Personal Highlights
Modem Prometheus: 9 – Möbius. It’s a haunting tale from this world which exists between two realities, and of another threat which lurks in the dark corners of the city’s night. The story from this episode adds another new and unsettling aspect to our knowledge of this otherworldly reality, and the consequences of interfering with something that you should stay well away from. A completely normal aspect of a city’s landscape – canals, in this case – hides something much more sinister, and reflects an uneasy coexistence between what we know to be real, and what should only exist in superstition.
Echoes (In) Between: 6 – Evocative. This show is developing into a very intriguing mystery, and in this episode we’re given some big details about this world that completely change our perspective on the story. This is a society living with a significant amount of trauma, which had only been hinted at up until now, and adds a completely new and very complex layer to the motivations that could have been behind Gemma and Thomas’ decision to create a podcast which explores memory and lost memories. Thomas’ recollection in particular of the Blackout is chilling, and his and Gemma’s very different experiences of the same event add so much to our understanding of who they are as adults.
Welcome to Night Vale: 210 – Ten Years Later. Congratulations to Welcome to Night Vale on their tenth anniversary! This episode works as a kind of retrospective of the story we’ve heard so far, but with a focus on the characters we’ve met over the years – the people who make Night Vale Night Vale. Naturally, there’s an emphasis on Carlos, who arrived exactly ten years ago, and how he’s built a life and family in this strange desert town, and what it means for him to belong to Night Vale. In true Night Vale style, there are some poignant thoughts on the nature of time, which doesn’t always work as it perhaps should. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop a little bit during this episode, and there’s an unpleasant surprise in a post-credits scene which threatens the very nature of this town and its weirdness.
ROGUEMAKER: Episode 4 – Uplink/Downlink. I saw a tweet from show creator Emma Johanna Puranen saying that this episode of ROGUEMAKER would be ‘the end of Act 1’ if it were a play, and it definitely feels like this is the end of the first phase of the story, without even knowing in what direction it will go next. There’s a cohesion and bringing together of the characters in a way that we haven’t seen since the show’s opening episode, although naturally in a different context here as they are all still physically separated in their pods; but this coming together of everyone in a group allows them all to move together to the next stage of the story, which absolutely came as a surprise to me at the end of this episode.
Debuts
The Goblet Wire‘s first episode is written by Justin Hellstrom, and the beautifully surreal imagery and story very much remind me of the vibes of his podcast, The Great Chameleon War. We follow a session of the Goblet Wire with Moth-Food, and meet the Dictator, who seems to be a kind of GM for this roleplaying game. This introduces us to the basic format for the game, and one variation on the set of tools that it uses, and I’m very curious to learn more about the world it’s played in.
Trailers and Prologues
Hand in Glove released a second trailer this week, ahead of the show’s launch on the 4th of July. Here, we’re given a different perspective as we’re introduced to two new characters – Britt the pitching coach, and Val, who is a writer for a queer publication.
Badlands Cola‘s third and final trailer was released this week, ahead of the show’s launch on the 21st of June. It brings an intriguing new aspect to what we know so far about the story, and I’m very curious to find out how exactly the details on an old VHS tape tie into the unexplained events we saw happen in the previous two trailers.
Returns
Desperado is back, and so is the banter! Before Elio, Shinji, and Talia pick up the story where we left off at the end of season one, their group dynamic is instantly re-established. There’s a wonderful interweaving of narration between Shinji and Talia, building the tension as they recount how they both realised something was wrong. We’re also introduced to some new characters, who bring a very intriguing aspect to the story.
The Pasithea Powder returns for its third and final season, and it’s the beginning of the end of this story. Three months after the end of season two, we meet Jane on Medea, heartbroken and isolated, leaving messages for Sophie. We see her trying to navigate her new reality and all the pressures it brings, while escaping into past memories as a form of comfort. We’re also caught up on the public aspect of what’s been going on with Sophie, but what’s really happened to her remains a mystery that Jane can only speculate about.
Crowdfunding
Good Pointe are crowdfunding for the second season of The Subjective Truth. This sci-fi podcast, set in an alternative present with some unsettling advancements in technology, investigates the disappearance of amateur podcaster Buddha Klein.
Casting Calls
Sci-fi podcast Micro-Cosmos is currently recasting a supporting character, ahead of the continuation of the show’s first season. Unpaid, deadline 26th of June.
A Sky Full of Pods 