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

station blue thumb.jpg

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” →

Mainstream

Top Ten Mainstream Podcasts: The Jimquisition

Gavin

While I share Wil Williams‘ passion for highlighting indie podcasts, I’m new in town and feel a sample of what my core must-listens are (at the time of writing, these change every few months or so). Over the next ten days I’ll be sharing a mini-post per day highlighting one of my favorite mainstream podcasts. Continue reading “Top Ten Mainstream Podcasts: The Jimquisition” →

Gavin Stuff, Mainstream

Top Ten Mainstream Podcasts: Criminal.

Gavin

While I share Wil Williams‘ passion for highlighting indie podcasts, I’m new in town and feel a sample of what my core must-listens are (at the time of writing, these change every few months or so). Over the next ten days I’ll be sharing a mini-post per day highlighting one of my favorite mainstream podcasts. Continue reading “Top Ten Mainstream Podcasts: Criminal.” →

Op-Ed

Taking the time to listen.

Gavin

Similarities in art do not always denote theft, but it takes time to find that difference.

As the internet shrinks our world by the minute podcasting as an art form grows exponentially. As my consumption of audio media continues its infinite march onward I find myself constantly wondering a tough question: Is this podcast original?

This weekend I loaded up Magic Folk (a show you should be listening to) to binge-listen during some downtime. Within a few minutes I had fired off several snarky messages to a friend poking fun at the similarities between this new indie podcast and The Adventure Zone. Put simply, this was a dick move and here’s why: Continue reading “Taking the time to listen.” →

D&D 5e, First Impressions, Tabletop Gaming

Early Impressions: Magic Folk (Episodes 1-3)

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 fills this gap. 

magic folk img
Magic Folk is currently available on iTunes/Stitche

Magic Folk is a Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition tabletop actual-play podcast, much in the same vein as the D&D monolith that is The Adventure Zone*. The party consists of human druid (with an adorable owl friend), Claire the dragon-born wizard, humanoid bird barbarian Kiss, and human accordion-sporting bard Bernan. There’s also a human paladin NPC named Gomec, but we’ll get back to him.  Continue reading “Early Impressions: Magic Folk (Episodes 1-3)” →

Gavin Stuff

My Podcast Subscriptions [As of 1-16-18]

Gavin

Above you see every podcast I am currently subscribed to using the Podcast Addict app on Android. The first two black squares represent subscriptions to my own projects used for monitoring and self-testing. The other two black squares are because I didn’t do the math on how many rows it would take to make this picture look nice and just plopped the final seven podcasts into the bottom row.

Some of these I listen to almost daily, some of the shows I haven’t even listened to yet. The amount of un-listened episodes is not an indicator of how much I like or listen to the show in question!