Sight Unseen tells the story of Amanda Houston, a teenage girl who practically owns the world. A model and a surfing champion, Amanda enjoyed the life of a beautiful and popular girl, alongside her athlete boyfriend and her tight clique of best friends. But everything changed in just one night, when a car accident not only took all her best friends away, but also her sight and her modelling career. Not only Amanda has to deal with the trauma, but stranger things started to happen to her after the incident–an uncontrollable weird psychic power, and a strange voice in her head that claimed to be her guardian.
Sight Unseen is a part of Wondery, the famous network that also brought us Terms, Hollywood & Crime, Dirty John, and also Secret, Crimes & Audiotape (which was actually this podcast's house, before it decided to move into an independent feed); so it's practically easy to not doubt about the qualities of the sound engineering of this podcast. It's almost perfect, the only word I could use for a podcast that can even 'depict' voices inside the heads.
The acting, well, it's not bad. I love how easily distinguished the voices are. And for podcast with fast jumping scenes and numerous characters like this, it really is a value added. But, I sort of wish the pace of the story is not this fast..
The story's lead, Amanda, is the character that clearly does not need any sympathy whatsoever from us. She's talented, beautiful, popular, loved and adored by almost everyone. Perfect, you could say that. Then an accident robbed all of this from her. And not just that, she's also burden with the guilt that she might be the one that actually cause the accident that kill all of her best friends.
So, will Amanda's helplessness and misfortune made her a more sympathetic and relatable character?
That's actually the one I wish to find out.
But the plot moves so fast, making far too little to none room for the characters to develop or even make a strong stand in the story. Even though there's average of 40 minutes on each episode, but the opening recap and post-episode discussion almost cut the total time into half. And not just that, as the story develops, it moved its center from Amanda and added another side stories–mostly on how other people that are close in Amanda's life deal with her changes.
The pace, and the numerous side stories then dangerously could created predictable one-dimensional characters on the podcast. Which is something that I really don't want to see, because I really enjoy this podcast.
But, I guess Sight Unseen did chose to be a plot-driven podcast. It is inevitable, actually–and perhaps not really a bad thing. With the theme of super teen with psychic power, I guessed it's only natural for the creator to make more room for mysteries and actions. Something that, according to the interviews, would be more explored in the next season.
Sight Unseen is a part of Wondery, the famous network that also brought us Terms, Hollywood & Crime, Dirty John, and also Secret, Crimes & Audiotape (which was actually this podcast's house, before it decided to move into an independent feed); so it's practically easy to not doubt about the qualities of the sound engineering of this podcast. It's almost perfect, the only word I could use for a podcast that can even 'depict' voices inside the heads.
The acting, well, it's not bad. I love how easily distinguished the voices are. And for podcast with fast jumping scenes and numerous characters like this, it really is a value added. But, I sort of wish the pace of the story is not this fast..
The story's lead, Amanda, is the character that clearly does not need any sympathy whatsoever from us. She's talented, beautiful, popular, loved and adored by almost everyone. Perfect, you could say that. Then an accident robbed all of this from her. And not just that, she's also burden with the guilt that she might be the one that actually cause the accident that kill all of her best friends.
So, will Amanda's helplessness and misfortune made her a more sympathetic and relatable character?
That's actually the one I wish to find out.
But the plot moves so fast, making far too little to none room for the characters to develop or even make a strong stand in the story. Even though there's average of 40 minutes on each episode, but the opening recap and post-episode discussion almost cut the total time into half. And not just that, as the story develops, it moved its center from Amanda and added another side stories–mostly on how other people that are close in Amanda's life deal with her changes.
The pace, and the numerous side stories then dangerously could created predictable one-dimensional characters on the podcast. Which is something that I really don't want to see, because I really enjoy this podcast.
But, I guess Sight Unseen did chose to be a plot-driven podcast. It is inevitable, actually–and perhaps not really a bad thing. With the theme of super teen with psychic power, I guessed it's only natural for the creator to make more room for mysteries and actions. Something that, according to the interviews, would be more explored in the next season.
It may be not much of a drama, but Sight Unseen is one of the podcast that is very engaging, to say the least. Definitely recommended.
Note:
- Sight Unseen in Wondery website, Stitcher, and iTunes
- recommended for: light mystery, fast pace drama, young adult turned super teen stories, great voice talents, equally great sound design.
- caution for: swear words (not for toddlers level)
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