Odd Squad (seasons 1 & 2)
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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. The series was created by Tim McKeon and Adam Peltzman and is co-produced by The Fred Rogers Company and Sinking Ship Entertainment in association with TVOKids and Ici Radio-Canada Télé.
Plot
The series follows the exploits of Odd Squad, an organization run entirely by children, that solves peculiar problems using math skills. In particular, it typically features two employees of the organization's investigation division that work in precinct 13579 of the organization— Agents Olive (Dalila Bela) and Otto (Filip Geljo) in the 1st season, and Olympia (Anna Cathcart) and Otis (Issac Kragten) in the second season. Selected episodes feature other types of employees of the fictional organization, like security officers, so-called "tube operators", and scientists. The names of the employees, with one exception, always start with the letter O.
Why These Seasons Are Odd
- These seasons has a very fun way to learn about math. The show's math curriculum is woven deftly into every storyline and doesn't feel forced and/or unnatural.
- It has very interesting plots, story arcs and even some mysteries to energize you like the mystery of who Olive's old partner was in Season 1 and the backstory of Agent Otis in Season 2.
- Unlike season 3, these seasons has extremely clever comedy and pop culture references. They even reference Doctor Who in an episode.
- The child actors are impeccable actors despite their age, as they portray their characters with as much emotion as possible. The actor for Agent Otis has even gotten an Emmy.
- The characters are great, in season 1, we have Olive, Otto, and Oscar.
- Olive is the practical one.
- Otto is the silly one.
- Oscar is a very charming, adorkable character.
- Their replacements in season 2, Olympia, Otis, and Oona, are also very good.
- Olympia is an adorable ball of energy.
- Otis is a cool agent with a mysterious backstory.
- Oona is also very adorkable.
- Their replacements in season 2, Olympia, Otis, and Oona, are also very good.
- Ms. O, their boss, who appears in both seasons, is unlikable at first but she gets better over time.
- The show has a diverse cast of characters and strong females and males role models for preschoolers to look up to.
- The character dynamics and emotional scenes are really well done, so a fan can't be blamed if they have a ship.
- Awesome and realistic looking set designs.
- The villains, such as Odd Todd and the Shapeshifter, are very interesting and genuinely threatening villains. So much so, that the villains were even given their own episode dedicated to them. And it was glorious.
- Odd Todd was a great recurring villain he was essentially a family-friendly Expy of The Joker, with a Large Ham personality and personal connection to one of the agents. So naturally, instead of keeping him as the Big Bad, he gets scared straight by oddness, undergoes a Heel–Face Return, becomes a gardener and that's the end of that chapter. Although, he does get one more go-around in the movie World Turned Odd, which involved an alternate timeline with him in charge of not Odd Squad, but Todd Squad not to mention his cameo appearance in the Season 2 finale.
- The show's movies Odd Squad: the Movie and World Turned Odd, were pretty good movies, as they both featured awesome plots and emotional scenes.
- After being removed in season 2, Agents Olive, Otto and Oscar (who was in the first few episodes of season 2) made guest appearances in the movie Odd Squad: The Movie.
- Although it doesn't have many songs, but the music is quite good. The background music that plays during the show intro is catchy and really gets you pumped for the show. The songs by the boy band Soundcheck are funny due to being parodies of boy bands like NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and One Direction. And "Stop It Now" is an elaborate Broadway-esque number.
- The show once had its own webshow called "OddTube", which was a pretty good web show.
- These seasons teach good morals, such as "don't judge a book by its cover" and "work as a team".
- Despite the series going downhill in season 3, the series ended perfectly with the finale, "Odd Together Now", being heartwarming.
Bad Qualities
- The CGI special effects look very tacky and cheap.
- Ms. O could be considered an unlikable Karen by some, because she yells at the agents a lot. Not to mention that she looks way more like an artist than a person who has lived for centuries, but that's because it's an organization run by kids.
- Olive and Otto can be unlikable too.
- Xena and Xeva from season 2 are terrible side characters.
- Upon debuting in Season 2, Olympia and Otis got some backlash for replacing Olive and Otto. However, over time fans began to appreciate them, especially when it came to Otis's Backstory, which served as the main mystery of the season.
- The episode Shapely University ended terribly.
- Adults can be portrayed as idiots sometimes. Odd Squad: The Movie is a perfect example.
- Some scenes can be too intense for a TV-Y rated program, like the Pie-nado scene in Training Day or Ohlm's big reveal at the end of Season 2.
- The show has a lot of dark and disturbing moments and implications of death and violence, among other things. It could likely be due to the fact that the show was initially slated to be on PBS Kids GO!, a sub-block of PBS Kids meant for older children (ages 8 and up), before its discontinuation and was originally a drama instead of a Work Com.
- After these seasons, the show underwent a lot of unnecessary changes that caused it to go downhill.
- During that season, the show went under a Retool, with a new setting, new characters, a new focus on STEM in addition to math, and a new formula of traveling the world to solve cases rather than working in a single town. 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.
Reception
The first two seasons of Odd Squad received positive reception, it holds a rating of 7.2/10 on IMDB.
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