Personal Highlights
2298: S2 E10 – Eventual Horizon. It’s painfully (sorry…) clear how much of Profile 13’s existence in The Network is a battle between the artificial and the real. There’s the robotic, repetitive alerts of The Network, constantly chasing them, that they’re trying to evade; and the very real pain that they feel and talk about. The final line hits hard, there’s a huge sense of loss and grief for what once was in the real world, in their life before The Network, even though we don’t fully understand yet what exactly they lost.
What Will Be Here: E6 – Critical Vehicle Functions. There’s a different format to this episode, as Kei’s work on Jules’ car leads to an awful realisation. From the individual recordings at the beginning of the story, we’ve got to the point where there are three people in a scene, initially with the speech of two overlapping another. But this sense of physical closeness is a contradiction in itself, as it exists because of the further fragmentation and conflict within the group. One person’s actions, and lack of awareness of their privilege and position in society has risked the entire Underground. Where will the group go from here?
Lost Terminal: 7.7 – Someone is fighting LUNA. There’s an explanation of the concerning cliffhanger we were left on at the end of the other episode, but in true Seth style, he isn’t very concerned – instead, unsurprisingly, he chooses to focus on the positive. I enjoyed the insight into post-collapse technology and a particular form of communication that survived after the loss of the internet; but yes Seth, I thought we’d already established that you were feeling tired because of the change in power. Still, I’m glad he actually brought it up again instead of just trying to ignore it and plow on. But again, he buries bad news in the middle of his transmission, and this time it genuinely brought tears to my eyes.
Mercury: A Broadcast of Hope: One is the Loneliest Number. This was a difficult episode to listen to, as it very much resonated with me. On Valentine’s Day, Max talks about not only how painful the day can be, but the difficulties the zombie apocalypse presents when it comes to love and relationships. For me, it was easy to make comparisons with the real world, as we go into the third year of this pandemic. I’m glad the team behind the show chose to give this message, when the difficulties of this day every year are often forgotten among all the flowers and chocolates. (But also, as a BTS stan, yes I did shout ‘Whalien 52!!’ at one point in the episode. If you know, you know.)
InCo: S3 Episode 30 – Class Trip. Oh, I do love InCo’s episode titles. I am not one bit jealous of Nova trying to herd cats, and just the group’s departure to the temple is chaotic enough. There’s an interesting switch in her mood as she notices the sky; she’s been on a planet for a long time now, and it’s not surprising that she misses her life in space. She’s become so tangled up with the royal family and all its children, and they’re definitely already testing her patience on this trip!
Witchever Path: Sentry Part Six – No Time. Now, this isn’t an episode that I enjoyed exactly, but it’s an extremely powerful one that I can’t stop thinking about. Witchever Path has always dealt with the very real fears of marginalised folks in their everyday lives, and this story arc deals with transphobia, homophobia, and racism. There are excellent performances from Tyler Bell and Journee LaFond, as the events of this episode unfold, all the more horrifying in the second person narration.
Debuts
Maxine Miles is a new young adult mystery written by Lauren Shippen, and the podcast has has an interesting concept. The audience will get to decide how the season ends, with three different finale episodes released simultaneously in two months’ time. The show’s first episode introduces us to Maxine, a high school student, as she begins to investigate graffiti which has appeared overnight in the small town of Hastings. The episode ends with the news of a student having gone missing, and the story promises to follow Max’s investigation into this disappearance.
Trailers and Teasers
Desperado released a second trailer for its upcoming second season, which starts with Elio, Shinji and Talia’s bantering turning into bickering – some things clearly never change with these three! The trailer was released to promote the show’s crowdfunding campaign, which has just over two weeks left.
Returns
The Milkman of St Gaff‘s is back for a second season. Set a couple of weeks after the season one finale, It’s not surprising that Howie is brushing off the catastrophic events of that episode, even though the landscape of the island is now very different. Howie still has the milk to deliver, but he has some big ideas about his destiny.
Special Episodes
Surreal Love was released over the course of Valentine’s Day 2021, and this year a surprise episode was released – naturally of course, on Valentine’s Day. Firstly, I would like to say, feelings jail, both of you. That transition from the first scene to the second especially, ouch. The episode ties in further with its sibling show SHIFTS (which is currently on its second season), and it was very interesting getting what felt like behind the scenes information of that story’s setting.
Crowdfunding
The Sheridan Tapes is crowdfunding for its upcoming third season on Seed & Spark.
Between Heartbeats is an upcoming urban fantasy podcast by Chijioke Williams. The show is currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo.
The Way We Haunt Now is crowdfunding through Ko-fi and its Pinecast tip jar to cover costs for its now-concluded second season, as well as its upcoming third season. Details in this Twitter thread.
Casting Calls
Monkeyman Productions are looking for one or more audio engineers for the upcoming fourth and final season of Moonbase Theta, Out. Paid opportunity.
A Sky Full of Pods 