
them with an investigation. But in this case, I'm going
to defend the AIO team because I'm a bit of
a true crime junkie and I have been for many years.
I've read so many true crime books and I've listened
to hours of true crime podcasts, and it's actually not
that uncommon for local land regional police to use civilians
to do the sort of things that Buck does here.
You know, they'll ask them to wear a wire and
try to get somebody to talk about a crime, or
they'll ask them to help them collect DNA samples. I mean,
this is not a thing that is unheard of. So
for the people that I've seen saying that this is unrealistic,
I think I would disagree. Now, I don't know how
frequently like federal police would do that because this is
an essay, right, but I know that it happens quite
a bit with you know, local municipality police forces, So
I don't think it's as much of a stretch as
some people were making it out to be.
Speaker 1: There, you have it, you convinced me.
Speaker 2: But it is an interesting whole idea and it works out.
You know that Katrina is a teacher as well, so
they could bring her into the situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I actually enjoyed these two episodes the most out of
these six. I thought these were the well I don't
know if I'll go so far as to say they're
the best, but they're my favorites of this album.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was excited when I saw that Jason was going
to be involved with something with the Meltzner's in Baltimore,
and so I was looking forward to it. And we
first listened to these episodes in Hawaii, so that added
to it.
Speaker 2: Ah. I love that where Katrina's being all mama bear
and that scene in the classroom where oh yeah, the
guys had been picking on Bucalo little bit and she
comes walking over. He is everything okay over here?
Speaker 1: Yeah, She's like fuck? Was it? Like? I'm fine, Miss Shanks.
Speaker 2: That was funny.
Speaker 3: At first, I was like, why is Jillian? Why are
they going roundabout and having Jillian talk to Jason to
talk to Buck? You know, why are they bringing Jason
and not just using Jillian? And then I realized she's
still undercover and the Meltzers don't know that she's a
secret agent, so they needed she was using somebody that
they already knew. Yeah, but it is also I was
also wondering why she was on this particular case, so
apparently she's working other cases from Odyssey. Yeah, but you know,
I don't know how the NSA works, so so I'm
willing to believe it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so we have Eugenie and Lisbon, and then
we also have a mention of another country. Well, Lisbon's
not a country. I know. I realized that I'm not
that stupid about geography.
Speaker 1: But well, neither is al Janistan.
Speaker 2: Oh well, I was getting I was getting ready to
mention that al Janastan. Yeah. I was like, okay, you know,
we've talked about the brand thing before, how they never
want to mention brand names, you know, the Appleberry phone
and all this kind of stuff, which is kind of fun,
you know. I get that, like you don't want to
necessarily endorse products, but this one is still a little
bit interesting to me. I don't understand the need for
a fake country name, Like the Brinkmans have done this
before because they're using real missionary stories and they don't
want to give out the location where these missionaries are
working for their own safety, so they've used fake country
names there. But this one, I don't really understand the
need for it here. But it definitely made me chuckle
to hear the made up name.
Speaker 3: Have you heard any of the recent Pergins family episodes
with the Dad have been released on the club.
Speaker 2: I haven't d okay, I'm very I'm very far behind.
Speaker 3: It's a different country there, and I but it was
one that, oh what's it because they've used another one before,
like Rakistan or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 3: And I feel like maybe they use different country names
when whatever the story is would reflect badly on that
country and they don't want to stir up like any
I see, you know, I think they just want to
cover themselves, like like in this case, his dad got
killed in this other country. And uh, that's been my
impression is that's when they choose to go with a okay,
made up country.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 2: I could get behind that. I mean, did we not
do that in what was it called The Sound of Freedom?
Where we had that it was it was obviously in
North Korea reference, but they never ever say Korea, right.
Speaker 1: Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, you're right, they did do that.
Speaker 2: I don't remember if they actually gave it a different name.
Speaker 3: And they're talking like all the way back talking about
like Vietnam, and I was but like the Price of
Freedom is what that one was. But yeah, I think
Sound of Freedom, right is the newer one with the
North Koreer.
Speaker 2: That's a club one too. I may have a title wrong,
so don't quote me on that.
Speaker 1: But okay, I won't.
Speaker 2: It's something, it's something about freedom, which we love. But
you know, part one of this one ends on a
really suspenseful note, like we're we're with Buck up in
the parents' bedroom and then we suddenly hear that the
dad is going to be coming up to the bedroom.
We're like, oh yeah, and then they end it right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that this cliffhanger felt different than like other cliffhangers,
which are a little more like, oh, I knew they
were going to end it there this one. I was
expecting another scene and then it's like, oh, nope, we're done,
and we have a Is it Grayson Smith that's playing Brandon.
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Now it's cool to hear him again.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I did forget to mention this in the last In
the last episode with the right notes, Wrong key, we
got to hear Evan David, another Focus employee, as the
stage manager at that contest. I think it was at
the Fair, the Fair contest where they competed there. The
bands so that was cool to hear him. Yeah, but yeah, Grayson,
I think I mentioned this in the episode where we
talked about the recap of One Grand Party, but got
to meet him in person there again. We'd talked with him.
How many years ago was that? Twenty seventeen? Was that?
Speaker 1: Wow, I don't remember when that was. I think that
was when I first met you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and that's when we interviewed Grayson and
the other finalists. Yeah but anyway.
Speaker 1: Sorry, random trip done memory lane there.
Speaker 2: Yea. Yeah, So got to chat with him at the
One Grand Party again and sort of catch up for
a few minutes, and he remembered meeting us that first time.
But anyway, yeah, so it's cool to hear him. You know,
I've sort of felt bad, you know, because Jewels won
the first time, and like she became like a mainstay
on the show, and then he wins and he got
to perform on the cruise and then he did a
couple of bit parts, and I mean, it's still cool.
I mean, don't get me wrong, that's a great prize.
And they never they never committed to the fact that
this the winner would be a recurring regular character. So
that was just Jewels just happened to be in the
right place at the right time and where the story
was on the show. It just fit perfectly, and so anyway, but.
Speaker 3: That's why it's cool to see him playing these characters
in more and more shows.
Speaker 2: And more of a central character in this particular episode too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2: And you know, I was talking about how I was
kind of feeling bad about Bridget and Jewels having this
falling out, and this one really felt bad because man,
it felt like Buck's struggle, you know, with trying to
you know, gain friends and just feeling, you know, the
fish out of water sort of thing in a new school.
I thought that was those are those are really important
and relatable issues for kids, and I was I was
always growing up. I was always the quiet kid that
struggled to make friends as well. So I get that.
And so the fact that he was had finally found
somebody that he connected with and then of course he
loses that friendship. It felt like a big loss, and
you understand why he struggled so much with what he
should do in this situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I felt a lot more like this episode
was a lot more morally ambiguous, and I don't know
if it was just me, because I feel like other
people that I've talked to are like, well, yeah, that
was the right thing to do, and I was much
more when I was listening as like I don't know that.
And I always feel a little uncomfortable with, you know,
the spy stuff using deception in order to accomplish a
greater good, and it just feels very much like a
ends justify the means kind of thing. But there are
those kinds of things in the Bible, with like the
Midwives to Pharaoh, and the Lord even tells Samuel same
as like Saul's gonna kill me if I go annoint
David and he's like, oh, well, take a heifer and
say you're going to do a sacrifice, and you know
that's like that's concealing, you know, some information, but the
Lord told him to do it, and honesty, he's taking
a very strong stance on it.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe I shouldn't say that.
Speaker 3: Like the way they pitched it was like we need
to wrestle with these ethical dilemmas like with that, I
don't know what's at the room of consequence. When Renee
with the Nazis and the Jews and there was something
else too, but it felt like they were taking a
stance on like, yes, you know, sometimes you gotta lie
to protect lives or whatever, like that's that's the way
it came across to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we have the you talk about biblical examples.
Speaker 3: You mean you have Rayhab, Yeah, Rayhab and Jonathan, you know,
he tells a lie to protect David, and but every
I just always feel like I'm opening the door to
moral relativism all.
Speaker 1: These kind of things.
Speaker 3: And they've they've brought it up with Jason doing the
spy work in the past, like with the Labyrinth. He
talks about being caught in the Labyrinth of deceit, and
mister Widaker was talking to him about, you know, how
do you protect the truth of the lie? But I
never feel like it's resolved, you know, which I guess
it's maybe it's not intended to be because it's something
that we have to wrestle with. But I'm uncomfortable with
it yet, Like those biblical examples do keep me from
just being like that's ridiculous, you know, So I am
I am a little bit torn because the Bible also
says that God hates lying, you know, he hates a
lying tongue, he hates deceeed, you know. And and so
I do wrestle with this this one. I came around,
you know, as I was thinking through it a little
bit to seeing that you do have to, like, if
somebody's doing something wrong, you have to turn them over
to the authorities, even if it's going to hurt a friend,
you know. And yet as I was listening through it,
I was feeling for Bryden too, you know, yeah, I was.
And the rap we were talking about how good the
raps were in these, But the rap at the end
of this, like first one, was like, you know, sometimes
we go through hard times, like the Apostle Paul, but
we got to do what's right for Jesus. And I
was like, so is Buck the one going through the
hard times but doing what's right by taking this DNA sample?
Like is he the Apostle Paul in the scenario or
is it more talking about like he's you know, going
through hardships, not having friends, but he moved for his parents,
you know.
Speaker 1: Like I don't know.
Speaker 3: I was at the rap actually, I wasn't clear how
the episode was teaching it necessarily, So sorry, I'm I'm
rambling again.
Speaker 2: But no, that's that's fine. I didn't I didn't have
a note about the rap on this one, so maybe, Yeah,
I can see totally where you're coming from. And it
is tough, I mean, because you're right that, I mean,
you can't just allow criminals to run wild. But the
whole dynamic there of trying to understand Yeah, but I'm
gonna hurt this kid who's completely innocent. Yeah, I mean,
it's not his fault that his parents are. At that point,
we didn't know which parent is involved in this stuff,
and he does get hurt. Maybe that's why they put
in that thread where things were actually starting to get
better between him and his stepdad, right, right.
Speaker 1: I do feel like that was one of the reasons
for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Jason addresses it with Buck talking about, yeah,
sometimes innocent people do get hurt when we do the
right thing. But it's so important to do the right thing.
But Jason, Man, that's a tough pill to take from Jason,
because I'm not sure that he's always so clear on
what the right thing is.
Speaker 2: But yeah, historically that's very true. Maybe now that he's
settled down and just running an antique shop, maybe things
are a little clearer for him these days, sure they are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the whole episode seemed like he was presenting the
choice is very clear, like well, yeah, here's the right
thing to do is to get this DNA sample to
Jason that that seemed like that was very clearly saying
that's the right thing to do. Yeah, But I, I
and maybe other people didn't have to wrestle with it.
And like, as a kid, I would don't think I
would have wrestled with it. I would have just been like, oh, yeah,
it makes sense to me. But like I personally now
listening to it and wrestling with it a little bit
and thinking through through all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But and I.
Speaker 3: Think the choice ended up being it was clarified that
by the reason Buck didn't want to do it is
he wanted to have this friend with the knowledge that
other people were gonna get hurt because he didn't give
the information that he had right, So that when you
put it in those terms, it does clarify it a
little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And speaking of Jason, like when Buck is feeling all
sort of down about the whole situation, he's like, are
you okay, Buck? You look like your dog lost another leg.
Where did that come from?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was does.
Speaker 2: He already have a three legged dog or something?
Speaker 3: He does, he does have a three legged dog, but
I don't remember the episode where he got a three
legged dog or like where the or how the dog
lost a leg?
Speaker 1: I don't I don't have a memory of that.
Speaker 3: But they've definitely mentioned his three legged dog, even in
one of the like they played a clip in a
recording session and Kathy Buchanan was directing him and she said, Okay, Buck,
I need you to sound a little bit more sad,
because you know, all your friends in Odyssey are having
a good time and you're here and you're alone and you.
Speaker 1: Have no friends. You're just sitting there with your three
legged dog. I don't know. The three legged dog is
definitely a thing.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's totally slipped in my mind because I don't
remember that at all.
Speaker 1: But I don't remember the storyline. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: I'm sure somebody can pull it out and be like, no,
this episode it was the three legged dog.
Speaker 2: In any case, that line is is hilarious though, I
mean it just it just made me crack up when
he said that, and he just totally just goes with it.
And that's what makes it even funnier because he does
not even acknowledge it at all. But you know, talking
about the whole the dynamics of this episode, like there's
so much going on in terms of moral quandaries and
decisions like that. I thought there were some really cool
twists in this one too, Yeah, both with the bad
guy not actually being the bad guy, and also with
making it look like Buck might have done something underhanded
but switching it up on us and we find out
that he actually didn't. But there's that whole question. It's
like leaving they planted some seeds in our mind that
that made us to believe that Buck might actually do
the other thing, you know.
Speaker 3: Right, So when I first started, I totally thought he
had like contaminated the sample somehow, I'd given him a
different tissue or something. Yeah, And I wouldn't have seen
it coming that it was the MOM, except I listened
to Cole Brumley's podcast and he was speculating that it
might turn out to be the MOM And then so
then it prepped me. But he didn't know, he hadn't
listened to it. But then I was like, what, No,
those were both great twists.
Speaker 2: Yes, So, like I said, overall, I think these were
my favorite episodes of the album. But you've kind of
got me rethinking that now with the moral quandaries there.
But I think it is it's clear what the right
thing was. I think maybe some of the things that
he and Katrina both said it does make it it's
a little bit gray, uh huh, but.
Speaker 1: Like the color of Katrina's eyes.
Speaker 2: But overall, I still really enjoyed those episodes.
Speaker 1: And well, and I think, okay, so let me throw
more Wrention.
Speaker 3: Okay, And because this is one of the things that
I was as the episodes that were progressing, that they
drew attention to, and this was I think maybe part
of why I was overthinking it so much is that
they are drawing a parallel between Buck situation and Jewels situation.
And Jewles is clearly in the wrong, and she's she's
betraying a friend as well in order to get ahead.
She's betrayed Bridget, who that feels less morally ambiguous, even
though Bridget is being a jerk, you know, and being
very self absorbed herself. And yet it's obviously the wrong
thing for Jewels to join this band and lie to
Connie and you know.
Speaker 1: And all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But they did something interesting where they drew a parallel
between Brayden and Buck and Bridget and Jewels where on
the phone, you know, Buck starts describing his situation hypothetically
and Jeweles gets defensive and she's like, oh, you're obviously
talking about me and Bridget, you know. So they drew
attention to it in the episode. And what I find
so interesting about that is that they both betray a
friend in these episodes, and yet for Buck they're portraying
it as the right thing to do, and for Jewles
it was the wrong thing to do. Not that that
was the crux of the moral dilemma, was whether or
not to betray a friend, because both of the crux
of the moral dilemmas in each situation was different. And
for Jewels it was all about her joining that band
against what Connie wanted, and for Buck it was all
about you know, do I like listen to authority versus
Jewles disobeying authority?
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 3: And also Jewles doing the wrong thing is what helped
clarify for Buck to do what he did, that was
like what gave him the gumption to make that decision.
Speaker 1: But as I was like sorting out.
Speaker 3: The parallel, I was like, I was it was actually
getting me more confused because I was I was focusing
on the betrayal aspect, you know. Yeah, and so I
think that was another aspect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I definitely
we picked up on the parallels there, and obviously they
call attention to it, but I don't know. I guess
I didn't go as far with it as you did.
And I can totally see what you're saying. That makes
a lot of sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I may be going too far with it,
but I feel like they nudged me in that direction,
and so that's why I kept going, Yeah, down the road.
But maybe, like I went down the road, I'm like, guys,
is anybody here? No, Okay, I'll go back to the
main path.
Speaker 2: Now. Well, again, maybe this is all part of the
strategy of presenting these stories, and they're taking a stand
of what they they're saying is the right thing. But
it's inciting discussion. I mean, here we are talking about this.
I didn't slan to talk about that particular aspect as
much as we have, and yet here we are and
it's very valid, and I think it's good. I think
it's good to talk through these things and situations, and
you know what, hypotheticals and stories are often how we
can and figure out how to apply things in our
own life when we come against situations that are similar.
So yeah, yeah, maybe this, maybe that's very intentional.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not ready, So any spies out there listening,
don't come to me to get your DNA samples, because
I have got some more thinking to do.
Speaker 1: As far as like story aspects.
Speaker 3: There was this whole phone conversation between Katrina and Jason,
and I think I needed that exposition. It was very expositional,
like Katrina's like, oh, because the DNA would be the same, and.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh okay, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel like Katrina probably would have known that without
saying it, but I needed it.
Speaker 2: So overall, this this album pretty solid. Again, not a favorite,
probably not one that I'll listen to an awful lot,
but it is good. It's got some good moments for me.
Particularly the last two are the highlight for me.
Speaker 3: So what about you, Michael, Yeah, They're not like comfort
food episodes that I want to go back to all
the time. You know, like there's certain episodes where you know,
we'll just listen to as we're like driving from one
spot to another, and uh, these aren't like especially like
the one in the middle about jewels. It's serving a
very specific purpose, but it's not one that I like
want to be in a lot, you know, like the
the Buck ones because of the spy aspect, you know,
it feels a little bit more fun in the and
the Right delt ones too, like there's the mystery.
Speaker 1: So yeah, this one.
Speaker 3: This album, like like several of the stories, but they
this album in particular, I felt like there was a
lot of moral and ethical questions that were raised in
my mind because of it. And I did a lot
of a lot of thinking about those those things obviously,
And so, oh wait, can I bring up one more
uncomfortable thing for me? This is another this is another
wrap up thing. So the kids that are skipping the
wrap ups that wouldn't even be faced with this. But
at the end Chris's wrap up was about it was like,
I'm glad Buck did the right thing. And the Book
of James says that if we need wisdom, we can
always ask God, and so the key is to have
a relationship with God and then we'll know how to
do the right thing. And that was uncomfortable for me
because Buck does not have a relationship with God, and
yet they're saying he still had the wisdom to do
the right thing. And so that's one of those elements
where I'm like, Okay, Buck has to have a crash too,
Otherwise we're teaching lessons that I don't know that we
want to teach, you know, So Okay, I don't know.
I had to get it off my chest.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's a valid point. It's a valid point. Yeah,
because yeah, he did. I mean, I don't remember. He doesn't.
He doesn't pray at all in this episode. No, Yeah,
So it's all just like him bouncing things off of jewels.
And then you know, listening to.
Speaker 3: Jules is like the negative conscience. She's the anti conscience
for the anti voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: That helps him to know the right thing to do.
Speaker 3: It's like, Okay, what would jewels do? I need to
do the opposite of that. Yeah, But I want to
say something positive about the story that there was a
lot of setups for things that were going to happen
later in the episode. Like with the glue that she
gets stuck to, or the even like the literature teacher
just having like bucks, like my literature had a teacher
had a baby not in class though, yea, and all
these setups that were in there, or and even the
stuff that helped him figure it out about like the
the phone call and then the where the mom was
over Valentine's Day and all those things. Those setups, all
of those details felt so organic to the story. They
felt so natural in the story that I didn't even
know they were giving us clues, you know, yeah, and
then and so then we needed to have that information
later on, but it was worked in at the beginning
so so well, I thought I wanted to call that out.
Speaker 2: That is a very very good point, brilliant writing there
by Kathy, just dropping these little signposts along the way
which you don't even see. But then when there's the
reference back to them, you're like, oh, yeah, that makes
total sense. Yeah, yes, and it feels natural. You're right, yeah,
very very well done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I really like that. And yeah, these all
the the writing and all of these were was great,
and the acting and and everything. So you know, Odyssey
is is the goat of like trying to backpedal out
some of them.
Speaker 2: But anyways, interesting times in Odyssey and Baltimore apparently.
Speaker 1: Yep, adventures in Odyssey in Baltimore.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, it's always a blast to talk about
Odyssey with you, and and to talk about anything with you, actually, Michael,
it's it's always so much fun. So thank you so
much for joining me.
Speaker 3: Oh thanks for having me on again. And you know,
maybe next time I'll try to keep it shorter.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you'll invite me back.
Speaker 2: You've you've filled your quota for for four five episodes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.
Speaker 2: So what do you think of the show?
Speaker 3: Please leave your message after.
Speaker 1: The zelle hi Audi Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, this is awesome.
Speaker 3: Preach hell about j D Royan, Andrew Minum Victoria.
Speaker 1: Now. Yesterday I received a letter from a big band.
Speaker 2: No time to joy, I've got an email.
Speaker 1: Listen another package for me today? No deactly, just your mail.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is time for some feedback from you the
ATC community. There are many ways to get in touch
with us. You can always email us feedback at Audiotheatercentral
dot com. You can comment on the show notes we
always read those, or you can send a text message
or leave a voicemail at our feedback hotline, which is
six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero. Again,
that's six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero.
And I really want to say at the outset here,
thank you to every single person who ever sends in feedback.
I deeply appreciate it. And while I don't always have
time to respond to every single email or every single comment,
I do my best to do that, but sometimes I
just can't. But I read every single one, and I
am grateful for every bit of feedback. There's been some
people recently who have apologized for sending multiple emails in
and don't ever feel bad about sending in feedback. Never.
It's always a pleasure to hear from this great community
of fans of clean audio drama. Well, this first email
is just a quick little thank you note from PJ
and he said, love your show and it has made
my day job commute so much better. Oh man, that
is so great to hear. He says. I'm a composer
who did some audio work on Venture. I've loved discovering
audio drama and look forward to discovering more with your show.
Regards PJ. That's so great to hear from PJ. This
is PJ Rasmussen who is a composer and you can
check him out if you're looking for a composer for
your project. Pjrasmussen dot com check him out. But thank
you so much for the feedback. PJ. So glad to
hear that you're enjoying the show. I'm really looking forward
to hearing your work on these audio dramas that you've
been involved with in the last several months. So so
great to hear from you. Our next piece of eedback
is an email from Blake and it's in response to
the interview with Jered Depasqual from a recent episode, and
we had talked about Heather Forster's performance in Joan of
Arc and Blake said, Hey, JD, I just listened to
episode two oh eight and I'm going to send it
to Heather too. I don't know if she has a
lot of time, but to hear you guys say that
she is one of the best actresses that Jared has
worked with means a lot. I teared up and I
know she will too. Look at all the work she
has done for audio drama over the years since she
was just a little girl back during the days when
she used the alias Lily Milton for focus on the
family Radio theater and her time as a child with
the Royal Shakespeare Company and working with the late Katie Kelgren.
I would for sure agree that of all the stuff
she has done over the past twenty five years, Joan
is her best work, and it makes me so glad
she came out of retirement from acting to do this.
She is the reason I created Radio Theater Wiki, as
I got the idea a little after Katie Kelgren her
mentor passed away. I just wanted to reach out to
you after hearing that chat about Heather you and Jared had.
Thanks for that amazing statement from you guys and for
acknowledging her amazing talent. Here's hoping that Heather will work
with Philip Glassborough and Daniel Philpott again. Yes, Yes, she
did such a fantastic job, and I'm so glad that
you enjoyed that interview with Jared and I hope Heather
had a chance to listen to it as well. And
I know you are in contact with her Blake, so
if she wants to reach out to us, I would
love to connect with her. It's so great to have
these amazing talented actors and actresses involved in this industry. Obviously,
audio drama couldn't exist without actors, and that we have
such high quality people who bring their gifts and their
talents to the these amazing stories. It's just amazing. Audio
drama is amazing, isn't it. That's why this show exists
because we love audio drama, and we love talking about it,
and we love sharing it with people who haven't discovered
it yet. And so yeah, I'm so glad to hear
from you, Blake, and I hope Heather enjoyed that conversation
with Jared, and yes, hope we hear from her again
in future audio dramas. Our final piece of feedback for
this episode is an email from Jeremy. He said, I
really enjoyed the last two podcasts. I really thought that
Tory had some great things to say, and I'm really
looking forward to checking out his podcast as well. There
was a question raised on one of the other podcasts
I listened to. The question had to do with favorite
magical objects in fantasy books that the hosts wanted to
be real That question might be fun for a future episode,
what objects in audio drama people wished were real? Sincerely,
you're loyal fan and loyal listener, Jeremy. Well, thank you
so much, Jeremy for the feedback. I'm glad you're enjoying
those episodes. I would agree that conversation with Tory was
just delightful. It was a fun chat with him and
an inspirational conversation as well. He's just an interesting guy.
But to your question, that is an interesting one. So
an object from audio drama that we wished was real? Well,
I can't think of a specific object necessarily, but I mean,
who hasn't listened to Adventures in Odyssey and at some
point thought, man, wouldn't it be awesome if wits End
was a real place, or maybe specifically the Imagination Station.
I know, as a kid, I had those sorts of thoughts.
I definitely think that the majority of listeners of AIO
I've at some point thought they wished that Witsand was real,
or maybe that mister Whittaker was real something like that.
But a specific object nothing is springing to mind, but
I guess along similar lines to WIT's End or the
Imagination Station, I've often thought that Finny and Jones's Shop
from the Lamp Ladder Theater series would be an amazing
place to visit, and it seems like a little more
realistic in some ways. The shop itself is an interesting place.
It's got, you know, a little cafe in there where
he sells different types of teas and coffees and other
things like that. But it's also got antiques and things,
and who knows what else. But then he's got the
massive library with Rolo, and the exploratorium, the every later
and the observation deck on the roof. I forget whether
it's called, but what an interesting, magical place. And it
seems to me, to my mind, somehow slightly more plausible
than some of the inventions that mister Whitaker has in
WIT's End. For some reason, most of those things seem
to be more mechanical and actually possible to build. Of course,
all the various rooms with that the readers of the
books used to visit, that is a little bit more
on the fantastical side of things, and maybe similar to
some of the inventions that Wit has, you know, the
Room of Consequence or the Inspiration Station or whatever it
might be. But for me, the first thing that comes
to mind. When we talk about things in audio drama
that we wished were real, I would have to say
Finnian's Shop or WIT's End, or both, or the whole
town of Odyssey. I don't know, so I would love
to hear what you think. That's a great question to
pass on to you, the listener. Let us know, reach
out to us via all the different ways to get
in touch with us, and let us know what object
or anything from an audio drama you wished was real.
Thank you so much, Jeremy for reaching out and what
a great question. Well that's gonna do it for this episode.
Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you to
Michael Schrader for joining me for this review. If you
would like to stay up to date on everything that
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of course, the show notes for this episode with links
to everything we've talked about, are at audio Theatercentral dot
com slash two one two. I'll talk with you next time.
Thank you, Thank you so much for listening. Hey, do
me a favor. Why don't you before the next episode
go tell somebody else about Audio Theater Central.
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Speaker 3: Michael Schrader from Colorado. Audio Theater Central is the production
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