Odd Squad is a Canadian/American children's live action educational television series that premiered on TVOKids in Canada and PBS Kids in the United States on November 26, 2014.
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While the first two seasons of the show were well received (2014-2019), the same can't be said about its third and final season (2020-2022), which garnered negative reception due to the highly radical changes.
Plot
Ms. O, who has been promoted to the Big O, recruits four agents, Opal (replaced with Osmerelda in "Odd Off The Press" and onwards), Omar, Orla, and Oswald as the Odd Squad Mobile Unit, a team who travel in a flying van solving odd cases around the world.
Not Odd Qualities
- The CGI effects look downgraded after the first two seasons.
- Many iconic Odd Squad traits are removed from the show or rarely used such as "the tube system" (an Odd Squad agent's way of transportation where they are squished into a ball and launched to their destination).
- A lot of bad to average episodes.
- The episode "The B-Team" has just recycled the plot from the season 1 episode, "Switch Your Partner Round and Round".
- Ms. O, who has recently been promoted to The Big O, has changed from a bossy and fearless girl with a hilarious personality to a very bland and serious leader of all Odd Squad precincts.
- Big O, who had a big role in the first two seasons when she was Ms. O, is rarely seen on screen and hasn't been seen since "Odd Off The Press" where she is replaced by the character Little O.
- There is little to no connection to the first two seasons, making this season seem almost non-canon to said seasons.
- A bunch of fan favorite characters from the first two seasons (i.e.: Most secondary 13579 agents, Odd Todd, and most of the recurring villains from the first two seasons, Polly Graph, Delivery Debbie, Delivery Doug, Mayor Macklemore, Rivka and Baby Genius) are completely absent. For child characters this can be excused, as kid actors grow up, but there's no reason why the adults can't return somehow. There aren't even any guest appearances from any character.
- The season sometimes rip-off villains from the first two seasons.
- The actress of The Shapeshifter, Laura Landauer, returned but as The Form Changer, looking exactly like The Shapeshifter except she is orange and has now glowing effect.
- The Utensiler returns in the episode "Odd in 60 Seconds " but with a different actress claiming to be the original one's little sister.
- While Odd Squad as a whole has always contained questionable continuity, Season 3 is somehow even worse in this regard, sometimes with details being contradicted within the same episode!
- "Portalandia" has Omar explaining that no one in the Mobile Unit can speak Japanese. Later on, he says that the slogan of The Portal Master store rhymes in Japanese, and Orla reads aloud a sign written in Japanese that tells her and Omar where they need to ago (although her English translation is incorrect).
- Opal explaining that the Mobile Unit has gone paperless in "Raising the Bar" would be a neat example of technology advancing for new times...if the episode hadn't shown her working with paper just a few minutes beforehand.
- The B-plot of "Odd Squad in the Shadows" is about whom is the leader of the Mobile Unit, with all four agents vying for the position. Opal doesn't even need to compete as she's already a leader in a recognized role.
- In "Down the Tubes", O'Shaughnessy tells Orla that agents cannot have more than four tube rides a day lest they experience exhaustion and drowsiness. This is despite the fact that agents have gone through the tubes multiple times without getting tired and Oswald only went through two tube rides, not four, before becoming exhausted. (Though to be fair, Oswald's depicted as being weaker than his teammates to an extent)
- From "Odd Off The Press":
- Orpita's Agent Report is referred to as a book report when it wasn't called that in "It's Not Easy Being Chill".
- Strength is among one of the things tested as part of Orpita's interview to find a substitute Big O. Since "O is Not For Over" previously established that strength training is a required element for newly-promoted Directors, testing the candidates' strength doesn't do much in terms of qualification.
- The second half of "Double O Trouble" opens up with a Chicago police officer ticketing the Mobile Unit van for illegal parking. Except... normally the police don't exist the show's world — Odd Squad takes up that role instead. "The Confalones" was the only previous episode to mention police, and even then it was Early-Installment Weirdness more than anything.
- "Welcome to Odd Squad" is particularly bad with this.
- The names of departments. Creature Care is referred to simply as "Creatures", the Food and Beverage department is referred to as "Kitchen Services", the Task Force department is referred to as "Internal Investigations" (While it was referred to as such in the Odd Squad Agent's Handbook, it's unclear how canon the book is), Maintenance/Transportation is just referred to as "Tube Lobby Operators" with no mention of the Maintenance side, and Athletics and Conflict Resolution is just referred to as "Athletics" while dropping the Conflict Resolution part of the department entirely.
- The commercial neglects to mention that there are over twenty different departments at Odd Squad, far more than what is actually represented.
- It also implies that Odd Squad Directors don't have their own department, when on the contrary, Management is their department.
- The (current) series finale "Odd Together Now" is may just well be the worst example of this.
- Despite having been fired by Orpita and surrendering his badge in the previous episode, Olando is still shown wearing his badge and works as a juice inspector in one of the Big Offices. Likewise, Osmerelda poses the idea of consulting him for help on the Golden Sundial even though he was previously antagonistic towards Odd Squad, showing little regard for the Mobile Unit agents' health and safety. The end of the episode also has Olando deciding to stay in the present time and declaring that he'll get a new agent suit, even though Orpita is never shown rehiring him back onto Odd Squad at any point.
- The Mobile Unit seeks to destroy the sundial even though Olando previously stated that destroying it would bring a massive timetastrophe that could possibly alter the universe for the worse. Even Olando himself is on board with the idea — and he's definitely not regarded as an agent with a bad memory.
- Olando is a recognized and respected figure by both Logan the Ogre and Wanda the Wizardess, although they only recognize him for one feat. Although it's justified since Wanda and Logan could both have the ability to live for a long time and we never hear about Olando's life prior to becoming an Odd Squad Protector, the Mobile Unit and their Rogues Gallery just learned of his existence not too long ago, and it seems quite farfetched that Wanda and Logan, of all people, would know about him and his brave deed.
- A Featherite is among the group of villains who plan to break into the Big Office. In the Featherites' debut episode, they were introduced as being, at best, on neutral and friendly terms with Odd Squad, and filling the role of an ambassador of sorts to the organization.
- Poor writing: In numerous episodes it is hinted that Opal knew who The Shadow was behind the mask all along but in "Follow the Leader" when The Shadow reveals that she is Opal's sister, Olizabeth, Opal reacts surprised.
- Agent Opal, a loveable main character, is removed from the show and has not been seen since the episode "End of the Road" (the mid season finale), she is later replaced by Osmerelda.
- The new main characters in this season aren't quite good as the characters in seasons 1 and 2.
- The addition of adding Osmerelda (Esmerelda Kim) to the Mobile Unit feels like a rushed last-minute decision considering the fact that her early appearances of wanting to join Odd Squad but being too busy with something else (such as flute practice) was a running gag.
- There is no comedic relief scientist character like Oscar from season 1 and Oona from season 2 due to this season only focusing on the Mobile Unit department.
Good Qualities
- The story arc about Opal and The Shadow's past is interesting.
- The first two seasons are better than this season.
- Great new characters such as Opal and Orla (a 500 year old warrior who is trying to adapt to the modern world).
- Heartwarming moments.
- Diverse cast: many of the females are portrayed as leaders.
- Some reappearances to old characters such as Rainbow Robyn, Jellybean Joe, and Miss Triangle.
- The "tube system" is acknowledged once again in the episode "Down the Tubes" which gives us an in-depth understanding on how the tube system works.
- There are still some good episodes, like the series finale "Odd Together Now", which was heartwarming and was a good send-off to the series.
Reception
Season 3 of Odd Squad garnered mixed to negative reception from fans with many criticizing them for removing Olive, Otto, Oscar, Olympia, Otis, and Oona, with their replacements Opal, Omar, Oswald, Orla, and Osmerelda which aren't as well-received. By the time Season 3 premiered, either older fans had stopped watching the show entirely, or newer fans would watch and be more attracted to the past two seasons and its characters. It didn't help that the show got a Retool, with the main setting being changed and characters being swapped out for new ones. While there are a few fans both young and old who still enjoy it, a majority of people dislike the season because of the massive changes, although there are fans who enjoy the season prior to Opal's departure. It received a 7.2 on IMDB.
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