WODFAMCHOCPOD | Fan Content Review – Adventures in Opinions

I had the idea to do reviews of AIO fan content a while ago, and, since the WODFAMCHOCPOD is preparing to celebrate its 100th episode, I thought it was a good podcast to start with. I’ll be loosely following the Plugged In review format as I cover this show.

If you notice any mistakes in this post, please let me know in a comment. Thanks in advance!

Each week Dylan Weaver and Andrew Acebo get together and break down the storytelling of an episode of Adventures in Odyssey through a modern lens.
– Official Description

Review

The WODFAMCHOCPOD is a podcast started by two college-agers who grew up with Odyssey. They became friends after one of them made an AIO reference on a missions trip and now live in the same area, allowing them to more easily run a podcast together. When the show started, Andrew and Dylan weren’t expecting it to last very long. The plan was to review their favourite story arc in Odyssey, the Novacom Saga. Beyond that, there weren’t plans for future episodes of their podcast. But after they got started they enjoyed podcasting and talking about AIO episodes so much that they continued the show, reviewing the Novacom aftermath episodes in Season 2. When they had finished all of Novacom, they continued on with the Twilife Zone episodes, and a few others. By the time that they started their review series of the Blackgaard Chronicles, it was clear that they weren’t going anywhere. As of October 31, 2020 they have released 99 episodes and two bonus Christmas episodes, for a total of 101 episodes. Currently they are reviewing the Rydell Saga after accidentally dipping into it in 2018 (which is, by the way, around the time when I first started listening) with a review of A Sacrificial Escape. Their 100th episode is going planned to be a redo of their review of A Sacrificial Escape now that they have the greater context, along with reminiscences of the past 101 (including Christmas episodes) episodes.

Positive Elements

Dylan and Andrew come at Odyssey from a different perspective than that of Focus on the Family, and still manage to have some pretty positive reviews of it. They sometimes challenge listener’s belief in almost everything that FOTF believes. This could be viewed by some as bad, but it’s good to challenge the morals presented by the things that you naturally trust and they don’t claim to know everything themselves either. Andrew and Dylan have made the point that they are most likely wrong about some things themselves, and that’s some good self-awareness.

Spiritual Elements

Both of the hosts’ views do not always line up with those of Focus on the Family. In my opinion, they do not openly advocate anything that I would consider as (or that I would expect FOTF to consider as) unbiblical. They discuss the morals and spiritual aspects of the episodes, which is good in reviews of Odyssey.

Language

The show is clean of major profanities, but does contain several euphemisms and other lesser instances. These include “frick”, “freak”, “gosh”, “crap”, and other similar words.

Other Negative Elements

If you are sensitive to drug references, I would suggest that you don’t listen to the WODFAMCHOCPOD’s review of The Twilife Zone, an AIO episode that is referencing drug use makes it pretty much impossible not to reference it in the review.

In the early days of the show, especially during the Novacom reviews the microphone quality is not the best and the mic is constantly being bumped into by one of the hosts. They’ve gotten much better at those technical aspects as the show has progressed, however.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think that the WODFAMCHOCPOD is a good podcast for those with the same worldview as the hosts. But it’s even more interesting, I think, to hear what Adventures in Odyssey looks like through a different lens. I highly recommend that you subscribe to their podcast.