116: Isaac the Benevolent
June 23, 1990
Isaac Morton tries to put the command to "do unto others" into action, but it always seems to backfire.
Review ★★★★☆
By David
Isaac Morton is likable as a character because he always wants to do the right thing but his first attempts usually fail, which is what makes his episodes entertaining. He is the one kid at Whit’s Bible study who memorizes the Bible verse every week. But he wants more than to memorize it. He wants to live the Bible out. In this episode Isaac is being benevolent. Or at least he wants to be. He just can’t figure how to do it properly and ends up doing everything wrong. Correcting the misinterpretation of Bible verses is AIO’s specialty and the Golden Rule is a good choice. Just being nice to people is a very basic understanding of the verse. Odyssey helps to give a more thorough explanation.
Early on in the episode Isaac is so consumed with his righteous goal that doesn’t pay attention to his friend Lucy. Lucy mentions the word “party” three times before Isaac finally realizes they are talking about separate things. It’s a funny conversation, but there was something off about it. Lucy seemed a bit out of character. Since when is she so absentminded? After Isaac explained himself Lucy was completely oblivious to his feelings and still thought he was talking about the Sunday school class party when he clearly wasn’t. This makes it seem like Lucy is focused on superficial things while Isaac is the deep thinker. Later Lucy acts out of character again when she has an outburst at Isaac. She becomes so offended that Isaac would suggest she needs help with math that she storms out and vows to stay away from him at the party. That doesn’t sound like Lucy at all. In fact, I can think of few AIO characters who would be so sensitive.
Connie and Eugene are great in this episode, but especially Eugene with his sophisticated and unnecessarily complicated vocabulary. He plays his role well of confusing Isaac even further about the Golden Rule, making for a more enjoyable episode. Another funny character was Big Ed, the fast-talking salesman of Big Ed’s Appliance City who happens to be very short despite his nickname. He really believes the customer is always right and listening to how his opinions always switched to agree with whatever the customers said was spot-on. Big Ed never appears again after this episode but his place is quickly filled by Bart Rathbone.
Isaac, Connie and Eugene are all at their best in this episode. Whit is more in the background but he still does a good job explaining the Golden Rule in a way the other characters are unable to do. And you learn to appreciate him more when you find out he has an addiction to watching TV so he has chosen to avoid it altogether. This episode was well-paced, made good use of every scene to drive the plot forward, and snuck in humor wherever possible. It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
By David
Isaac Morton is likable as a character because he always wants to do the right thing but his first attempts usually fail, which is what makes his episodes entertaining. He is the one kid at Whit’s Bible study who memorizes the Bible verse every week. But he wants more than to memorize it. He wants to live the Bible out. In this episode Isaac is being benevolent. Or at least he wants to be. He just can’t figure how to do it properly and ends up doing everything wrong. Correcting the misinterpretation of Bible verses is AIO’s specialty and the Golden Rule is a good choice. Just being nice to people is a very basic understanding of the verse. Odyssey helps to give a more thorough explanation.
Early on in the episode Isaac is so consumed with his righteous goal that doesn’t pay attention to his friend Lucy. Lucy mentions the word “party” three times before Isaac finally realizes they are talking about separate things. It’s a funny conversation, but there was something off about it. Lucy seemed a bit out of character. Since when is she so absentminded? After Isaac explained himself Lucy was completely oblivious to his feelings and still thought he was talking about the Sunday school class party when he clearly wasn’t. This makes it seem like Lucy is focused on superficial things while Isaac is the deep thinker. Later Lucy acts out of character again when she has an outburst at Isaac. She becomes so offended that Isaac would suggest she needs help with math that she storms out and vows to stay away from him at the party. That doesn’t sound like Lucy at all. In fact, I can think of few AIO characters who would be so sensitive.
Connie and Eugene are great in this episode, but especially Eugene with his sophisticated and unnecessarily complicated vocabulary. He plays his role well of confusing Isaac even further about the Golden Rule, making for a more enjoyable episode. Another funny character was Big Ed, the fast-talking salesman of Big Ed’s Appliance City who happens to be very short despite his nickname. He really believes the customer is always right and listening to how his opinions always switched to agree with whatever the customers said was spot-on. Big Ed never appears again after this episode but his place is quickly filled by Bart Rathbone.
Isaac, Connie and Eugene are all at their best in this episode. Whit is more in the background but he still does a good job explaining the Golden Rule in a way the other characters are unable to do. And you learn to appreciate him more when you find out he has an addiction to watching TV so he has chosen to avoid it altogether. This episode was well-paced, made good use of every scene to drive the plot forward, and snuck in humor wherever possible. It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
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