Episode Description:
"When Camilla thinks her friend Maisey needs cheering up, but her comments keep backfiring, Whit sends her in the Room of Consequence to give Camilla a second chance to say the right things. And a third. And a fourth." - AIO
Episode Review:
Adventures in Odyssey seems to love the classic Groundhog Day scenario – stories about characters who repeat a period of time over and over again until they finally get the situation correct. “The Eternal Birthday”, of course, used the concept in a simple and straightforward – albeit annoying – manner, while “Groundhog Jay” embraced this concept more fully, and more entertainingly. Sadly, “Rewinding the Big Picture”, today’s episode, uses this premise so halfheartedly that it ends up feeling like an uninspired and yawn-inducing rehash.
With only 13 Room of Consequence episodes produced within the show’s 30 years, the machine has much more potential than to be used for a concept that we’ve heard before. And if it must do what’s been done before, it might as well make it bigger and more exciting. As we saw with “Sir Buddy’s Snowy Day”, there’s no harm in re-visiting an older story and giving it a fresh spin. But using this imaginative concept for the simple, slice-of-life problem that Camilla has – i.e. trying to figure out her friend’s feelings – feels rather underwhelming. What’s next? Mr. Whittaker repeating the same period of the over and over again until he learns how to make perfect the Wod-fam-choc-sod?
After all, The Room of Consequence has been the source of some truly unique, high-concept adventures – in “Hindsight”, Liz Horton had to figure out why she was the victim of a gas station robbery in a Memento-like mystery, in “Gloobers”, Jared and Dwayne were trapped inside a terrifying video game, and in “No Boundaries”, Alex Jefferson experienced life without any consequences. The very best ROC episodes involve high-concept premises with high-stakes. The Room of Consequences scenes within “Rewinding the Big Picture” feel too small and rushed, overall mimicking the tone and feel of a 1999 split-episode. And, if you don’t know already, I don’t particularly like split-episodes.
Another reason this episode didn’t resonate with me is that we spend the first several minutes getting used to the third iteration of Camilla Parker. It’s much too difficult to pay attention to a character who has had so many different voices. It may work on an animated TV show, like Arthur, where we’ve got the visual aid to help us ignore the differences. But on a show dependent solely on voice-work, it’s not a great idea to treat character’s voices like an expendable crewman in “Hidden in my Heart”. The continuous recasting of character’s voices to stretch out their longevity has been an interesting experiment, with many pros and cons, but it really should not be a choice made as freely as it has been.
And while this new voice actress sounds close enough to Camilla #2, it doesn’t make up for the fact that her character now acts differently. Who is this Camilla Parker who, when needing to cheer up her friend, has a cornucopia of jokes at her disposal? Did she carry a joke-book into the Room of Consequence? And how could she create a balloon Empire State Building within seconds? That’s not he Room of Consequence works! – you don’t suddenly gain super powers! While the show explained the ability for Camilla to summon a marching band with the inclusion of “the secret weapon”, how does it explain the other unrealistic elements that came before it?
I also do not enjoy the fact that anyone can program the Room of Consequence at any time. While it seems unrealistic to have Whit and Eugene standing by the machine 24-hours a day programming adventures for everyone, neither does it make sense for each customer to program whatever they want into the machine. For this reason, I thought it was strange that within the same scene Whit reveals to Camilla that he is programming a Room of Consequence adventure, Camilla reaches over suddenly and seems to start programming “the secret weapon” into the machine herself. That doesn’t make sense!
I’ll admit, the last scene featuring Maisy’s grandfather with Alzheimer’s is genuinely moving. This is mainly due to the casting of Monte Markham, who probably deserves an Avery Award nomination for his performance, here. But the inclusion of this last scene, apart from being an effective tearjerker, is confusing. I don’t understand how Camilla’s “just be yourself” attitude post-ROC was any different than how she was behaving before the adventure, and I certainly don’t understand how this resulted in Maisy’s grandfather’s memory coming back. Up until this point, the point of the show was a confusing mishmash of various messages from “keep persevering” to “just be yourself” to “sometimes you just fail”.
While “Rewinding the Big Pictures” features a memorable moment or two, it features a story that, overall, just doesn’t seem worthy or substantial enough for Adventures in Odyssey. The episode is crippled by a tired premise, a half-baked story, erroneous ROC details, a distracting voice change… all culminating towards an ending that, for me, summoned a shrug instead of a tear.
"When Camilla thinks her friend Maisey needs cheering up, but her comments keep backfiring, Whit sends her in the Room of Consequence to give Camilla a second chance to say the right things. And a third. And a fourth." - AIO
Episode Review:
Adventures in Odyssey seems to love the classic Groundhog Day scenario – stories about characters who repeat a period of time over and over again until they finally get the situation correct. “The Eternal Birthday”, of course, used the concept in a simple and straightforward – albeit annoying – manner, while “Groundhog Jay” embraced this concept more fully, and more entertainingly. Sadly, “Rewinding the Big Picture”, today’s episode, uses this premise so halfheartedly that it ends up feeling like an uninspired and yawn-inducing rehash.
With only 13 Room of Consequence episodes produced within the show’s 30 years, the machine has much more potential than to be used for a concept that we’ve heard before. And if it must do what’s been done before, it might as well make it bigger and more exciting. As we saw with “Sir Buddy’s Snowy Day”, there’s no harm in re-visiting an older story and giving it a fresh spin. But using this imaginative concept for the simple, slice-of-life problem that Camilla has – i.e. trying to figure out her friend’s feelings – feels rather underwhelming. What’s next? Mr. Whittaker repeating the same period of the over and over again until he learns how to make perfect the Wod-fam-choc-sod?
After all, The Room of Consequence has been the source of some truly unique, high-concept adventures – in “Hindsight”, Liz Horton had to figure out why she was the victim of a gas station robbery in a Memento-like mystery, in “Gloobers”, Jared and Dwayne were trapped inside a terrifying video game, and in “No Boundaries”, Alex Jefferson experienced life without any consequences. The very best ROC episodes involve high-concept premises with high-stakes. The Room of Consequences scenes within “Rewinding the Big Picture” feel too small and rushed, overall mimicking the tone and feel of a 1999 split-episode. And, if you don’t know already, I don’t particularly like split-episodes.
Another reason this episode didn’t resonate with me is that we spend the first several minutes getting used to the third iteration of Camilla Parker. It’s much too difficult to pay attention to a character who has had so many different voices. It may work on an animated TV show, like Arthur, where we’ve got the visual aid to help us ignore the differences. But on a show dependent solely on voice-work, it’s not a great idea to treat character’s voices like an expendable crewman in “Hidden in my Heart”. The continuous recasting of character’s voices to stretch out their longevity has been an interesting experiment, with many pros and cons, but it really should not be a choice made as freely as it has been.
And while this new voice actress sounds close enough to Camilla #2, it doesn’t make up for the fact that her character now acts differently. Who is this Camilla Parker who, when needing to cheer up her friend, has a cornucopia of jokes at her disposal? Did she carry a joke-book into the Room of Consequence? And how could she create a balloon Empire State Building within seconds? That’s not he Room of Consequence works! – you don’t suddenly gain super powers! While the show explained the ability for Camilla to summon a marching band with the inclusion of “the secret weapon”, how does it explain the other unrealistic elements that came before it?
I also do not enjoy the fact that anyone can program the Room of Consequence at any time. While it seems unrealistic to have Whit and Eugene standing by the machine 24-hours a day programming adventures for everyone, neither does it make sense for each customer to program whatever they want into the machine. For this reason, I thought it was strange that within the same scene Whit reveals to Camilla that he is programming a Room of Consequence adventure, Camilla reaches over suddenly and seems to start programming “the secret weapon” into the machine herself. That doesn’t make sense!
I’ll admit, the last scene featuring Maisy’s grandfather with Alzheimer’s is genuinely moving. This is mainly due to the casting of Monte Markham, who probably deserves an Avery Award nomination for his performance, here. But the inclusion of this last scene, apart from being an effective tearjerker, is confusing. I don’t understand how Camilla’s “just be yourself” attitude post-ROC was any different than how she was behaving before the adventure, and I certainly don’t understand how this resulted in Maisy’s grandfather’s memory coming back. Up until this point, the point of the show was a confusing mishmash of various messages from “keep persevering” to “just be yourself” to “sometimes you just fail”.
While “Rewinding the Big Pictures” features a memorable moment or two, it features a story that, overall, just doesn’t seem worthy or substantial enough for Adventures in Odyssey. The episode is crippled by a tired premise, a half-baked story, erroneous ROC details, a distracting voice change… all culminating towards an ending that, for me, summoned a shrug instead of a tear.
Writer: Bob Hoose
Director: Phil Lollar
Executive Producer: Dave Arnold
Sound Design: Christopher Diehl
Music: John Campbell
Scripture: Job 42:2
Original Air-date: 01-01-18
Review Published: 02-04-18