Media criticism and coverage writ large.
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You can’t throw a super-stick without hitting someone with powers in Antaean City. Odds are you yourself probably have super stick-throwing powers. This is the backdrop for recently re-released audio fiction series On Patrol with The Broadcaster.
Continue reading “Local radio gets super-powered in ‘On Patrol’”
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’”
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”
Media criticism and coverage writ large. 