by Jillian Butler, Ampersandology
I make no secret of the fact I love Encyclopedia Brown. It's one of those cultural throwaways that, like a favourite childhood toy, you remember abruptly one night and nearly choke on nostalgia. The book series (which I'm fairly certain I read every damn volume of; thanks, Second Page Bookstore!) followed boy genius Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, who punned his way through the dozens of mysteries that appeared occurred in his sleepy middle-American town. Each case would end on a cliffhanger, so you could try and peg the culprit yourself before flipping to the back to get the one fact that solved it all. I also wanted to marry him and oust Sally Kimball once and for all. That know-it all bitch had it coming.
Anyway, needless to say, IT WAS AWESOME.
The idea of boy (or girl) detectives is hilarious to me, mostly because it's so totally endearing. It carries this harmless kind of goodness, an adorable pluckiness that this little person would get it in their heads that they could do a big person job. It's probably why I liked Veronica Mars, thought its detective was a nearly adult girl; yet it so often subverted the idea of the do-gooder amateur by putting its plucky heroine in a seriously messed up town of corruption (that, or the fact her snark was supremely choice). It's so precocious and adorable anda phase I totally went through entirely mismatched.
So when I saw the trailer for Mystery Team (which, I might add, stars Donald Glover of Community fame) my hope sprung anew. If there's one thing I can get behind, it's a group of retro-minded man-boys who set up a detective agency in a lemonade stand. What can I say? I really loved Encyclopedia Brown.
I make no secret of the fact I love Encyclopedia Brown. It's one of those cultural throwaways that, like a favourite childhood toy, you remember abruptly one night and nearly choke on nostalgia. The book series (which I'm fairly certain I read every damn volume of; thanks, Second Page Bookstore!) followed boy genius Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, who punned his way through the dozens of mysteries that appeared occurred in his sleepy middle-American town. Each case would end on a cliffhanger, so you could try and peg the culprit yourself before flipping to the back to get the one fact that solved it all. I also wanted to marry him and oust Sally Kimball once and for all. That know-it all bitch had it coming.
Anyway, needless to say, IT WAS AWESOME.
Pictured: the AWESOME.
The idea of boy (or girl) detectives is hilarious to me, mostly because it's so totally endearing. It carries this harmless kind of goodness, an adorable pluckiness that this little person would get it in their heads that they could do a big person job. It's probably why I liked Veronica Mars, thought its detective was a nearly adult girl; yet it so often subverted the idea of the do-gooder amateur by putting its plucky heroine in a seriously messed up town of corruption (that, or the fact her snark was supremely choice). It's so precocious and adorable and
So when I saw the trailer for Mystery Team (which, I might add, stars Donald Glover of Community fame) my hope sprung anew. If there's one thing I can get behind, it's a group of retro-minded man-boys who set up a detective agency in a lemonade stand. What can I say? I really loved Encyclopedia Brown.
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