Episode Description:
"After Wooton accidentally gives a negative review of Penny’s artwork, he feels that he must do everything to keep from offending her. This includes allowing her to hang her frightening clown paintings all over the house. Meanwhile, Connie shares a studio with a fellow student who is insensitive to his own distracting habits." - AIO
Episode Review:
What could Wooton and Penny, the show’s somewhat cartoonish and lighthearted characters, teach listeners about the institution of marriage? “Your Honest Opinion, Please” gives us a glimpse into the types of themes and situations that might arise in their new married life together. In today’s show, the duo teaches us about the importance of honesty, communication, and speaking the truth in love. And they do so in an entertaining, energetic fashion. It’s one of many things I liked about “Your Honest Opinion, Please”, Sam Suksiri’s fourth – and arguably best – episode.
Although Adventures in Odyssey has already made an episode about characters struggling to give their honest opinions of paintings in “A Book by its Cover”, there’s certainly an originality to “Your Honest Opinion, Please” that helps it stand out from episodes both old and new. Once the two main story threads are established – A) Wooton regretfully allows Penny’s clown paintings to hang in his house and B) Connie learns that fellow painter Tim David Michael has annoying habits – the bulk of the episode revolves around Wooton and Connie becoming increasingly irate in their respective circumstances. In the hands of another writer, these scenes of increasing frustration may have felt repetitive and tiresome, but Sam Suksiri’s strong comedic writing, here, keeps the episode consistently entertaining; Tim David Michael’s artistic habits are increasingly more hilarious than the last (the Screamers and Sons scene is delightful) while Wooton’s amped-up anxieties result in some instantly classic Adventures in Odyssey moments.
Let’s briefly talk about the hallway scene, in which the clown paintings begin talking to Wooton. It’s a scene which will certainly be “rewound” and played again by generations of fans. It also reminds us there has certainly been a lack of comedy/spooky on Adventures in Odyssey. Although, we got a hint of this with the heart-devouring Kermit in “Have a Heart”, and Zombies in “The Ties that Bind”, my mind wandered all the way back to early times on the show, like “It Sure Seems Like it to Me”. Scenes like this certainly test what’s in the realm of possibility on a show like Odyssey, but I appreciated the show’s attempt to do the unexpected, adding an uncharacteristically spooky moment, which kept the show feeling fresh and memorable.
The episode surprises in small and unexpected ways as it nears its ending; the last five minutes, especially, are jam-packed with humorous moments – Wooton accidentally walks into Penny’s interview and inavertedly contradicts her glowing characterization of him, while Connie points out to Tim David Michael his annoying habits, making him cry like a baby. And while these over-the-top moments don’t always fit into the usual style and tone of a basic Adventures in Odyssey episode, that doesn’t stop them from being consistently amusing.
As with most episodes, there are nitpicks. The episode could have benefited from some trimming (the episode is 27 minutes long). In the opening scene of “Your Honest Opinion, Please”, Wooton accidentally insults Penny’s painting, a situation that, granted, immediately pulls the listener into the story. The problem, however, is that this opening scene feels wholly unnecessary given where the story eventually settles. Its purpose, I assume, is to explain why Wooton would later allow Penny to set-up clown paintings in his house: to avoid the guilt he felt. But, without this scene, I would have still believed that Wooton would have allowed her to set-up paintings simply out his character’s desire not to hurt her feelings. Aside from being attention-grabbing, this opening muddies the overall story and keeps the listener from quickly jumping into the meat of the episode.
Also, as humorous as the Connie’s B-story was, its timing seems slightly out of place, as though it should have occurred several albums ago immediately following “The Green Ring Conspiracy”. Is she still seriously pursuing a painting career? Wasn’t she taking psychology in “Connie the Counselor”? I’m generally confused about her choice of vocation. The show should decide and commit to giving her a career plan, instead of randomly enrolling her in whatever course suits the writer’s story idea.
But these small things hardly detract from my general enjoyment of the episode. Overall, “Your Honest Opinion, Please” uses imaginative scenes, hilarious dialogue, and an enjoyably brisk pace to illustrate its point. I look forward to hearing more of this kind of strong writing in the future.
"After Wooton accidentally gives a negative review of Penny’s artwork, he feels that he must do everything to keep from offending her. This includes allowing her to hang her frightening clown paintings all over the house. Meanwhile, Connie shares a studio with a fellow student who is insensitive to his own distracting habits." - AIO
Episode Review:
What could Wooton and Penny, the show’s somewhat cartoonish and lighthearted characters, teach listeners about the institution of marriage? “Your Honest Opinion, Please” gives us a glimpse into the types of themes and situations that might arise in their new married life together. In today’s show, the duo teaches us about the importance of honesty, communication, and speaking the truth in love. And they do so in an entertaining, energetic fashion. It’s one of many things I liked about “Your Honest Opinion, Please”, Sam Suksiri’s fourth – and arguably best – episode.
Although Adventures in Odyssey has already made an episode about characters struggling to give their honest opinions of paintings in “A Book by its Cover”, there’s certainly an originality to “Your Honest Opinion, Please” that helps it stand out from episodes both old and new. Once the two main story threads are established – A) Wooton regretfully allows Penny’s clown paintings to hang in his house and B) Connie learns that fellow painter Tim David Michael has annoying habits – the bulk of the episode revolves around Wooton and Connie becoming increasingly irate in their respective circumstances. In the hands of another writer, these scenes of increasing frustration may have felt repetitive and tiresome, but Sam Suksiri’s strong comedic writing, here, keeps the episode consistently entertaining; Tim David Michael’s artistic habits are increasingly more hilarious than the last (the Screamers and Sons scene is delightful) while Wooton’s amped-up anxieties result in some instantly classic Adventures in Odyssey moments.
Let’s briefly talk about the hallway scene, in which the clown paintings begin talking to Wooton. It’s a scene which will certainly be “rewound” and played again by generations of fans. It also reminds us there has certainly been a lack of comedy/spooky on Adventures in Odyssey. Although, we got a hint of this with the heart-devouring Kermit in “Have a Heart”, and Zombies in “The Ties that Bind”, my mind wandered all the way back to early times on the show, like “It Sure Seems Like it to Me”. Scenes like this certainly test what’s in the realm of possibility on a show like Odyssey, but I appreciated the show’s attempt to do the unexpected, adding an uncharacteristically spooky moment, which kept the show feeling fresh and memorable.
The episode surprises in small and unexpected ways as it nears its ending; the last five minutes, especially, are jam-packed with humorous moments – Wooton accidentally walks into Penny’s interview and inavertedly contradicts her glowing characterization of him, while Connie points out to Tim David Michael his annoying habits, making him cry like a baby. And while these over-the-top moments don’t always fit into the usual style and tone of a basic Adventures in Odyssey episode, that doesn’t stop them from being consistently amusing.
As with most episodes, there are nitpicks. The episode could have benefited from some trimming (the episode is 27 minutes long). In the opening scene of “Your Honest Opinion, Please”, Wooton accidentally insults Penny’s painting, a situation that, granted, immediately pulls the listener into the story. The problem, however, is that this opening scene feels wholly unnecessary given where the story eventually settles. Its purpose, I assume, is to explain why Wooton would later allow Penny to set-up clown paintings in his house: to avoid the guilt he felt. But, without this scene, I would have still believed that Wooton would have allowed her to set-up paintings simply out his character’s desire not to hurt her feelings. Aside from being attention-grabbing, this opening muddies the overall story and keeps the listener from quickly jumping into the meat of the episode.
Also, as humorous as the Connie’s B-story was, its timing seems slightly out of place, as though it should have occurred several albums ago immediately following “The Green Ring Conspiracy”. Is she still seriously pursuing a painting career? Wasn’t she taking psychology in “Connie the Counselor”? I’m generally confused about her choice of vocation. The show should decide and commit to giving her a career plan, instead of randomly enrolling her in whatever course suits the writer’s story idea.
But these small things hardly detract from my general enjoyment of the episode. Overall, “Your Honest Opinion, Please” uses imaginative scenes, hilarious dialogue, and an enjoyably brisk pace to illustrate its point. I look forward to hearing more of this kind of strong writing in the future.
Writer: Sam Suksiri
Director: Nathan Hoobler
Sound Design: Nathan Jones
Music: John Campbell
Theme: Honesty
Scripture: Ephesians 4:15
Air-date: 04.07.18
Review Published: 01.07.18