Category: Audio Drama

Audio Drama

Romcoms, Nashville, and Donuts. An Interview with Faith McQuinn

Gavin

This November I have but one mission: convince podcast audiences to adopt Margaritas & Donuts as a yearly Thanksgiving tradition. If millions of people can cajole Die Hard into being considered a Christmas movie, this excellent romcom miniseries with a heartfelt finale set during a family Thanksgiving dinner deserves to be a Thanksgiving re-listen.  

In pursuit of this goal I sat down with show creator Faith McQuinn to pick her brain about her first venture into romantic comedy, making a show set in Nashville that isn’t about Nashville, subverting romcom biases towards young characters, and boozy donuts. 

Continue reading “Romcoms, Nashville, and Donuts. An Interview with Faith McQuinn” →
Audio Drama

Fan Wars delivers delightful nerdy rom-com storytelling

Gavin
A Pinecast embed to the narrated audio version of this post, with a direct link to the file here.

Fan Wars: The Empire Claps Back is a romantic comedy about two massive Star Wars nerds bickering about The Last Jedi on Skype. Or, at least, it starts off this way, metamorphising into a frenemies-becoming-friends tale through snippets of conversation.

I don’t normally ship characters. I really like characters and it’d be cool if they end up dating, but few elevate me to that special level of commitment where any scrap of implication they’re falling for each other makes me want to craft a Twitter thread

Continue reading “Fan Wars delivers delightful nerdy rom-com storytelling” →
Audio Drama, Patreon Exclusive

It’s time to get back in the zone | Pod to Page

Gavin

As The Adventure Zone begins wrapping up season two’s Amnesty plot with one final arc I find myself nostalgic for the first season. This is surprising to no one; the three constants of the universe are death, taxes, and the inevitability I’ll re-listen to old episodes of Adventure Zone instead of the 14,000 new episodes in my podcast queue. 

Continue reading “It’s time to get back in the zone | Pod to Page” →
Audio Drama, First Impressions

Mount Olympus University: Where Gods Have Midterms

Gavin

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There’s a slight chance very few people will actually read this review in full. If you’re anything like me just hearing the mere premise of this show will cause you to lose focus in your scramble to subscribe and start listening to this delightful show.

Mount Olympus University is an audio fiction series set on a peculiar college campus where the student body and faculty all have unique abilities. That is, except for Pandora, who is there on a full ride scholarship (that she didn’t apply for). The show begins with Pandora stumbling across an abandoned student radio station deep within the ever-changing hallways of MOU.

Continue reading “Mount Olympus University: Where Gods Have Midterms” →

Audio Drama, Comedy, Horror, Uncategorized

Review | A Scottish Podcast: Season One

Gavin

scottish

A Scottish Podcast is a comedy-horror (note the order) audio drama that tells the story of a disgraced radio presenter who starts a paranormal podcast with intentions of capitalizing on an inherently gullible audience, only to accidentally stumble across legitimate paranormal phenomenon.

After crapping his pants on a nationally broadcast live chat show years prior, washed-up radio DJ Lee powers is looking to regain some popularity and make money along the way. In a particularly meta plot point, real-world podcast The Black Tapes inspires him to start a “real” horror documentary podcast: The Terror Files (a title that gets extra points when said with a Scottish accent). With reluctant, snarky production assistant Doug, Lee lucks upon a spooky situation that launches the podcast to instant stardom.

Continue reading “Review | A Scottish Podcast: Season One” →

Audio Drama, First Impressions, Horror, Isolation

Feeling alone at ‘Station Blue’ | First Impressions

Gavin

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It’s time to get cold, real cold. Today I’m talking about the new isolationist horror audio drama Station Blue. This will probably be the most first-impressiony-est of my first impressions as there are only two full episodes (and three prologue shorts) released as of this writing.

Station Blue is set in a location I’m quite shocked more podcasts haven’t taken advantage of yet: Antarctica. Not only that, but Antarctica during the harsh winter when no planes can get in or out in the event of an emergency. The idea of being completely stranded in a barren wasteland of snow and harsh winds is rife for horror potential, especially when one throws a creepy/mysterious research station into the mix.  Continue reading “Feeling alone at ‘Station Blue’ | First Impressions” →

Audio Drama, Sci-fi

Dead water and goat cheese | The world-building of ‘Girl in Space’

Gavin

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Source: girlinspacepodcast.com

About 18 hours after listening to every released episode of Girl in Space in one go, I’m left dumbfounded by the talent and craftsmanship that goes into producing each episode. While there isn’t a full season one for me to properly review, I feel safe in publicly saying “this is some damned good science fiction.” So good, in fact, I’d like to take a few paragraphs to highlight the brutally simplistic world-building tactics producer/writer/editor/star Sarah Rhea Werner uses to paint the world around their characters.

Three lines. That’s all we’re going to talk about. Girl in Space has three lines in episodes 103 and 104 (one apiece) that aren’t necessarily plot-important, they feel like asides more than anything else, but they’re a perfect one-two shot of world-building information that hit so hard I had to pause the podcast and work through what I’d just experienced.

Light spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t listened past episode one of the series (which you should do anyway, this show rocks).

Continue reading “Dead water and goat cheese | The world-building of ‘Girl in Space’” →

Audio Drama, First Impressions, Sci-fi

First Impressions: The Phenomenon

Gavin

Occasionally I come across certain podcasts worthy of discussion and critique, but the show in question doesn’t have enough published content produced to justify a fully-scored review. Early Impressions is a spoiler-free solution to fill this gap. 

I’m a sucker for well-edited scary things. Or at the very least, edited scary things. I remember as a teen lying in bed listening to the famed “first Star Wars horror” book Death Troopers on CD and getting the heebiest of jeebies from subtle usage of sound effects and music cues. All it took was a few well-timed clicking sounds and goopy flesh noises to get me binge-watching a sitcom or two for hours on end after to purge the spooky thoughts.

The Phenomenon hit this spot perfectly by trading on an imprinted fear of the Emergency Broadcast System. While it might not have the same impact in other parts of the world, I grew up on one end of an area known as “tornado alley.” Hearing that tone while a worried-looking weatherman tried to keep the county up-to-date was a summer fixture. That sustained tone is enough to make my blood run cold. Continue reading “First Impressions: The Phenomenon” →