The Van [Review]

Somewhere on the desert of America, a lonely van is traveling around. Nova-Scotia is the driver, and inside the van are the gifted kids that has been living under her mercy. Cola is the girl that could sense almost all about the human around her, yet constantly keep trying to escape her surroundings by reciting poems inside her mind. But she couldn't stay ignorant anymore when her older "sister", Rosaline, went missing. Cola is accompanied by Scotch, who has the ability to make people unconscious just by a hand touch, and Junebug, a 14 year old who, unlike Scotch, is more than happy to use her ability to scramble people's mind.

The Van is an audio drama produced by the podcast network Whale Bus, which also made the series Looking Back at Tomorrow, and Story Blocks. The voice of Cola is Leslie Gideon, Scotch is voiced by Jeff Ebner, Nova-Scotia is voiced by Dina Laura, and the voice of Junebug is Julia Rose Herman. 

From what I have read, these actors are fairly new, but their job is quite amazing, especially Junebug's and Nova's. The sound editing is passable. Well, almost. There's no problem with the environment/surrounding (sorry, don't know the technical term. don't bash me, o' lord sound editor); we can clearly know when the van is moving and or when the character is outside. But when it comes to narration, it's pretty messy. The audio drama is narrated from Cola's point-of-view, however some of the times there aren't a clear distinction between her narration and the actual dialogue. This then lead to some confusion, like when Scott asked a question and Cola's narration suddenly popped in. This is probably not just a technical stuff, a little bit neater dialogue editing could maybe also help a lot. However, the good thing is, this problem get significantly less worse, particularly near the later episodes.

Now let's talk about the writing, more specifically, the characters. They are definitely not the usual type you would find in audio drama. Not many of them are sympathetic, Junebug is an insufferable girl, and Nova, the only adult, is manipulative, enabling misconduct, and exploiting these children for her own sake. 

They are flawed. 
But they are flawed like a human being. 

All of the characters are written organically. There's no character that only acts as a token. 

Cola seems like the usual introvert-with-inexplicable-power tropes, but as the story goes, we would begin to notice some very troubling issues of her. But the story never blatantly points it out, not because of some oversight in the writing — but because these issues are never her identifier.

Another example is Junebug. She might be a girl with attitude that is enough to tax the patience of a saint, but remember that with her condition, is there anything that could make her knows better? Snatched from a very young age, constantly living on the road, and the only adult she knows never show or teach her any affection. And to add to that, she always been reminded that she is only good for her ability in hurting people. To say the least, her insufferability is the only way for surviving. 

This less than politically correct writing is actually what makes me fall in love with this audio drama. It's not something you find everyday, especially in this medium. For me, the boldness in it is promising something even more in their next seasons, which I hope will be many to come. 

Note:

• The Van could be found in the Whale Bus website, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and your rolling podcatchers
• recommended if you like: strong and complex characters, simple sci-fi, great voice acting, good world-building, bloody good mystery, The Far Meridian, ArsParadoxica, Still Lives
• seriously caution for: strong words, violence, mention of death, domestic abuse, domestic violence, emotional and psychological abuse, mental illness, eating disorder, child abuse, child exploitation, disturbing voice.

Never Prepared For: How i Died

How i Died — it's stylized like that by the way — is an audio drama that focus on the life of a newly chosen forensic pathologist of Springfield, Jon Spacer. Appropriately enough with his profession, Jon has the ability of talking with the ghost of the cadavers — a gift that either makes his job easier, or worse. To make matters tougher, he has to deal daily with Sheriff Crowley, whose attitude to Jon couldn't be less trusting.

The fictional podcast is made by AudiOhm Media. Vincent Dajani is the writer as well as the voice of dubious Jon Spacer, and Shaina Waring acted as the no-nonsense Sheriff Crowley.

In the beginning, I thought the story is close to a slice-of-life type, like the television serial Pushing Daisies — only with less pie and more emotional baggage. But in the end of episode one, I found out that it is implied the story would be a piece in a bigger story line.

As an addition to the pleasant surprise, the criminal cases depicted in the podcast are actually based on true events, with details on information are changed to protect the victims. It is a nice touch, I think (in a creative sense, of course. crime is bad, kids); some kind of a delve into the premise of the "what-if" or the otherside-ness of a story. Although sometimes, a hundred percent of truth might not be the only purpose of telling and hearing the story.  

At time this first-sound review is made, How i Died is just started. But even though with only two episodes being released, it is an audio drama that absolutely worth more attention. It is well produced, with great voice actors, exemplary sound design and editing, and a clearly nifty writing. It's more than highly recommended, and I'm excited of what comes next from the story idea.

Note:

• How i Died is in the AudiOhm Media website, Apple Podcast, Libsyn, and your existing podcatchers.
• recommended for: great voice acting, non-imposing drama, great horror mystery with enough thrill
• caution for: death, accidents, violence, abuse, mental illness, graphic depiction of crime victims.

Indian Noir Podcast [Review]

In an ancient society with complex social and cultural problems, noir genre has more than a natural place in Indian story telling. This podcast would perfectly prove my point. 

Indian Noir Podcast is a semi-anthology audio drama with currently two sets of stories: His Night Begins and Fear. His Night Begins is a disturbing avenge story of a hit man, set in the midst of a sex-trafficking industry. While Fear is heavier on the horror side, the story of an Indian demon and a tale involving a tired software engineer and his inevitable fight with his past.

  

Episodes on each story are fairly short, most of it are only under 10 minutes and the longest are barely 20 minutes. The episode release is scheduled weekly, but in the beginning, earlier episodes for different stories was a little bit dispersed. Therefore, for new listeners that want to catch up, I highly recommend a custom playlist for a better listening experience. 

Indian Noir is one man show, with the creator Nikesh Murali multi-tasking as the main narrator, as well as voicing every other characters on the story. And dear lord...he is impeccable. He is the scornful man, laden with guilt and devoid of hope, and a couple minutes later, he is the 14 year old girl chained and trapped, he is the hitman's mistress, he is the ex-wife, the corrupt police, the crook, the mad priest.

There to be said, Indian Noir is really not an easy story to listen. I binged the entire His Story Begins in one day, and oh how I wish I didn't do it, I need hours of cat videos therapy after that. It is dark, gritty, and the depiction of violence and abuse can be something that is not all people could handle. For me personally, as a woman living in a country that has similar socio-cultural issue, it is a really tough story to listen. 

Still, I have to say that it is an amazing experience. 

It is hard not to get sucked into this podcast when you have someone like Nikesh Murali as your storyteller. He proves that sometimes you don't really need a high-tech sound engineering to be an immersive podcast.


Note:

• Indian Noir Podcast could be found in their official website, Apple Podcast, Audioboom, and your usual buddy podcatcher.
• Caution for: boy this be a lot... rape, kidnapping, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, sexual assault, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, hotdamnsomany violence, very strong language, sexual contents, drugging, incest, torture, hostage situation, presence of weapons, guns and explosions, alcoholism, drugs addiction, depression, divorce, religion issue, corrupt police, stressful situations, adulthood crisis, suicidal thoughts, blood, body horror

Sight Unseen [Review]

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.

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)

The Behemoth [Review]

The Behemoth told a story when a creature suddenly emerged from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It's indescribable, and no one knew the origin of it. The creature, which the media named The Behemoth, barely done anything or hurt anyone, but walk slowly across the state. The world just watched the creature, as well as fifteen years old Madyson, whom is our main narrator of the podcast.

Like a classic alien story, it depicted how humankind, million years old as we are, is still inept when dealing with the unknown. Maddie, with her detached parents, and she herself already resigned to her unacknowledged existence, was only too understand of the creature's situation. She then form a strange connection with The Behemoth, when she joined him in its journey through the forest, and they ended up, in a way, protecting each other.

The writing is, of course, great. Because anyone who could fill my heart with warm goo just in less with three hours time and making such steady story pace out of 8-minutes individual episodes, is a great writer. Simple as that. There's one thing that stuck in my mind though; the size of Max. At the beginning, he was described as tall as a house, then his feet is as big as a bridge's column, hand with size of a car, and an antler that at least as tall as a 15 years old girl?? I don't if my ears/brain wronged me, or it's just a matter of perspective or figure of speech–but it's a loophole that kinda nags.

The actress, Lizbeth Liu, is also really good. I usually have several doubt when faced with teen stories; because, well, being already in the ancient age, teenage nowadays (ohgodIcan'tbelieveIfinallyusethephrase) pretty much sound like spoiled brat who talk like they have a serious case of loose jaw because of bubble gum over-chewing. So imagine my sigh of relief when finding out how 'normal' Madyson sounds. The acting not over the top, and the good news is, even though she practically narrated the whole story, it doesn't sound like a robotic script reader.

The soundscape design of this podcast is quite good. You would still hear several sound effects in background, just a few and not too loud, enough too build the visual image of Maddie's story setting, but not too much to take the attention away from the narration. All in all, we are still inside Maddie's head, listening to her stories as well as her feelings.

It's easy to say that this podcast raise the theme on individual struggle on socially imposed values. I don't want to lead anything to anyone, but from the first episode alone this podcast instantly reminded me of the movie Colossal. It's clear to see why: a girl, a creature, and the link between them, not to mention the metaphors of it. However though, later on, the difference between Maddie and Gloria–character from the movie–would be clearly seen. This would be a bit spoiler-y for both: Gloria's monster was her own manifestation, who hurting herself but also trampling and causing pain to other people; while Maddie's, it's her dealing with outside life and finally decided to create changes for herself.

Huh. Let me think that again, probably rather than Colossal, this podcast is closer to the film A Monster Calls. It kinda have the same tone, albeit not as dark. It won't really gave you emotional turmoil or deep anguish, but you can feel how Madyson really feel helpless about her loneliness, and Max, despite his complete silence and unknown plan, managed to create a sense of purpose that somehow could heal Madyson. This podcast would make you stop and think, not feeling sad or pity–but just hoping the best for Maddie, and maybe, for all us silent loner too.

•••

Note:

• The Behemoth could also be found in the same feed as all Rick Coste's other eleven audio drama podcasts (ohgodIthinkI'mhavinganeargasmalready), one of it called Izzy, which actually is a sequel to The Behemoth. Search for Modern Audio Drama in the usual pod-catchers, or download the exclusive Modern Audio Drama application in Apple Store.
  
• The Behemoth on Rick Coste's official website
• The Behemoth on Stitcher and iTunes
• recommended for: light yet nutritious binge, heartfelt simple young adult story  
• genre: drama, fantasy, mystery
• caution for: not much, the content is safe enough for all age levels.