OAC Episode Discussion

Your membership into the Adventures in Odyssey Club grants you a special key! Here is the place to discuss all of the club exclusive episodes.
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SirWhit
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Missionary episodes aren't necessarily the problem here, the problem is that AIO is confining themselves to doing traditional Dan Isidro type missionary stories with angry natives and vindictive "spirits." What about an urban effort to reach inner city youth? Or something other than "Whit and Jason fly out to Deepest Darkest Africa to reach some tribal people with the Gospel"
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aragtaghooligan
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They have done other stuff before, like Jason's missionary stuff in the Nova Com times or even Wooton's trip to Alaska which was kind of about depression and addiction not stereotypical angry tribes, but you do raise a good point Sir Whit.
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Pound Foolish
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SirWhit wrote:Missionary episodes aren't necessarily the problem here, the problem is that AIO is confining themselves to doing traditional Dan Isidro type missionary stories with angry natives and vindictive "spirits." What about an urban effort to reach inner city youth? Or something other than "Whit and Jason fly out to Deepest Darkest Africa to reach some tribal people with the Gospel"
aragtaghooligan wrote:They have done other stuff before, like Jason's missionary stuff in the Nova Com times or even Wooton's trip to Alaska which was kind of about depression and addiction not stereotypical angry tribes, but you do raise a good point Sir Whit.
It's doubtful they'd do that kind of thing unless it was based on fact. The natives probably did have people among them who wanted everyone to believe in the spirits and tried to change people's minds.
As for why they do far flung spots, probably because they are limited by the types of charities interested in working with them and also are trying to get word out about charities doing important work. People in isolated, primitive spots (primitive? Aah! Politically incorrect word!) tend to be those in especially great need, with the least access to the outside world and proper medicine. It doesn't make for a lot of variety with episodes, but with this awful system, (awful for the quality of the episodes at any rate) this is what we get.
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KeyBladeWarrior
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I have listened to every exclusive OAC episode and there are only a handful of them that I actually like.
At first, I thought it was a cool idea to feature some charities and mission type stuff in several of the episodes, but now I think they are focusing on that stuff too much. One of the only episodes I have really liked that featured a charity was the Cure Parts 1-3. But that one seemed to be long enough that it could still contain a message, besides primarily being a commercial for the featured charity. I hope that in the future they will either add more of a message to the missionary/charity work episodes, or that they will feature more of the every-day Odyssey episodes.
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aragtaghooligan
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Yeah there have only been a couple every day Odyssey ones which is weird. I liked the one where the Parkers go to Kenya a LOT. I think it was pretty much the only missionary one I liked. I am actually not a big fan of short term missions because I have heard a lot of stories where more harm than good was done for a community because inexperienced workers were coming in to do jobs that local people who need work could have got paid to do. I liked this episode because it shows that sometimes we think we have so much to give and so many good plans but that we sometimes get it wrong. The Parker's didn't end up doing what they planned to but they were still able to give something important to the community after actually getting to know the people and their needs. I really liked that.
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KeyBladeWarrior
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aragtaghooligan wrote:Yeah there have only been a couple every day Odyssey ones which is weird. I liked the one where the Parkers go to Kenya a LOT. I think it was pretty much the only missionary one I liked. I am actually not a big fan of short term missions because I have heard a lot of stories where more harm than good was done for a community because inexperienced workers were coming in to do jobs that local people who need work could have got paid to do. I liked this episode because it shows that sometimes we think we have so much to give and so many good plans but that we sometimes get it wrong. The Parker's didn't end up doing what they planned to but they were still able to give something important to the community after actually getting to know the people and their needs. I really liked that.
I actually forgot about this episode, but I did like this one also.
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This is this month's episode:
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My sister took one look and said, "Let's listen to the Paul Revere episode." So we did.
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SirWhit
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Ewww. Looks awful. I'll skip this one, thanks.
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MnM
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I heard it's in the Inspiration Station! I'm glad they're brining it back. It looks a bit.. intersting, but I might want to listen to it. :D
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The Old Judge
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Pound Foolish wrote:This is this month's episode:
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And this is why Odyssey fans are so unhappy. There wasn't even really a reaction in my mind when I saw this image. Just a blank stare. I understand that they want to increase awareness for missionaries. I have not listened to any of these episodes myself, but if they are of the subpar quality being described, I would venture to say that The Brinkman Adventures does a much better job with the field of missions.

(Also, I have been struggling with the concept that these "exclusive" episodes are still part of the normal AIO canon, and numbered chronologically with the mainstream episodes. :? )

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Doll
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Whale, I listened to this episode.

I dun't get it. :P It seemed completely out of AIO's canon, and seemed more like an episode for 5 year olds, (you know, those nick jr. shows that are just fluff and randomness and such with no real plot or point.)

There was a point, both that everyone has a place, and there are a lot of disabled orphan children in the world who need to be adopted, but it seems like they could have given both of these lessons better. And not done fantasy, with a creepy chorus of children and kids riding jungle animals....
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Tea Ess
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Wow, that looks ... spectacularly bad, like something out of a hallucination or Alice in Wonderland. It's really disappointing to hear that the OAC episodes have fallen so short of the other episodes.

The OAC was originally started as a way to increase revenue from AiO, right? Does anyone know how successful that has been?
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Emma
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It really didn't make sense. I was like, okaaaaay, and where's the Odyssey in this? Now this is proof that Odyssey is going downhill.
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SirWhit
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...I'm not even going to bother listening to that one.

I mean, I've liked a lot of the recent episode, but it seems like the good ones are getting a bit more rare.
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New OAC episode "A Daughter's Love".
This episode was really good. I've been liking that OAC episodes are approaching a little more difficult subjects. The Dad's comment about "I don't deserve God to forgive me!" was a very good comment, if not eye-opening, at least thought-provoking. I also enjoyed the story as well. My biggest complaint would be that it follows the same outline, being:
-a minute or so of boring/useless conversation
-a minute or so of a kid having a problem
-the rest of the episode with story dealing with that problem
-the kid's problem is now solved

But, I guess that was AIO's main plot all along. :P And, the story was a bit rushed at the beginning, I thought, but other than that, I enjoyed it greatly. :D Oh, and Darien and Monica Stone were in this episode!!! ^_^ (actor/actress I mean, of course)
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SirWhit
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Agreed Ox. The only thing I would add is that I thought that using the girl's group as a framing device for the story was a good idea. Much better than having Whit or someone like that tell a random kid about it. In fact, I kind of liked having Whit not really play a role in this story. It makes Odyssey feel a little larger than just Whit's End and Whit.
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The Old Judge
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T.S. (myself) wrote:Wow, that looks ... spectacularly bad, like something out of a hallucination or Alice in Wonderland. It's really disappointing to hear that the OAC episodes have fallen so short of the other episodes.
I apologize for jumping back to another part of the discussion, but I want to address something.

T.S., in this statement, are you referring to Alice in Wonderland as being subpar and ridiculous as compared to other novels. This is not true. It is the pinnacle and epitome of its genre: nonsensical fiction. It has remained timeless over its 150 year existence. The main issue with the OAC episodes, or any Odyssey episode taking this turn, is that AIO was not designed for the genre of nonsensical fiction; it was designed to be Christian fiction. When any franchise, of any sort, tries to branch off into something other than its original intended format, it begins to lose support and fans.

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TigerShadow
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I think T.S.'s point is that Alice in Wonderland is nonsensical fiction, and that image looks vividly nonsensical.

I listened to "Take It On Trust" a few days ago, and while I did enjoy it (although it does feel remarkably similar to "Not-So-Trivial Pursuits"), I have to say that the team could do a better job with casting actresses that sound distinct from one another. While Aria Curzon and Lauren Schaffel are audibly different from each other as Mandy and Liz, Kelly Stables and Natalie Lander sound so similar as Olivia and Zoe that there were many times when I couldn't tell who was talking.
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Doll
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Take it On Trust. Another episode about secrets being told and one person blaming their best friend. :x
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SirWhit
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Eh. It was alright. Jay was funny, I guess. Felt very much like a rehash of the whole Mandy vs Liz thing boiled down into 25 minutes.
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