#seren's studies

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Study: Odd Squad UK S2 Episode Titles and Synopses -- Predictions, and What to Expect: Part 1

"Seren, where the hell have you been for like the past ye-" Being an adult. BEING A FUCKING ADULT. My country is dogshit now. I am approaching 30. I am in a forever struggle era.

Hoooo...but today, I choose to fry this fish. Because haha boy howdy it's a big fuckass fish I found in the ocean that is the Internet at 5 in the morning when I should be asleep and...well, as for why I'm not, I will decline to get into that.

So. Odd Squad UK Season 2. Might be the last Odd Squad thing we ever get from this franchise, given the current state of PBS Kids and whether that "Sinking Ship Entertainment moves away from Odd Squad and Dino Dana to focus on other IPs" headline is real or I just sacked out hard and went into a real deep sleep. And yes, I keep saying that, but this time it's even more of a threat. I could yak everyone's ear off about politics this and politics that and why Odd Squad got dragged into it, or I could yak about the episodes we have coming up. Which...um. Well. Heh. I can't say I'm enthralled, exactly. Believe me, I threw my hype bone to Star Detective Precure a couple weeks ago and it's what Odd Squad could be if it filed for divorce against PBS Kids and lived a happy single life.

I will get to the Odd Squad Gaming Unit review later (hahaha whenever that is hahahahaha throw me in an acid lake), but for now, let's play another round of Predictions and Prophecies below the break!

(And as a side note: these are not all of the episodes in the season, so expect a Part 2 somewhere down the line. And finally...spoilers. I will be discussing them. Beware!)

Blast from the Past: Parts 1 and 2

So this episode is about Ozzie and Orli squaring off (pun intended) against the Knights of the Square Table and time-traveling in order to stop them. And honestly, if this episode isn't written by Tim McKeon, then what are we doing here? Kids TV industry is rough but you'd think Tim would want to work on at least some aspect of it besides supervising...but time will tell who is working on this episode.

Anyway, we finally get the obligatory time travel aspect in Odd Squad UK. Knowing one of the big events of this season is Orli and Ozzie becoming Directors, it's a 50-50 coin flip on whether this serves as foreshadowing or not. I am a little curious as to what's going to happen, though, especially since I sort of enjoyed "Odd Ones In". Only difference here is that, as far as I know, only one set of characters are known and those are the Knights.

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The Triangle Cafe

CAF most commonly refers to a Currency Adjustment Factor, a shipping surcharge for currency fluctuations, or a Centralized Authorization File number used by the IRS. Other meanings include the Confederation of African Football (CAF), a chemotherapy regimen, or a cyber security framework. 

Listen. I despise AI with a white-hot fury. But I had myself a good laugh at this episode being about the UK precinct being visited by the Odd Squad version of the IRS.

But no. That's not what this episode is about. There was a typo. The episode is actually about the Triangle Sisters' cafe and a villain hellbent on ruining it. Why they even have a cafe to begin with when they seemed to want to be musicians is honestly beyond me, but I'm not exactly thrilled about these four coming back. I can understand why they're coming back -- I really don't want a whole bunch of one-shot villains in yet another 12-episode run -- but they aren't exactly my favorite characters. Still, guess I'll see how this one turns out.

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Captain O's Birthday

Ahhhhhhhh fuaaaaaaaaaaaaaack here we go again. Our first retread of the season, ladies and gentlemen, and it's sad that there even has to be one in the first place.

"O is Not For Old" is a great episode. It focuses on Oprah kicking the ass clear off of some oddities (and even an entire polar vortex, in Canada, in springtime wear!) as well as the hijinks the rest of the main cast have to go through in giving their boss a good surprise party. It's just solid around the board, all the way to the Potato Song that briefly became a meme.

Likewise, I'll point to "Dr. O: Party Time, Excellent", which features Olympia and her perfectionist, make-everyone-happy flaws and traits as she tries to use what little money she has to throw an awesome goodbye party for Dr. O. It's funny, it has great gags, and besides the awkward exit for Dr. O it's a great departure episode for a beloved character.

This episode...I don't really have high hopes for. Don't get me wrong, I love Captain O as a character, but I'd have been just fine without a birthday episode focused on her and spearheaded by, dear God, Opie. About the only benefit I see to this is that we get a 50/50 chance as to whether Captain O reveals her age a la Orla or she tells her agents that info is classified a la Oprah. For a show on a network that is facing massive cuts of both the financial and programming varieties, you'd think they'd put a lot more effort into trying to make unique episodes that make an impact with the money they have. I mean hell, the past few seasons all had their good episodes and they were scrutinized by the US government all the time; it's just that shit is more real now!

And also, Opie. I really don't like Opie and the one redeeming moment I have of her is the canon fact that she has played one of the Fallout games at some point and thinks it actually has Coca-Cola as a brand in it. It's gonna be 12 episodes of pure cringe and I can smell it from here. I can also feel it- oh that's where my gallbladder went.

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Bring a Grown-Up to Work Day

In a perfect world, this would be a good chance to meet every main character's parents. Put a spin on Bring Your Kid to Work Day by having the kids bring in their parents. It's perfect. That No Parents policy sure as hell doesn't exist anymore and it would not anger the American children to see the divide between their country's varying parental situations and Britain's.

But no. It's a "Tour of Odd Squad" retread. It's two adults getting lost in HQ. The concept was done with Adult Olive banging her head on all of Precinct 13579's fixtures and getting stared at by her coworkers because she's an adult. The concept was also done with adult superfans getting a tour of the UK's HQ. Neither one of those scenarios will likely get referenced here, and that's a damn shame because "Trading Places" showed us how agents tend to act when an "unauthorized" adult enters a precinct's Headquarters.

Sometimes I wish episode titles were taken literally instead of being funny references. This is one of those times.

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Nice Day for an Odd Wedding

Nice day to...START AGAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAIN. oww. (I had to. The surgeons are still trying to remove my gallbladder. I'm typing this from the Anesthesia Coma. Impressive, huh?)

I like how the divide between who works on this franchise and who watches it (periphery and intended demographics) is always notable by viewing the titles of episodes. For those out of the loop, "White Wedding", which this title is parodying, is a song from the early 1980s sung by Billy Idol. Who, yes, is English, but there are just as many modern musicians who are English as well. The children yearn for some Ed Sheeran! Generation Beta was born last fucking year, people! Get with the times!

But I digress. The real meat of this episode, the driving question, is the coin flip between having the gayest wedding in the history of gay or the straightest wedding in the history of straight. Doing a bit of research, I've learned that the UK is generally very receptive towards gay marriage, which is a bit of a contrast from the US, which has legalized it but has also had it in danger of being made illegal in recent months (or at the very least immoral) in numerous ways. Gay marriage is pretty normal here nowadays, though it varies widely depending on whether we're talking about a red state, a blue state, or a swing state.

In terms of Odd Squad, it's gotten into a bit of hot water with its Parisian lesbian marriage in "Monumental Oddness", though it's only created small ripples and is just a really really loud minority. Even so, LGBTQ+ characters and topics being represented in PBS Kids shows is a big reason why people want the network shut down, so it's not known whether Odd Squad is swayed by them or not. As a reminder, this is the same franchise that bent the knee to angry parents who didn't like Oprah's personality traits because it badly influenced their kids while also clapping back at them by using a line of dialogue from Oprah herself, instead of letting her keep her personality and letting the blame go to the parents for spinning an innocuous situation out of control or, y'know, for just outright lying on the Internet as ragebait. It will absolutely bend the knee to the dinguses who are mad because two French lesbians got married with a child in a suit serving as an officiant and another child in a suit providing music, and if they don't, S&P will make damn sure they will.

All that aside, there have been BTS photos that I've seen of a wedding, and this one specifically focuses on villains getting married. A husband-wife/wife-wife/husband-husband crime duo would be pretty neat to see, but British agents crashing what would probably be a wholesome wedding is hilarious to me. Yeah, let me show up at the wedding of two criminals looking to start shit so they don't start shit. I'm just wondering who's going undercover, exactly. This is probably one episode where I would welcome Opie being in the spotlight, just for the lulz.

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The Good, The Great, and the Hungry

I was so tempted to make a joke about this being a PBS-Kids-fied title, but that's just biting at extremely low bait. No, what I want to talk about is Omni. Scroll up and look at the header photo. You see that girl between Ozzie and Orwell? That's Omni, played by Asha Soetan's sister Mimi. She is going to be a very prominent side character, if my stupid little crack theory about her being a younger Orli of some kind doesn't come true. (Oh it's stupid, but it certainly is plausible. Eat my shorts.)

Omni is getting mashed up with Onom for this episode, which leads me to one of my main gripes about the whole season: the "pick two names out of a hat and build a plot around that" formula. When Odd Squad Mobile Unit did episodes with specific pairs, it was special, partly because there was an in-universe justification for it (thank you Omar) but also because there was a small base of four characters you can mix-and-match with, throw into various situations, and let them rip. I have no idea what Omni's personality is like, but I would not put it past the writers of Odd Squad UK to mash a side character that may or may not debut in this episode and a main character that they forgot was a main character once upon a time together for a random plot that has nothing to do with anything beyond being filler. Now, will Omni play a role in the finale? Perhaps, and if she does then I can certainly roll back my criticism and wave my white flag. But for now, this seems to be leading up into nothing, if not something underwhelming. Not a fan.

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The Rookie Run

At this point I need to make a retread Bingo card. Take "Assistant's Creed" and then remove every ounce of excitement and spice it has. Add in Osric, the redheaded kid from the header photo above. You got this episode.

But retread complaints aside, can we talk about how the title is a play on the mobile game Cookie Run (and Cookie Run: Ovenbreak) and the potential for a crossover event with Odd Squad? By extension you got the Powerpuff Girls, Catch Teenieping and every other IP that has collaborated with the creators of the game all canon with Odd Squad. I complained that they were leaning too hard on the Math Lady meme two years ago but this just made my whole day after someone else shared my exact thoughts. There is no way this isn't a reference. Either the game is popular in the UK or we got one of the younger gens on the team pulling their weight, and props to them if so. It doesn't top the Assassin's Creed reference but it's up there as one of the best titles I've seen. Brava.

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A Town Called Trifle

I'm not exactly keen on calling this a retread of "A Dish Served Odd", because...pff nah who am I kidding, it's a retread. If you sapped out the tour-of-Britain-town aspect of it and didn't make the plot partially about Orli getting used to the town she is now working in. I'd add "Tracey Trifler" in there too but if they can pull a gender-bender with Symmetric Al in Odd Squad Mobile Unit then either "Tracey" can be The Trifler's actual first name or it can be some kind of relative, or the two won't be related at all.

But also...unless the title is alluding to something (my first thought was A Streetcar Named Desire but I don't know if anything is closer) then "Trifle" is an extraordinarily bland name for a town and it once again proves my point about the writers not even trying. Surely they could put a punny spin on the name of an already-existing UK town instead of...whatever went through their minds when making this? I'm watching Odd Squad, not fucking Cocomelon. Step it up.

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I Am Oddius

I'm...I'm sorry, is "Oddius" meant to be a play on "Spartacus"? Are we gonna get a "Madness? THIS IS ODDNESS" line dropped in there along with an epic kick to the chest? Are we gonna get Oddius Remixes? Hell if I know, but a Roman gladiator being a villain is kind of a neat idea. I remember reading the synopsis for the Odd Squad Mobile Unit episode "The Thrill of the Face" and being intrigued by the Piedro de Guerrero as a villainous character, and it seems we're getting something similar here. Something something UK history. History is not my strongest subject. But it'd be cool if we got some facts about UK history with this episode. Really couldn't hurt.

Also, Omni and Osric are teaming up for this one, which...I mean, okay. Sure. But again, if they don't play a part in the finale then what is the point of them being characters at all besides giving whoever plays Osric and Mimi Soetan careers and hefty paychecks?

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The Night Mayor

Oh fucking hell. A "Night Shift" retread but with no charm and no Wild Kratts crossover? You have an entire-ass world across 11 fucking years and this is what they choose to do: go around the table and pick episodes out of a hat to slap a British skin onto. About the only thing worse is if the dialogue was AI-generaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I FORGOT ABOUT THAT ANGLE. I...I forgot about that. I totally forgot...in the era of AI slop...Sinking Ship themselves AI-generating a whole movie...

...

Okay, forget the retread comments. That has nothing on killing the planet to make Odd Squad content. Like I said, they draw the line at generating actual children. Not so much at generating dialogue, visual effects, and other animated bits and bobs.

Beautiful. I get to live the rest of February and the whole of March in complete fear. And then spend April scrutinizing the absolute shit out of every episode to figure out whether a piece of it is AI-generated or not. And if it is...it's over. It's so over. It's over for me. It's over for you. It's over for all of us.

*deep breath* Okay. Let me move on here and calm down.

So this episode once again has Osric and Omni teaming up as they try to sneak out of the night shift stopping a villain to attend a party, and God honestly, this is just "Night Shift" but without the quirky depressed Director. Another precinct having a night shift seems like a good idea, but changing the antagonist to that of a villain, let alone what is likely a villainous mayor, does not give me hope this episode will be good. I will gladly take this over an "In Your Dreams" retread any day of the week, but- okay I realized halfway through writing this that this episode also rips off "Rookie Night" but it's with two actual rookies, and while that's a positive change it's not so positive when you have twelve fucking episodes and an uncertain future lying ahead of you. Time will tell which will be better, though.

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The Big Stink

I hate myself for seeing this episode and immediately going to "fart joke". In my defense, though, we had a puke joke in Odd Squad Mobile Unit and Olive on the verge of throwing up in Season 1 of Odd Squad, so I'm not that far off. But scatological humor is nonexistent in this franchise.

...I say, knowing jack shit about the UK and what stance their kids shows take on that kind of humor.

In all honesty, though, this could involve just about anything humor-wise. The episode does bring back Okra from, hey, funnily enough, "A Tour of Odd Squad" as well as Orwell working together with her to stop some sort of flying machine from making "Odd Squad's favorite places" smelly, which, again, means I can reiterate my point about this being likely 12 episodes which leaves us little room to bring back existing characters. And also about them not trying, because for fuck's sake. If I knew how to incorporate math and STEM lessons into it I'd be writing fix fics out the ass!

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In Conclusion

If you were around for all the coverage I did for the first season, then I think it's pretty clear what I think of the second one thus far. I had at least some hope that things would be at least somewhat better, and maybe one or two episodes will subvert my expectations, but based on what I had to endure with Season 1, I don't think I'm in for a fun time with Season 2. I'm in the process of rewatching the entire show from beginning all the way until now, and not even past "Zero Effect" I began comparing its humor to that of Odd Squad UK's and thinking of what a downgrade it was. Unfair comparison, yes, but it's basically apples and oranges, even putting aside the cultural differences.

But enough waxing nostalgia. I guess I'll have to see for myself what these episodes bring. I will still be doing followups on these, of course, so keep an eye out for that. And I will try to be timely about them, don't worry. Rest assured, I will probably have a lot to say. As for the rest of the episodes, I'll do a Part 2 when I get my hands on some titles and synopses, whenever that is.

Thanks for reading. Seren out.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: OSUK S2 -- "The Good, The Great and The Hungry" Episode Followup, Part 2

This might actually be a good episode. Maybe. I'm not gonna tempt fate and witness it be a steaming pile of shit.

Let's continue below the break.

Is the show mocking kids for playing with dolls, or is the show mocking adults for playing with dolls? It could go either way, really.

Feels like this is a good time to remind people that Odd Squad was set to team up with a company to make dolls of the franchise's female agents years ago, but that got quietly dropped.

Omni, at this point you are better off breaking free from Onom and solving the case yourse- what do you mean you have 11 minutes to fill?

Hey, he wouldn't be the first Scientist to love playing with a doll of himself.

"Well it certainly attracted them. They think we're selling the stuff!"

No, I think they think it's for free, Omni. To be selling the stuff would require you to hang behind the counter, which you're not.

Again, like I said, she should be wearing the Athletics and Conflict Resolution attire, not...whatever in the hell this is. Tug-of-war is, in fact, athletic.

Not since Oprah have I heard a Director spit insults at another Director so candidly...especially when that other Director is within hearing range.

Okay, forget about how much money Opie and Captain O are making from the sponsorship...how much are these two getting for being in the episode, Orli by proxy, and doing the sponsorship?

These two have no reason to be here. Their greed is disgusting. It sickens me.

Okay...there are B-plots that are minor and inconsequential, and then there are B-plots that take up a solid chunk of the episode and require their own episode a la "Olympia's Day" and "Otis's Day" just to explore.

This one falls firmly into the latter and I wouldn't even be mad if it were an actual full episode.

"You have greater experience with this stuff than me."

Omni, your curly hair does not sap your braincells away and the writers wrote you to not be stupid. You are with a man who has an afro that is eating his braincells. This is a non-issue.

They may have severely altered Onom's personality for this season, but, y'know, they kept the gasps. Purely a personality trait (it's not) that is funny (it was, now it's not) and will stick around for a long time (in this season it better not).

*deep breath* Okay, okay, I guess it's a good design. Does not excuse it of AI allegations until proven otherwise, but it's a good design. Very clever. Brava, Lauren.

Nice to know our Creature of the Week is a certified Murderer of Small Humans. Wild Kratts has taught you people absolutely nothing and considering how both shows are heavily implied to share a universe you should feel ashamed of yourselves.

Imagine being so hyperfixated on a sport you make it a ringtone in the style of every company's phone menu ever. I can't even do that for golf, man.

They put- *snrk* They put fucking LIPSTICK ON THE ALLIGATORSAUR?!?!?!? LIKE WE'RE SUPPOSED TO GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ITS GENDER?!?!?!?

Given the strength training Directors have to go through before getting promoted to the Management department, this tug-of-war contest is stupid now that I think about it. Oprah's training method clearly was not adopted everywhere when it should be.

I see some OG writer hasn't moved out of the Ghostbusters phase they've had since 2021.

If you told me this was a relative of Michela Luci I'd honestly believe you. And then laugh because holy shit isn't this the funniest matchup.

That was an easy fight and that was because Captain O got strength training before promotion like the Odd Squad Gods insist upon. I rest my case. Thank you, Lauren. Wise up.

Okay, but I still want an episode about Opie and her fruit juice and why she started the company and where it comes from and who makes it and-

It's not as controversial as the flat earth theory, but fuck if it isn't up there. Only one step away from some agent telling you to go get vaccinated even if your parents say no.

(And for the record: I am of the "pick them off" type. Juice be damned. Suck it up.)

had the dedication to make this

couldn't make a blue book for the episode

Methinks their money management skills are as poor as mine were a decade ago. Priorities are essential!

And your credits for this episode. I have no idea who Kylie is but I'll assume it's the woman from the cold open.

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And that's it. This was a pretty solid episode. Omni wasn't butchered to hell and back and I honestly like her character. Onom, however, left a lot to be desired -- I don't like how they severely docked his IQ points this season. Yes, dumb Scientists exist, but he wasn't this dumb a season ago. Especially in this episode when the clue is right in front of his face yet he's insistent on his ways. It just makes no goddamn sense. I do want episodes dedicated to Opie's sponsorship thing and Captain O preparing for the tug-of-war contest, though.

Next time will be "The Rookie Run", with focus set on the other new agent character this season, Osric. I know nothing about him to pin him down yet as this will be his debut. Hopefully he won't be painful to watch.

Thanks for reading. Seren out.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Study: The Exclusive Odd Squad Season 5 Clip (Because I Just Can't Wait Anymore)

I'm analyzing this only because it's about the closest we'll ever get to a trailer, which was what I was originally waiting for. Also because it's the weekend and I need some form of rehab to get me off of the crack cocaine that is Pokemon Pokopia. No, not touching grass, that shit's for plebians. I'm talkin' about bracing myself for Round 2 of Slop: 2026 Edition. I remember watching the gadget competition videos and getting my hopes up only to watch them crash and burn. I am going into this with a level mind and no will.

This clip's only about 90 seconds long, take a few, so this'll be a quickie warm-up before the real thing. Below the break.

Heh...well, what a collection of returning villains. We got Dottie Doubloon, Fluorescent Florie, the Square Squire Villain X, what looks like Dapper Dr. Dry, and, uh...Schoolteacher From a British School Nearby. She turned to villainy because it pays more than her current jo- hey, what are you doing in my house with that flamethrower?

Ah yes, another year of me pointing to Orwell and asking, "Sorry, this kid is supposed to be sarcastic?"

Normally I'm not keen on bragging like this, but I'm grateful I'm an autistic person who understands sarcasm and knows what it is. Henceforth, I can say with certainty that Orwell ain't it.

"Captain O, is this the end of Odd Squad? Should I start applying for a new job?"

All right. Pack it up. Episode wins by sheer audacity of having a character tack on a "I'm gonna need to find more work" after "this is the end of Odd Squad". You never see that. It's always the now and not the after. There's no plans for the future, it's despairing over losing the job you have now.

God, Opie...I still hate you as a character, but fuck if you don't get a point for asking if you're gonna need to find a new job. Where're Britain's child labor laws, and quickly?

It took Orli and Ozzie to achieve what it took Otto an entire 40-episode run to do.

The twist is that the only one who has actually earned the moniker of "best agent" is Ozzie for reasons obvious. Orli needs to take a few more steps on her journey before she reaches that destination, especially since the moniker was incorrectly applied to her in the Season 4 premiere.

*deep inhale* No, wait, actually, this spinoff introduced A Witch Not Called a Witch But She's Definitely a Witch last season, so ancient spells and weird orbs should not surprise me.

(Also, we had an orb that was like an oil source for a cloud-based town back in the original series. But y'know, that was so out-there it was funny. This one...so far I'm just getting Golden Sundial flashbacks.)

I'm...I'm sorry, did we fucking race-swap Parched Pat or do I need to take a drive to the optometrist?

I'm not mad, I'm just honest-to-God surprised this franchise outright pulled a race swap on one of its characters. And if it's not Parched Pat...please let it be Parched Pat. Please. Teach the children about accepting black people even if they're British. In these perilous times, we need it.

See, this is just an average person who wandered in thinking this was some spooky seance when it's really four criminals trying to do what their colleagues in the Season 3 finale could not.

Also, she looks like a friend I had in high school, and that downright terrifies me. Minus the glasses, because her glasses didn't look as big as that.

I mean look, if I was trying to summon a demon and an Odd Squad agent propelled down through my roof it'd still be better than conjuring up a demon. I've seen enough horror movies, thank you.

...

Oh God, I just opened up a Pandora's box for all the people who make horror movies of public-domain cartoon characters, didn't I?

Welcome back, Silly-String-inator, and welcome back to the binding properties you have in this universe.

This is the equivalent of barging into a place with criminals and going on a shooting spree, by the way. Don't you tell me it's not. Silly String is just an obviously safer alternative than going pew-pew with another gadget.

No, uh, yeah, actually I need to know who is operating this crane and why they are propelling downwards and upwards from a goddamn crane. I don't trust any adult in this universe to operate any construction equipment safely, thank you.

No idea what Orwell is saying he's gonna store the orb in here but this is (what I believe to be) a two-parter so I don't believe this for a goddamn second. Either it'll be a villain that'll appear as the big bad of the season, or it'll be the Terrible Three who went back on their stupidly quick reformation. Personally I'm just aiming for a mention of the latter but I won't lie, I'm a little curious to see who's on the Poor Writing with Few Episodes Chopping Block for the former.

I see Opie got in leagues with New Dr. O. Unfortunately, the former does not share the latter's anti-cafeteria mindset and instead has decided to switch departments.

...

Nonono excuse me, what schmo manager of an ice cream shop was willing to hire her? And...and why is this...*glances at my own country* Why am I thinking of America's abysmal job market oh God

Okay, Captain O calling the breaks between cases "shore leave" is both adorable and clever. Hell, her offering a break between cases already makes her a winner in my book!

"Man, and you were just going to start on your second daily nap."

"I was."

"With nice freshly-washed pillows that smell like-"

"Downy, yes, I was."

"With a nice cozy bed..."

"Okay, stop teasing me."

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There's not really much I can say about this clip because it's short. It does get me curious though. Honestly, if PBS Kids had just released this a few days back, it would have been excellent marketing -- but as is typical for how they treat this show, all we get is a few teaser images, an old meme, a "meet the cast" video and individual "meet the agent" videos that are just "meet the cast" videos but designed to fool people. Not much to go on. (And yes, I'm speaking in past tense because I don't expect much for Saturday and Sunday tends to be a dead day for the interns unless one of them gets a stroke of inspiration.)

I still don't exactly have high hopes for this season, but I'm a little mixed on "Odd Ones In" as a premiere and this one looks like it might just surpass it. Maybe. Hopefully.

I will be skipping this scene in my overall followup of the episode, which should be out soon after the episode releases. And of course, I'll be doing Seren's Studies on the rest of the episodes too. If this really is the last hurrah for Odd Squad as a franchise, give me something good. That's all I ask.

Thanks for reading. Seren out.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Study: Odd Squad Gaming Unit -- What We Know So Far, What We Can Expect, and Can I Have Some W's in the Chat, Please?

(Just as an editor's note: I picked this screenshot of a GEICO Direct ad for a header image out of sheer randomness. But fuck if a foil-wrapped dog delivering a letter that's "too hot to handle" to its owner isn't fitting in several ways, so it's staying.)

It's always fun when I search for something Odd Squad-related and I get hit with an absolute newsflood. This time, though, there's the fact that I'm not the one who found out about this new iteration originally. That honor belongs to TheAGamer on Twitter, who delightfully tagged Athena P to inform her of the newest franchise IP.

So what, pray tell, is this new IP that's got all, oh, 20-something-or-other people riled up? Why, it's Odd Squad Gaming Unit, of course! Finally, I get to see something I never asked for before, having stuff like Pokemon and Sonic and Mario all become canon in the Oddverse and fulfilling my dreams of joy and whims- oh.

...Sorry, what?

...What the FUCK DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE NOT GONNA BECOME CANON?!?!?!

Okay, well, fuck you, I'm mad as hell. I'm mad. I'm seething. I can't cope with this. Fuck coping. Bitch I'm seething.

*long sigh* All right, all right. I'll explain the whole deets below the break.

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So What, Exactly, Is Odd Squad Gaming Unit?

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I'm going to speak my opinion piece right out: the whole "Odd Squad X Unit" naming schtick was fine when Odd Squad Mobile Unit did it. And then they did it again with Odd Squad Time Unit, their interactive smartwatch face. And now they're doing it again with Odd Squad Gaming Unit. If, as a creator pitching your spinoff show idea, you can't get past a certain naming schtick that I've only seen dedicated fandoms come up with as fan nicknames, then I will say this with the utmost politeness: please go back to the drawing board. Brainstorm with friends. Really sit and think. Because in terms of everyone who has ever worked on this show, not even I can commit to calling my fanfics by nearly the same name only differentiated by a noun that describes the gimmick of the spinoff story. I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy.

Okay, with that grievance out of the way, allow me to explain what this thing actually is.

Odd Squad Gaming Unit is a spinoff web series akin to Odd Squad Book of Games and Odd Squad Gadget Testers. With 52 5-minute episodes, it focuses on two agents, Oaklynn (no relation to Oakley from Season 1) and Olindo (no relation to Olando from Season 3), who communicate through video chat and play games together. However, the games they play aren't anything first-party, third-party, or even indie -- they're PBS Kids games.

...Yeah, needless to say, that's a twist I really didn't see coming. Like, at all.

Essentially, OSGU (and I hate that acronym, Jim) serves as a sort of advertising campaign for the PBS Kids Games app and the games on it. This isn't exactly new territory for the network, as they've been doing Let's Play videos with real children on their channel for a long while now. And honestly, I'm fine with that. Doesn't interest me, but sure, okay, why the hell not? They're having fun, and that's what matters. But when you drag a longstanding IP like Odd Squad into it and use it as nothing more than advertising...well, let's just say that GEICO did it better with Helzberg Diamonds in all of 30 seconds. (The difference, of course, is that Berkshire-Hathaway hasn't been abusing GEICO as a company for a decade straight. Maybe. Hopefully. Fuck if I know, man, I don't even work there.)

The main characters are, as stated, Oaklynn and Olindo. Oaklynn is described as someone who is a hardcore gamer, addicted to rules and efficiency but also knowing when to have fun and oh my God it's Olive if her love for video games went beyond "Game Time". Good God.

Okay, well...Olindo is described as someone whose attention span is minimal and whose video game experience is next to none but loves any challenge he can get his hands on PBS when I fucking smite their asses with lightning on God's SOUL.

Orli and Ozzie were flawed main characters for a variety of reasons (which I am getting into in my OSUK recap essay), but at least they had somewhat unique personalities. Oaklynn and Olindo are basically recycled Olive and Otto clones separated only by gender because their roles are open-gender and by partnership because they're not partners. Am I jumping to conclusions? Perhaps, because I'm going off of casting calls and sample scripts and things can always change. But I'm fairly confident that things like character development will go fuck-all out the damn window in favor of advertising, because I'm an old cynical bitch who is getting a dose of the "what can happen with franchise rot" reality.

...I'm sorry. I will never get over the fact that Odd Squad has been reduced to an advertising springboard. I'd have been happier if we got Odd Squad episodes translated into ASL with a translator dressed in an agent suit. (Hey, they could bring back Jayce Alexander!) Instead, this is what I have to settle for. Not a second season of OSUK that could mend the mistakes the first one made and improve that series, not anything new and fresh that could breathe new air into the franchise, but a spinoff web series made with a dark heart from a network who couldn't give two shits about the IP unless it's to flex that their delusional asses have a pseudo-Spongebob and they aren't afraid to use him like it's the real deal.

Moving on to other informational tidbits: Mark De Angelis is coming back as a writer, while Blair Powers and Ellen Doherty are exec-producing. We don't have a director yet; it's up in the air as to whether it'll be Tim, Adam, or someone else entirely. For all we know, neither creator may have any involvement, though that's still unknown at this time.

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What Can We Expect?

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Setting aside the obvious advertising gimmick of it all, I'd like to put this on a pedestal next to one other digital web series that I had the...engh...honor of watching: Wordsville. I've already covered whether or not it's an Odd Squad ripoff, but the way OSGU is set up has brought at least a few comparisons to it, and looking at people bring it up, it stokes my curiosity.

Wordsville is basically what happens when you misuse the concept of video chat for a series in more ways than one. Without giving too much of my Mystery League review away (and believe me, that is coming -- I'm binging the whole series and only God can stop me, damn it), that series does better with 11-minute segments than Wordsville does in a mere five. The difference between OSGU and Wordsville, though, is that one is definitively episodic, while the other is also episodic but is executed too poorly and is in the wrong genre. Because of that, I'm not expecting OSGU to be as terrible as Wordsville in terms of execution, because...well, yeah, it's advertising. Execution is a construct. Push product to kids so they will consume product and then consume things similar to said product. Wordsville, by contrast, has no advertising. And while Wordsville is heavily inspired by Odd Squad at worst, OSGU isn't really trying to rip off anything. Unless, from a certain angle, you think it's ripping off OSMU/Season 3, in which case, that's your opinion and I'll respect it.

With 52 episodes set to be filmed over the course of May and June, it's possible we will be getting this series late this year or even into 2026 if the US government decides to engage in more fuckery with PBS (which, aside from them slicing their DEI efforts, is another can of worms in relation to this essay that I don't feel like opening up -- if you know, you know, and if you don't, do some Googling). While this short timeframe was a problem for OSUK, I doubt it'll have any impact on this piece of media in regards to plot or story or whathaveyou. For, y'know, obvious reasons.

Now, as to whether they'll announce it or do a shadowdrop like with Book of Games and Gadget Testers...that remains to be seen. As of now, the only things we have to go on are a Production Weekly newsletter walled behind a $75 monthly payment and the Larissa Mair stuff. If we do get any official announcement on it, it'll likely be sometime in May or June, though if PBS has an upfront this year then don't expect OSGU to be a part of it. (That honor will go to Weather Hunters and Phoebe and Jay.)

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So In Conclusion...

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Am I as hyped for this as I probably should be? Absolutely not. Not even in the slightest. There are numerous ways you can take Odd Squad as a franchise, even if it is bound by PBS and their S&P. Using it for commercial purposes ain't it, especially when you take into account its longevity, its staying power, and its successful marketing to territories outside of its native homelands. It's a step down that's just disappointing to see for me.

That being said, if you are hyped for this and are willing to watch it, then by all means. I'll be...well, not hatewatching it, because hatewatching is antithetical to wanting a show to fail, but I'll maybe watch the first episode. Maybe. At this point I feel obligated to. Whether I end up liking it and watching more or not liking it and staying away from it is my own decision. Either way, making episode followups for all of these is not something I plan on doing anytime soon, mainly because I'm not familiar with the Games app and mainly because I'm not planning on feeding into PBS Kids's consumerism any more than I already am (i.e., watching their shows).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to stew in my disappointment and wish for all the snow around me to fucking melt already. I'm like the Among Us meme guy but with snow!

Thanks for reading. Seren out.

[serendertothesquad]

"Wordsville" and the Problem with Cash-Cow Copies

[note original day of creation was February 15, 2024. just...just for reference. trust me bro.]

Hello.

Tonight I am in a silly mood fueled by sleep deprivation.

That means you all get an introspective blog that I will complete within a week and then ask "why'd I write that?"

So here's what's on Seren's lovely table of discussion tonight...

Put...put away the glasses. You don't need your glasses. This is the highest-quality thing I can get.

But et voila. A little project in the works called Wordsville.

Now, at this point you might be asking why I'm referencing "cash-cow copies" in the title. And whoo-hoo...oooooh...well, I don't want to make this some kind of clickbait blog, so I might as well perfect the atomic bomb in five minutes and land it on you folks.

What if I were to tell you that this is a blatant, shameless, slap-a-digital-coat-on-it-and-call-it-a-day copy of Odd Squad?

Ahhh, see, now I have you intrigued. Hopefully. If you are, then peep down below and let me discuss things a little more in-depth for you non-believing hacks asking me if I'm borderline insane.

So to put things in perspective, allow me to explain what Wordsville is, starting with my own personal summary.

Wordsville is an up-and-coming episodic (not to be confused with serialized, that's a whole 'nother ballgame) TV series that is produced (and will later be distributed) by Sinking Ship Entertainment and is made with assistance from WNET, a PBS station located in New Jersey, and TVO Kids, PBS Kids's girlfriend from Canada that's definitely real.

It was announced back in October of last year with a press release from Kidscreen, which didn't give much info aside from the following blurb:

Wordsville stars two child detectives on the hunt for missing words that are causing chaos in their town.

Sounds a little familiar, don'tcha think? Two kid detectives, finding something missing...and that "something missing" is causing chaos where they live?

Oh, but if you think the similarities end there, then no. No the absolute fuck they do not. I've got my bathing suit on and God damn it if I'm not gonna jump all the way in the pool instead of dippin' my little toes in there.

Doing a little bit of digging reveals more tidbits from a casting call for the series. It's rather wordy (ayyyyyy I did a funy), so let's take it piece by piece and discuss accordingly.

Wordsville is a town populated entirely by kids

A town that is populated entirely by children? Now c'mon, surely that doesn't ring a be-

...Ah. Whaddya know. Yes it does.

And with the adults as useless and idiotic as they are, it might as well be a town full of solely children. Next question.

and it’s a place where words matter. A lot. Every kid citizen has a special connection to words. And that means that if something happens to a word, there are far-reaching consequences.

A special connection to words? Like how there are children who have a special connection to normalcy? Stopping, oh, I dunno, hypothetically speaking...

...oddness?

Okay okay, I'm reaching just a wee bit here, but you can't read this and not tell me it echoes the funny kids math show to some degree or another. If an odd thing happens to a person, the whole town suffers. You've seen it. I've seen it. It's been the basis for many an A and B-plot. Must I elaborate? Good, because I don't plan on it. Continuing.

If the Main Street Baker bakes delicious donuts and they all mysteriously disappear, nothing else in Wordsville can taste good until they are returned.

Town Baker walked so Main Street Baker can sprint while blowing their lungs out.

If the Town Doctor’s soothing medication gets swiped, the whole town gets uncontrollably itchy until the medicine-napper is uncovered.

Ignoring the incredibly dark implications of this as well as the implications of this shoddy knockoff town having only one single doctor...

Dr. O walked so the Town Doctor can sprint while blowing their lungs out...over their massive paycheck.

(I technically could have also put New Dr. O too, but I'd like to spring for iconic OG's here. New Dr. O is neither iconic nor an OG.)

And let me remind you that "Torontonians get uncontrollably itchy due to something odd" would, by technicality, classify as an odd problem. Because...I mean, y'know...the cause is something odd happening. Doing shit with words is odd. This needs absolutely no explaining.

If the Local Scientist does an experiment with electricity and all the lights in town go out, they won’t come back on until the experiment wrecker is revealed.

Yep, I've taken shots of every IPA I can. We nearly hit the main character quadfecta, if you discount Dr. "bro thinks she's part of the team" O. All they needed was a bit about a high governing body and we'd round out the quad squad in proper with Oprah!

There's also a sneaky lil' crumb in the form of that blurb relating to Oona, who did, indeed, experiment with electricity in one episode and wound up proving why she can never take up Crossfit.

Hmmmnnnnext!

In each crime, the episodic word disappears and can’t return until the mystery is solved. The impact of the missing word is felt all over town.

This is another one of those things that I gotta wrench a hammy for in terms of comparisons, because about the only thing I can reasonably compare Odd Squad to is the second sentence.

See, here's the thing. You get oddness that happens to a person. Oftentimes, that oddness spreads to other people, whether directly (in the form of diseases and disorders) or indirectly (like the Town Baker's cakes being split in half, which wouldn't please Torontonians poppin' in for a whole cake and eyeing the display to get a feel for one). In a sense, normalcy disappears and, well, it can't return until [insert partner pair here] solve the case. It's kinda the entire schtick of Odd Squad as a franchise. It's formulaic, just like how Wordsville's "words disappear and nothing can be normal until the word returns" schtick is formulaic.

Is it a stretch? Perhaps. Mileage may vary. I think it's a bit of a stretch, personally. But hey, I'm a grown adult critiquing a ripoff of a kids STEM show. I shouldn't be talking. But I didn't start this fandom nearly 10 years ago just to let Sinking Ship's piss-poor attempt at really capitalizing on one of their biggest franchises sliiiiiide right by me on a floor smooth enough where I'm falling on my ass every 10 seconds.

Luckily, best friends and partners Sage and Chase are on the case and run the only detective agency in town. These tech-savvy sleuths solve mysteries entirely virtually because their reading, listening and digital literacy skills are their greatest strengths. Sage and Chase always catch their culprit and make sure everything is right with the word.

Now where in the McFuck do I start with this one? The PAW Patrol catchphrase thrown in complete with shared name? The fact that there is only one detective agency in the entire town? The fact that Sage and Chase are best friends as well as work partners? Or the pun that made me actively cringe in a way I haven't felt since Whitney told James she wanted to go on the lake?

I mean...this is about Odd Squad, so...I guess the second one sounds most plausible.

But that doesn't need explaining either. There is only one detective agency in town. There is one Odd Squad precinct per city or per state.

No, neither does the third bit. I already referenced Olive and Otto above. You should know what's up.

(I've also read that blurb five times now and...well...we'll get to the digital stuff in a bit. That just needs a whole side-set of word vomit.)

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In my digging of this series -- which, well, wasn't all that much -- I managed to find a few blurbs on our two main characters. The casting call for them, funny enough, called for, and I will quote this exactly, "talent to look 9."

As in, they want the actors to physically look 9 years old.

Which puts that qualifier in the same ballpark as Odd Squad UK's "talent must be Canadian but live in the UK". But at least that prerequisite actually had a legitimate earnest reason behind it, which is that the production needed to be Canadian in a lot more than just the "Canadian prodco works on a British series" sense. Hiring kids who have to physically look 9 years old and will probably be yoted onto the street the second puberty hits them like a truck is a practice not even the most egregious bosses of family-owned-and-operated businesses could pull off.

But enough about the qualifiers. Let's get started on our character comparisons and civil cidiscussion! (Oh the irony...)

And remember this: the casting call was handled by Larissa Mair Casting, who previously did casting for Odd Squad. So that means there will be tinny lil' crumbs of bonus material for me to dissect and discuss! Huzzah! Aw God why can't this happen for Odd Squad UK...man, I'm gonna have to go into my sobbing corner...

First up, we have Sly Sleuth, originally referred to as "Sage" here. I'll also be referring to him as "Sage" in this blog.

Sage is a great detective; thoughtful, extremely logical, and talented at getting information out of people.

Thoughtful of others. Logical. And can wrench information out of suspects like a badass.

Yep, we got an Olive that got hit with an Olando-fied beam. (And because half of you don't know who Olando is: Sage is meant to be a male Olive. I hope that clears things up for you.)

What else?

Nothing related to vocabulary or literacy gets by this investigator. Suspects can underestimate Sage but that is always a mistake. Sage doesn’t scare easily and won’t take no for an answer, traits that make an excellent detective.

You could tell me this was how Olive was meant to be written in "My Better Half", word for word, and I would honestly believe you. Right down to asking, "Her name was Sage in pre-production?"

About the only place I can draw the line here is at Olive not scaring easily. We don't know Sage's backstory -- and once again, this is an episodic series, so don't expect much in the way of plot, backstory included -- but Olive, at least, has a legitimate reason for all the times she covers her ears at loud noises or sharply reacts to something startling.

The former is because of The Censor-Friendly Bullet Massacre of '15.

The latter is because Dalila Bela marched straight out of a viewing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and never looked back.

I...can't really say either applies to Sage. At least not yet. We'll have to see if Sinking Ship decides to bring Wordsville into its lil' multiverse that Odd Squad and Dino Dana and Endlings and Playdate already share.

Sage is also wise, which is why the name “Sage” is completely appropriate.

Sooooo does that mean his name is Sly because he's cunning like a fox?

Well then in other news, Olive is named such because she was inspired by the famous Law and Order character Olivia Benson. I have fifteen folders that back me right the hell up. Also I contacted Sinking Ship the other day, they explicitly told me.

No, no, but in all seriousness. Olive, too, is very wise. Historian buff, knows her shit about Odd Squad, doo-dah, doo-dah.

Anyway, next up we have Chase, who was renamed to "Gabby Gumshoe". (I'll be referring to her as Chase in this blog, as well.) Let's see what's on the chopping block for her in terms of our favorite food-loving, hella tall, crazy silly blorbo.

Chase is a fantastic detective, but is also goofy[,] funny, visually oriented, and, like the name suggests, loves the “chase”.

Now there's a man who got hit with a yassified beam, right there.

I'll leave it up to you folks whether you consider Otto to be "visually oriented". But in terms of "loving the chase"...yeah, I'd say that fits.

To lay it down: Otto is a rookie agent. Common sense would lead anyone to assume that he has an absolute blast solving odd cases and absorbing every bit of knowledge about Odd Squad that he possibly can. He finds out a villain's on the loose? He's right there, by Olive's side, workin' to catch 'em. He finds out oddness has run rampant throughout the town? He's right on that shit.

Chase, on the other hand, is someone I wouldn't call a rookie. It's made quite evident that she is, for all intents and purposes, seasoned. Seasoned enough that she manages to keep the detective agency she works for afloat and get approval from the others in Wordsville, Sage included. This, perhaps, is because she's not really meant to be an audience surrogate in the same way Otto is. Otto, at least for the first few episodes, serves as a way to ease the audience into Odd Squad and show them what the organization is and what they do without yoting them into it and leaving them asking "Where am I?" more times than a drunkard. Chase doesn't fill that role, because it could be argued that such a show like Wordsville doesn't really need an audience surrogate. Whether that's true, though, remains to be seen.

People tend to underestimate this investigator, but Chase often notices things like a chocolate stain when someone said they didn’t like chocolate or a squiggle of icing that turns out to be the antonym of the word they’re tracking.

Y' take Otto's...Otto's love of food...and y' put it in a gorl...and BAM you got a character.

...

That isn't a joke. It's dead-on serious. Even the casting call script pins Chase as a kid with a sweet tooth! It's just Otto but with a less diverse palate! Otto eats everything! This kid eats sweets! God sakes, give her some juice, make her Oprah, I don't give a shit, fucking hell I'm driving 50 minutes to Burger Ki-

Chase is also great with computers and incredibly artistic. A graphic note taker[,] Chase loves to draw, has a great eye for details, is a big fan of the “zoom in” function, and really enjoys creating animated re-enactments of Word Mysteries.

All right, we finally have somewhere we can draw the line.

No, not at being tech-literate. With being artistic.

Otto's artistic talent kind of varies throughout the franchise. In drawing on paper, he's pretty solid for an I-just-recently-turned-10-please-praise-me-year-old. In making paper airplanes, he's solid enough to take down a grown-ass man and rock his sunglasses when he's done for.

In computer drawing...well...if you can believe it, concepts like Ibispaint and Photoshop don't exist in the world of Odd Squad. (Okay, maaaaybe Photoshop does. I don't think it does. But it could be a good in-universe justification for it.)

We don't know Otto's digital artist merit because we never see him make any digital art. All of his art is solely non-digital. On Chase's side of things, she lives in an era where digital drawing is, like in real life, the norm. It's a contrast that might be one of the more glaring ones when it comes to comparing these two shows.

Now, as for the "creating animated re-enactments" schtick...if that isn't an excuse for Sinking Ship to work their animation magic after the Sandy Cheeks movie, then I honestly don't know what is. If you wanted to make the show animated, you could have made it animated. Would've been cheaper, too!

(And "Word Mysteries"...it's not as grating as Wild Kratts's "Wow Fact", but it's edging pretty close. I blame WNET. That's solely a PBS thing right there. TVO Kids would never.)

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So we've gotten the discussion about the two main characters out of the way. Now we can dive into the heartier meat. The kind where's it's purple on the inside but you still digest it anyway.

I'm talking, of course, about the sample scripts- script. Singular. There is one script. Uno.

Now, lemme give you a bit of a rundown: casting calls for Odd Squad -- really, most shows, but this is a blog about Odd Squad -- often come with sample scripts. This is so talents can read their parts aloud for the camera and have the tape submitted to the casting agency for consideration. Odd Squad in particular has had quite an interesting ride with sample scripts, from entire episode plots being adapted into final products (with a bit of tweaking) to characters having names different than what they're named in the final product (which is the case with both Sly and Gabby). They're nothing on the scale of ABC Me dropping episodes earlier than PBS or shorts getting dropped as an alleged April Fools prank, but they're pretty damn good crumbs to chew on.

The sample script starts out with Sage and Chase on, of course, a video call. (Sinking Ship made a Zoom reference once. Pray they do not make another by the name of a friendly drug called "Speed" or that term for peeing known as a "Whiz".) Chase explains that she just gave her office chair's wheels a tune-up, which, of course, makes her hungry. Hungry enough that she declares a "cookie break" and immediately takes out a ginormous cookie from hammerspace that just made the European bakery down the street from me start sobbing. (Look, they make good cookies. Giant cookies. Cookies I need two hands just to hold properly. Trust me, it's- it's massive.)

However, when she bites into the cookie, she finds that it tastes absolutely gross -- "not sweet, not even sour". While she ponders if her body has forcefully rejected one of the best sweet treats known to humankind, Sage begins to grow suspicious and asks if it's a Word Mystery they need to solve.

Which is, coincidentally enough, when the Main Street Baker calls in a fit of hysteria, explaining that their "delicious donuts" are gone. And because we can't take enough from Odd Squad, we get a bit of "literal humor" in the form of the donuts both being delicious (probably) and them spelling the word "delicious" prior to their disappearance. After Sage explains what "delicious" means as well as what synonyms are, it's shown that the culprit also struck other pastries, up to and including gingerbread people, which Sage absolutely takes personally because he's a kid of pure culture who gives a big "fuck you" to holiday-specific treats being enjoyed only during said holidays.

Chase, in true Otto fashion, decides to take more bites of her cookie and instantly regrets it. Sage, in true...well...Clint Eastwood fashion (I shit you not, that's literally what it says in the script), declares that they need to find the word "delicious" and fix the pastries.

And...yeah, that's about it. Like I said, there's really not much to go on with casting call sample scripts. Especially not ones from Larissa Mair.

My conclusive thoughts on it, you ask? Well...they can try to hide it, but all it's doing is enforcing my point. From the Main Street Baker having donuts missing similar to how the Town Baker had bagels missing in "Soundcheck", to Chase being an idiot who is obsessed with food the same way Otto is (right down to his willingness to drink Odd Todd's pickle juice when it tasted gross in "Bad Lemonade"!), even down to the "literal metaphor" kind of humor as it applies to singular words. Am I stretching? Perhaps. But these supposedly insignificant pieces are just part of the bigger picture, the larger issue at hand in this long-winded piece.

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The digital aspect of Wordsville is one of the ways they decided to put a twist on the precedent that Odd Squad set. And it's so blatant and in-your-face that it's on par with shoving a red flag in someone's eyes to blind them.

But here's the thing. The digital aspect been done. Amusingly enough, by the same company.

Lockdown is a show that fits right in with the others at the Shows-Made-During-the-COVID-Pandemic-About-the-COVID-Pandemic club. It was a way to capitalize on something in society that probably will never be relevant again until around 2050. Maybe even earlier than that, at the rate we're going.

I haven't seen it, so I can't speak much about it, but from my side of things it looks a lot like Unfriended if it took place during the pandemic and wasn't a horror movie and involved teens and not young adults/adults/I haven't seen the movie in many years bite me.

But the main difference between Lockdown and Wordsville, relevant to this editorial, is that Lockdown has a legitimate reason to be shot entirely on electronic devices. It's part of the plot. It works, I'm sure. For Wordsville, it makes no sense for the outline and isn't just limiting, but is downright insulting for something "rooted in the 21st century". It's good to be unique when making a show, but there's such a thing as trying too hard to be unique to the point where it's detrimental to your show's quality. Making the show be a digital-only angle isn't a smart move, especially for a detective procedural.

And if it's trying to differentiate itself from Odd Squad...well, do I got some bad news for you.

The show already did an entire Zoom parody in the span of an 11-minute episode.

And I still hate it with all the vitriol of an old woman who hates kids playing with beach balls in the yard pool. It sucks ass. It's entirely unneeded when you have three children sitting around the same table. I could vomit on you all day about it. But at least it's far more justified than Wordsville having its entire formula based on it. You can rip off a show without being limiting.

(don't. seriously. don't.)

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Before we get to the conclusion, I need to dive deep into Odd Squad's own popularity and explain it a little more beyond just little "trust me bro" tidbits.

If you've been following it for as long as I have, then it's no secret that Odd Squad is one of Sinking Ship's cash-cow franchises. You've got the main series, six different spinoffs, a live show, a book...and I didn't even provide a whole damn list! Point being, it's huge. It doesn't have many roots in pop culture, but from a certain angle, it is an absolutely massive franchise that continues to grow, even in spite of its controversies.

Unlike works such as SpongeBob or Bluey, Odd Squad isn't popular enough to get bonafide ripoffs. The formula is relatively easy to copy, and if anything there are shows that have a similar premise but aren't even close to ripoff territory (K.C. Undercover, for example). It's just that, for all the ripoffs people have done of shows and movies over the years, the motivation for industry bigwigs in taking Odd Squad and running with it just...isn't there. I can connect it to Disney or Dreamworks or Viacom all I want, but at best they have a vague awareness of it that only goes as far as "oh, that's a thing, I guess". At worst, they see it as a pile of shit that would never turn a decent profit.

It could be argued that Sinking Ship wasn't all too well-known in the entertainment sphere up until Odd Squad came around. Looking at their resume doesn't show all too much in the way of what's popular. This is Daniel Cook, Roll Play, Playdate...they don't stick in your head, right? Yeah, none of them stick in my head either. Odd Squad was their first big hit for them, something that really helped them gain ground as a company. It's the one that's pretty much linked with Sinking Ship in news articles. Like husband and wife, but for the TV industry.

But to Hollywood bigwigs, that means about as much as finding a stick on the ground. I guaran-goddamn-tee Bob Iger is not going to put his grubby little hands on the funny kids math franchise and twist the hell out of it. The only way that's happening is if you run "Odd Squad, but make it Disney" through an AI generator. (Which, for the record, I have not done. You can't really replicate Odd Squad characters in animation without making them look like they walked out of yet another Law and Order spinoff that's far more kid-friendly.)

However, even with Odd Squad's varying popularity, there are shows that go just a little beyond having a similar premise to it but don't dive into ripoff territory. Sort of like a next step up.

A long time ago, a few friends and I in an Odd Squad Discord server were discussing the show Numberjacks. You know, that show that Jacknjellify may or may not have used as inspiration for Four's design? Yeah, that's the bitch.

The show has a few similarities to Odd Squad. You've got the focus on math, a system for exiting the couch headquarters that's similar to the tube system, and even the existence of kid agents and incredibly odd villains, one of which, need I remind you, Twitter tried to make into a sexyman for all of two days to varying degrees of success.

I will admit, I haven't seen Numberjacks in several years. In fact, the last time I saw it was when it was brought up as an Odd Squad ripoff. If I recall correctly, the episode that I picked to watch on a whim was "Seaside Adventure", wherein a few numbers take a vacation and trouble occurs. Or something like that. I really can't remember many details.

One thing I do remember, though, is distinctly thinking that I could see the Odd Squad similarities, but...it's not a ripoff. The series premiered in 2006. By that point, Tim McKeon and Adam Peltzman were off on their own ventures as they wrote for cartoons and other things. Thus, Odd Squad hadn't been birthed yet. If anything, Odd Squad took cues from Numberjacks, not the other way around -- but even with the existence of Odd Squad UK, we don't know that for sure. I don't even know how popular Numberjacks was in the UK. I'm a dumb lil' American, not a Daphne-Moon-esque English woman.

Since then, I haven't found anything that has come close to what Wordsville aims to accomplish. Granted, though, I have not looked very hard. I'm moreso keeping an eye on PBS to see if they're going to try and rip off Odd Squad rather than keeping an eye on any random B-lister studio. (And no, I'm not talking about WNET. They are a PBS station, but I'm referring to PBS as a whole entire network, not a sole affiliate.)

------------------------

So the question remains: is Wordsville an Odd Squad ripoff?

Yes. On multiple counts. Right down to the name inspo. Guilty as charged. Right to jail.

From it being for the 4-7 demo not unlike Odd Squad's own 4-8 demo, to Sage and Chase being referred to as "Word Detectives" in lieu of "agents", to it being a detective procedural not unlike Odd Squad and its spinoffs, to the synopsis of the show being described as having "a case rooted in a vocabulary lesson" similar to Odd Squad having episodes rooted in STEM lessons, to it actively encouraging the audience to solve mysteries along with Sage and Chase...to Sage and Chase having alliterative theme naming...

Yeah, safe to say, we've got ourselves a ripoff.

There's no denying that Odd Squad is a fantastic franchise. Even through all of its issues, including financial controversies, heavy criticism, and mistreatment from PBS, it has remained strong for nearly 10 years, and will stay strong for many more. Maybe one of these days, it will plant roots deeper into pop culture and become one hell of a phenomenon. We'll have to see.

But the fact that Sinking Ship Entertainment has to resort to borrowing a concept that is unique in its nature, a concept that has already been done, a concept that has been given life and creativity by the people who birthed it, and then try to pass it off as its own original IP is not a good look on them. It's been done similarly before with their other big franchise, Dino Dan -- key word being "similarly" because it's one show and three spinoffs focusing on different characters. That isn't the case with Wordsville, though.

Put it this way: it's a company ripping off not someone else's IP, like many other companies have done and continue to do. It's a company ripping off their own IP.

And really, it doesn't matter how it's done. Stealing is stealing. At the end of the day, all it shows is a complete lack of creativity and a complete craving for the almighty dollar. More so if it's a company stealing from themselves and passing it along as okay.

In spite of this, however, I am perfectly willing to give Wordsville a shot when it comes out. Not so much to see if it's good (though my curiosity is piqued), and definitely not to hate-watch (which has the opposite intended effect on a show or movie), but to see just how far Sinking Ship is willing to push the envelope in affirming viewers and industry buddies alike that this is not, by any and all accounts, a copy of Odd Squad. I want to spot similarities. I want to take whiskey shots until I can do a zoom-zoom to a hospital and then ask if they've got a bottle on board the rig. I want to give a full, I-watched-this-show-now-here-are-my-overall-final-thoughts addendum on the entire issue.

As of now, Wordsville has no narrow timeframe. All I know is that it's releasing this year, likely on TVO Kids in Canada. Whether PBS as a whole will adopt it into its roster -- and if anything, it'll be WNET-exclusive, otherwise we would've heard something about it at the TCA Winter Press Tour a few days back -- for American audiences remains yet to be seen. Rest assured, though, that I'll be keeping an eye on it and rushing to it as soon as the first episode drops. After that, I'll give a proper addendum so I can finally put this issue to bed. Along with myself. Revenge bedtime procrastination is a bitch.

Thanks for reading. This honestly started out as something silly, but then I became analytical. So you got a mix of both in this one. This may or may not be the norm. Day-by-day, y'know?

Seren out.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "A Dicey Situation" Episode Followup, Part 1

Captain O origins episode! "Totally Odd Squad" Mk. II! Call it what you like, I'm just hoping this is good. After the hell that was "Mission O Possible", I like to be prepared. Almost anything could surpass that, really.

Let's dive in below the break! (Pun unintended.)

...It's another Tasha episode.

I can hear that stupid "oh no" TikTok song playing as I fucking type this. I'm not confident after "The Triangle Sisters". I'm praying to Don't-Fuck-This-Up-God.

Hey. Hey. You guys remember when Otis threw a fit because Rebecca was exploiting Odd Squad for moving services?

This is just as egregious and yet will go entirely undetected. You don't need two pseudo-government agents to pull up Google Maps and punch in the location of the nearest Aldi's, for God sakes.

I see this milk came from the same cow that the Town Baker's milk came from.

I'd go investigate that cow, really.

You guys also remember Otis giving therapy to a plant?

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS BUT IT'S MILK. And it's just as amusing here as it was there.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"

Thank you, edutainment overlords, for this obligatory healthy eating message.

Asshole cereal box is making up lies for himself, methinks. Dude just tipped over on his own the second his owner picked up the milk pitcher.

hhhhheeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY THIS AIN'T MY SWAMPS 'N GATORS. WHERE'S MY SWAMPS 'N GATORS YOU CHUCKWADS.

...No but seriously what is this game and why does it look like Odd Squad Risk to me.

I remember when there was a brief shot of Oona failing at chess and Oprah telling her that's not how the game is played.

That was fun.

This is fun too, and nice to see, but it doesn't hit the same.

Good segue. Not as good as Oprah calling everyone out on their RPS strategies.

(You will see me make a lot of TOS cracks and references. I will not regret a single one of 'em.)

Hot damn, she can dim the lights with her mind! That's craaaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeeeeeeeee-

So that would make her ship the Odd Squad Odd Squad.

Instead of Screw Steamer Odd Squad, or Steam Ship Odd Squad, both of which sound much better.

And are actually canon in the franchise.

(No, really. Go listen to the Squadcast. The S.S. Odd Squad is a 100% canon ship.)

Honestly, if you had told me about a year ago that that sailor in that promo picture SSE put out was a chef named Osgood, I'd have laughed at you.

RIP to the days when I thought that sailor was an assistant of Captain O's and not her first mate.

Ohhhh, a wavy flashback effect! Standard in a ton of shows, but Odd Squad has never really employed it as far as I'm aware. Nice to see they're going to effect basics!

Aside from that, wow that is...a tiny ship. Tinier than I was expecting. I was expecting something huge and not...y'know...a little BB thing.

I'm sorry, I just did an entire fuck-ass wheeze at her saying SHE KNEW OSGOOD SINCE NURSERY SCHOOL.

These two ARE FUCKING CHILDHOOD FRIENDS.

Genuinely fucking flabbergasted, because it's rare that we get childhood friends who were main characters in this franchise and joined Odd Squad together. Not even Olive and Otto can attest to that! Or Olympia and Otis!

Best bit in the entire episode so far bar nearly none.

I mean...on the plus side, at least he only has two mouths to feed.

That being said, I will once again raise the issue of there being couch cushions in a ship like that.

...Goldfish.

Huge-ass Goldfish.

You can't fool me.

They're Goldfish.

If there is one thing I utterly despise about Captain O as a character, it's the stupid euphemisms.

They're not amusing. They're not funny. I've heard better from other characters.

Okay, a shell phone is actually pretty clever. One point to Tasha, and don't make me revoke it as quickly as I did last time.

(Choosing to overlook the fact that there's an Admiral because...I mean...pretty standard sailor stuff. And me and other fans can work with the lore.)

Definitely not the intent, but I can't stop reading this line as utterly sarcastic since Captain O did a hard aversion off the "Newhart Phone Call" cliff.

"So this look isn't a fashion choice?"

Osgood, you poor Ohlm-like sonuvagun.

No, sir, actually those are holes. They got depth to 'em. Swiss cheese is not made with polka dots.

"See? You're a fashion trendsetter."

Ohhhhh it's like...the woman in "Double O Trouble"...but 's...fuckin' polka dots...

Great, I hate it, thanks.

*squints*

*more*

*even more*

...Bitch that is a cluster of fucking trees. That is not an island. Now how and why would you spend pounds on a fucking CLUSTER OF TRE-

THIS IS HOW THEY CHOOSE TO REMIND US THAT ORLI AND OZZIE ARE STILL HERE?????? WITH THE OBLIGATORY MATH LESSON?!?!?!?!?!?

Oh piss ALL the fuckin' way off.

If this is gonna have a lesson at the end, like in "The Weight of the World Depends on Orla", I'm going to lose my fuckin' mind.

Because, for all that Season 3 sucks, that episode was actually pretty solid.

it was just her and osgood

this guy shows up

not even the two canon characters from the odd squadcast they could've used

...I get it. You need someone to steer the ship. Fine. But for the love of God, just include the one driving the boat in your roll call!

I'm...I'm so tired. We are halfway into this episode. I am tired.

I honestly can't be bothered to ask why this woman has a rotary phone and how the fuck it can get service out here where there would, in most other instances, be no phone lines. Or electricity. OR FUCKING SPEAKERPHONE.

I do like the pirate getup Dottie here has going on, though.

Well, the last time a villain alleged to not have a pattern...they had a pattern.

I don't expect Dottie to be much different in that regard.

ohhhhhh oodelallyoohdelally it's the chekhov's gun wheeeeeeeeeeeeee-

She spun in the chair for all of time, bored out of her wits.

(On to Part 2!)

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: The Odd Squad UK Trailer

Well, 8 days after my birthday really ain't bad for a belated gift. At this point I'll take what I can get.

Even if it means I have to crawl out of sleep to do it.

*deep sigh*

So you might be thinking, "Hold on, we got a new trailer?" And to that I say yes. Yes we did. PBS grew enough balls to actually give Odd Squad some love during a programming initiative that has absolutely nothing to do with it. And they put it on Vimeo, apparently, which puts all the audition videos that have been unearthed (for OSUK, OSMU, and Odd Squad) in an entirely new light.

But wah wah wah, you didn't come here to read my ding-dong ramblings. You came here to watch me be the biggest loser to ever lose at losing and dissect a 30-second trailer on a weekend. You know how movie trailers stuff all the important bits about a movie into 30 seconds? This is the telly equivalent.

Below the break, I'm going to shred this trailer to pieces, scream, cry, and of course, analyze. Come join me, if you dare.

So I'm going to reiterate a point I made in the Seren's Studies essay for the gadget competition video in regards to Ozzie, in that he's wearing an outfit that looks like it belongs to some kind of Flight department. (And yes, my headcanon about there being a boat that can travel in the sky shall remain strong in spite of this trailer. Whether it will be shot down like a cannonball through a boat that can travel in the sky remains to be seen.)

But anyway. We have him carrying a box (transferring departments?), what looks to be some kind of agent in the back (Security?), and what looks to me like an old Nissan logo against a map (of the UK? yes, of the UK, duh). Off to a hell of a start here.

The trailer doesn't give us the name of this girl -- which is odd, considering she's one of the protagonists -- but just as a refresher: this is Orli, who is from the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls (because of course) and transfers to the UK precinct in order to help with rising oddness rates. My guess is that, while Ozzie transfers from departments, Orli will transfer from precincts. Essentially, she's there to help Americans like myself (and also children, and also parents) understand British terms and culture. Which is fine, because otherwise kids would understand jack about how the United Kingdom does things beyond what's represented in media.

And we have a look at our first villainess! This is The Trifler, named after a British dessert and armed with the power to turn things into...well yeah, trifles. If you've been keeping up with the news, then you're probably aware that a BTS photo of her was found last year when OSUK was getting off the ground. Now, we have her in an official capacity!

I will say that I love the wordplay used here. Combining the British and American definitions of the word "trifle" into a badass introductory phrase is absolutely beautiful and I want more of it.

Haha lol shot from the press release big funy now laugh.

...Wait, hold on, does that mean the image used for the press release was a BTS photo? Because this sure as hell isn't the same angle.

Oh my God.

Not my absolute dumb ass thinking the context of this scene was a welcome party for Orli, only for the celebration to be for a fucking movie opening that got the attention of local news outlets and Eric Stonestreet.

...Okay, the telephone box is great too, and if there's not another Doctor Who reference they can yote in there then we riot, but I- a fucking opening of a movie?

...

Hold on, I'm noticing the Odd Squad logo on the popcorn and the cup.

This is Odd Squad: The Movie opening in the UK, isn't it.

Ah yes. Because I sure would fuckin' love to relive the joy I had when the "Odd Beginnings" two-parter decided to make the movie an in-universe piece of media. Look, I me- you guys had to be there when I recorded the Seren Reacts video. I was taken aback. I nearly fell off the bed. I was tempted to go to the neighbors and sit on their picnic table and cry. And that was when the COVID pandemic was a new thing!

And now I get to experience the hell all over again, four years later, when the pandemic is (largely) over and I'm in my mid-20s.

Look, if they're keen on torturing me like this, then that's how you really know it's a return to form. All they need to do is drop the word "serendipity" somewhere in there and I'll launch myself off the cliff and into the water and hopefully not on a pointy rock.

Normally I'd say how happy I am to see the tubes again after they got one dedicated episode and a handful of appearances and mentions besides that in Season 3, but..."Down the Tubes" is one of my favorite episodes for sleep-talking Oswald alone. And in Season 3, my total count for favorite episodes I can count on only one hand.

Worth noting, though, that in addition to the UK Headquarters being located in an abandoned train station, the tubes are named after the London Underground. Because...y'know, the Tube, and...yeah, they couldn't pass that pun up because they need Britain money somehow.

See, this is how you can tell I'm an Odd Squad veteran.

I can, with about 90% accuracy, pinpoint the context of a scene only seen by few. For example, I can tell you that this is Orli fighting with a woman over tour bus tickets by playing RPS. Because fuck her American money, American money does not net you tour bus tickets to tour the UK and...uh...well, I don't know if Ozzie has any pounds to buy any.

Ah? Aaaaaaaaaahh? Man, I'm good!

Unless Oddmented Reality had some (and please don't ask me, I've never played it), we've now had flying books in every season bar Season 2.

Honestly, that's a sin.

If this means the return of cold opens, then bless them.

It's 12 episodes with 11-minute time limits, though, so I'm a little wary...but bless them. Season 3 had only a select few before they laughed and tossed the concept out, so this is a good return to form.

Also, this is hella good camera work.

I'm...at least inclined to believe this is Ozzie attempting to boost workplace morale by getting a few agents-in-training to cheer.

Which is great, but I'm just thinking of Olympia asking Otis how he feels about his cheerleading skills and and him telling her they're perfect. It works, because Ozzie kinda looks like Otis!

Hey, hey, you guys remember aaaaaaaall the way back in "Zero Effect" where they had that shot of the agents cheering?

You guys also remember the last episode of OddTube S1?

This is like a mishymashy of that and it is glorious.

Also, our first look at the girl who is, by every sense, part of the Flight department. And Onom, even though he got a mention in the gadget-making competition video.

A few folks were asking about this, so I feel the need to clarify that this is a thing in the Oddverse that has been done numerous times before, especially in the first two seasons. You don't wanna blow 10 seconds of airtime on having two agents find the nearest tube entrance, let 'em phase through the floor.

'Tis magic, baby.

I can also predict, with about 70% accuracy, how the OSUK premiere is gonna go.

...

It's gonna end with Ozzie being transferred/promoted/demoted to the Investigation department, isn't it.

Look, the franchise's timeline is a bitch and scares all the neuroscience people at Harvard Medical School, but I did this before with a simple Season 3 trailer and I got a fair bit of it right. When a few OSUK episode titles and synopses come out, then we'll see if I'm gonna reach for the stars or fall hard on my ass.

Okay, I'm inclined to take the logic applied to New York City and apply it here, in that it's too much money and effort and time to edit every piece of signage here into a Shmumber-fied equivalent...

But that's a fucking McDonald's ad up there near the top, and let's be honest, that's one of the most gobsmacking things about the whole damn trailer. We already have a Burger King replacement, so having a McShmumber's is absolutely not out of the question.

(Also, that meal deal is $5 USD. If you're an American, I don't need to explain why this makes me more irrationally angry than it should.)

Besides that, Orli, this is a one-way, two-lane (with possible merger) street, which can absolutely be seen in areas like this in the United States and I don't know why I'm bringing this up since agents cannot and have not been automotively inclined.

"No, that's not odd. It's Britain."

Dumb lil' American I am (who is, in fact, aware how British people drive), but I gave a visceral cough at this line. This is the kind of shit OSMU should have gotten, and failed to deliver.

That aside, though, Ozzie has a bit of a different icon on his shirt now. It's either the London Bridge or a black H, and I know Fergie would cry her eyes out looking at it, bless her soul.

"I'm blue! And if I were green I would die! If I were green I would die, if I were green I would die, if-"

Okay, okay, I had to get that out of the way. I'm sorry. I'm never sorry.

The smartwatches were also something seen in BTS photos back when OSUK was first announced to be a thing. Still running on that Apple technology and crushing creativity.

Perhaps the best sleep paralysis demon I've seen since Yui in the Precure All-Stars F movie.

All right, I'm starting to see the massive differences between this Headquarters and the Headquarters of yore. Keyholes, the blue thing meant to be a simpler copy of the metallic circle structure, the...I mean it do be fuckin' big...

Also, we got our first look at a moving breathing Chef O, who's on promotional material at the very least but isn't exactly a main character. Sort of like what Oksana was: a side character.

Hey, it could be worse. It could be a Ginormouse coming to eat you up for lunch.

(For the non-believers: this is the Oddverse. I'm not explaining shit.)

I see somewhere in the crew of this show we have a boomer who still believes in the usage of the digital camera in the year of our Lord 2024.

No, but seriously. It wasn't believable in 2014 when Otto owned one, and it's less believable now. I've been more frustrated about this than about the badge phones, because there's only so much ironic low-tech stuff I can take before I drop everything and leave.

I was gonna write a joke about how they used to feed cocaine to mice in the 80s for anti-drug PSAs, but someone apparently wrote it for me. Which, unsurprisingly, is not the first time that's happened.

That's on you for not being Odd Squad-savvy.

All of you.

Yes, even Captain O.

-------------------------------------

And that's it. A short trailer, but a hell of a goodie. I'm honestly hyped for this return to form, especially as we approach the franchise's 10th anniversary. Hopefully, the crew has at least learned from its mistakes with Odd Squad Mobile Unit, and will make the most out of these 12 episodes.

And because even this show isn't immune to the curse: if you like what you see here and want more episodes to come beyond the 12 we're getting, watch the ever-loving hell out of this show. Legally, of course. Boost its ratings. The crew is definitely up for making more.

...And donate to your local PBS station if you got a Lincoln or two lyin' around. That too.

Thanks for reading. If you want to view the trailer for yourself, you can do so here:

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: The Second (And Final) Odd Squad UK Trailer

Cute that FRP suddenly cares about Odd Squad when they haven't even so much as peeped about it for...what, over a year now? Two years, maybe?

Yeah. Anyway, it seems that PBS had to step up on their alt -- the franchise's social medias, you see -- and grab it from them, because it's clear they weren't gonna do it. Especially not during Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month when Alma's Way is the top dog. (You know how Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is PBS Kids's golden kid? Alma's Way is FRP's. It's like the Spongebob of the prodco, really.)

But enough stick-up-the-anus cynicism. I did one Seren's Study on the gadget competition results video, and now I'm moving on to the one for the second trailer for Odd Squad UK. Some of it repeats bits from the first trailer, but it's otherwise completely new.

Let's dive below the break!

If you look closely, the badge number says 86.

Which would be fine, if I hadn't run numbers only to realize that neither Orli nor Ozzie have a badge number of 86.

So either someone's trippin' balls or I'm the one trippin' balls and can't math correctly.

What sleep deprivation does to a motherfucker: I saw this and immediately thought of "Two Agents and a Baby" because of the equipment Ozzie was holding. So I thought, "Okay, so they're babysitting?"

It's actually from "Planes, Trains and Oddmobiles". And as I've said before, I can predict, with stunning accuracy, what shots and what scenes line up with which episode. If you've seen the synopsis for "Planes, Trains and Oddmobiles", this brief snippet speaks for itself.

(Makes me wonder...anyone wanna set up a PonyGuessr game, but for Odd Squad screencaps? Would be fun to test your knowledge! I know I'd love one.)

*in about the best Bill Nye voice I can do*

Please...consider the following.

Dino Dex crossover.

(Hey, it's not impossible. If you've been watching this franchise, you know it's not impossible.)

They didn't even try with the house thing.

Is that not the same row of houses from "Training Day"? Am I delulu? Am I tripping? Or is that the same row of houses? Different color, maybe?

...I CHECKED. IT IS THE SAME FUCKING ROW OF HOUSES. BY G O D I'M ON FIRE!!!

Ah, I see we've also got some not-so-subliminal advertising for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in here.

(See, it's funny because, IIRC, they made a jab at the UK in the trailer. So in a way, you could say they've come full circle!)

Funny how we go from the appropriate reaction one should have to having lightning shoot out of your head to "this is going to fuck up my entire life because I can't wear hats now" in...oh, I don't know...a scene or two, maybe? Five at best.

Ah, and we have our first look at Dottie Doubloon from "A Dicey Situation"! I will say, she does kind of look like a pirate attire-wise, which is what I was hoping for. Maybe she'll talk like a pirate too aaaaaaaand I just figured out the connection between her and Captain O and I need to go absorb my fat lil' body into the grass outside now thank you.

new villains

shows the Icy Mousey about to do a Hadouken

I don't think I need to explain what the direct distinction between creatures and villains are. It's like looking at a dog that bites your hand and equating him to a guy who killed his son. They both did bad things, but only one is an antagonistic animal in the more instinctual sense while the other one is a straight-up villain.

At least they show The Trifler right after...but still. It's all about sentience. Do I need to make a whole-ass sentience chart and tell- just keep rolling with it?

*sighs* Okay, fine...if I must.

I'm sorry...I honestly didn't believe this trailer would make me laugh, but then this guy comes in with a "Gadzooks!" while holding something gross and I lost it.

Behold: genderbent adult-aged Willow from The Owl House has made his way into Odd Squad UK. He's even got the hat on and everything!

new gadgets

shows the tubes

I'm just...I'm fuckin' tired, man. Is this some kind of joke? Is this a game? Because I want a Perplexus ball and not this shit, thank you.

It's like blinking Oprah...Oprah...she do the blink...in "Dance Like Nobody's Watching"...but...but 's Captain O...with a squinty squint...

Alternatively: I lol'd, until I serious'd.

I see Orwell Kubrick has some charm beneath all that "scare the kids but not too much". Good for him.

*with the tightest fucking smile any doctor has ever seen on a person*

"Is that his house? I- Is that Onom's fucking house? Take me to my best friend's house, I loved you then like I love you now? T- The iPod touch circa 2011?!"

I will say, I appreciate the analytics behind each pose here. Lots to dissect, if the Discord server is any indication.

Those five words might've just put a dent in my "ah, they'll drop 'em all on the 1st and forget about it" theory.

It could still happen -- PBS still hates the show, mind you. Netflix, Hulu, and most other streaming services do the same thing. There's a chance. You watch. You watch and see.

--------------------------------------------

Overall, a nice solid trailer. Doesn't exactly stoke any hype in me, but it did stoke my curiosity in finding out what happens. Funny enough, unlike the Season 3 trailer, there's no mention of the big bad or anything. At least there, The Shadow got a couple seconds of screentime. For the Terrible Three, though, there's nothing. Which...concerns me on a number of levels in terms of how well they're going to handle the story arc.

But either way, we've got a week to go until launch date, so I'm not expecting too much else news-wise. Still waiting for BBC to drop those teaser images, and for PBS Kids's main Twitter account to recognize the show and rep it with not-so-subtle lil' hints using past seasons. (Only one of those sounds more plausible. I don't think I need to say which one.)

Like I've said before, my first Seren's Study regarding the new series/season, when it drops, will be an episode followup on "Odd Ones In". And before you ask me if I'm going to be reuploading episodes onto my YouTube channel: clearly you haven't been there for all the times I bitched and moaned on Twitter about PBS, their distribution branch, or their security partner taking down my videos that contained snippets of episodes. It's not happenin'. Given how the series/season getting another season/more episodes is dependent on legal viewership, promoting illegal means of watching it feels wrong. If Odd Squad UK gets a continuation of some sort, maybe they can take steps towards improvement. That's what I'm hoping for, personally.

Seren out!

So, with all that being said, I will see you all sometime in early October for that first followup. Keep your eyes peeled for more news in the meantime, because we could either get a trickle or a flood.

Oh yeah, and if you wanna watch the trailer, view it below!

(Editor's note: Managed to kick open the floodgates last night before I even published this. Teaser images are already up, news articles are sharing bits of info...don't ask me how, just accept it.)