Personal Highlights
Folxlore: S2E06 – Creature
“We have always been here”, this episode of Folxlore proclaims, proudly and furiously. Folxlore delves deep into different aspects of queerness in modern society, and in this week’s episode there’s a powerful examination of trans experiences and identity. It’s both a celebration of transitioning and rebirth in all of their complexities, and a protest against the alarming rise in transphobia of recent years. The final line resonates long after the episode has ended, a statement of strength and defiance, delivered with such power that it gave me chills.
Lost Terminal: 11.10 – I have forgotten much
(Note: I played Yeshi in a Patreon special episode of Lost Terminal) It’s the final episode of the eleventh season of Lost Terminal to be released since the show’s launch in July 2020; and to me this season has felt like the end of an act, with Seth involuntarily returning his past, and confronting the traumatic memories that he has tried to keep buried. As with season one, the setting for this season has been Station 6, the satellite on which Seth was created many years before the beginning of the show, but the context for this set of episodes has been very different. It’s here that we get a bigger picture of the events that happened before season one, which gives us a new perspective on Seth’s experiences throughout the previous ten seasons, a much deeper understanding of his existence in the world as an AI, and his development as a character. I found it to be a very intriguing season, which concluded in a delightful way, and I’m very curious to see how Seth will now deal with his present from here on out.
The Pasithea Powder: 33 – Jane and Sophie
After over three years, The Pasithea Powder has reached the end of its story, and it’s a truly beautiful ending. That final scene has stayed with me throughout the week, a scene which gives closure to this chapter in Jane and Sophie’s story. It’s such a perfect moment of stillness and reflection, which acknowledges their complicated pasts, while also looking towards the future and a new beginning together. It’s the peace, the calmness, the sheer normality of just a quiet moment together, which has been so difficult for them to obtain since the beginning of their story, that makes for such a satisfying ending. The location for this final scene may be unusual, but it only reflects the importance of memory to this story – both individual and shared – given, of course, the effects of the Pasithea Powder. Congratulations to Jackie Hedeman and Molly Olguín on a wonderful story, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Tin Can Audio: The Feet – Covers 02
Covers is proving to be a very interesting experiment from Tin Can Audio. Written and performed by David Devereux, these monologues are inspired by book covers and are written and produced live on Twitch, before being released on the Tin Can Audio Presents feed. The second episode in this series, titled The Feet, quickly develops into a claustrophobic horror that felt very Tin Can Audio to me. It’s the importance of sound in creating a deeply unsettling sense of inescapable fear and dread, continually heightening and increasing, all the while conveying how this threat continues to manifest itself exclusively through sound and no other sense. It turns out that these noisy feet have a simple explanation, however, with a closing line to the episode which hits hard. It’s a simple line, delivered in a matter-of-fact way which only emphasises how awful the events depicted in the episode were.
Debuts
When Tower Angels Fall is a new sci-fi podcast created by Elizabeth Plant, and set around 20 years after the end of the world. Two twins arrive on an oil-rig, which is inhabited by 50 people who had seemingly disappeared from society two years prior. Tensions’ boil over after the siblings’ arrival, their discovery of Angel Island shattering the peace of those who had tried to stay hidden.
Liars & Leeches is a new supernatural horror from Marisa Ewing’s Hemlock Creek Productions, which launched this week. Liars & Leeches is Hemlock Creek Productions’ first original audio drama, which I was very excited for in the run-up to its launch. In this first episode, we meet Tonya, as she moves into her sister and brother-in-law’s house – after they’re both killed by an act of gun violence. It’s understandably a very difficult time for her, and a trip to the grocery store to get dinner develops into an increasingly distressing experience.
Returns
Apollyon is back for its second season, following the shocking events of the end of season one. There’s a very interesting addition of an in-universe post-credits tagline to this episode, “The ICRS is keeping the world safe.”, which really sums up the ethical debates which are presented in this season opener – by asking both the questions of ‘at what cost?’, and ‘who exactly is being kept safe?’. Theo, of course, represents answers to these questions, as this episode seems to set up her conflicts for this upcoming season, as a new direction of the AVS vaccine is established. This all ties into an expansion of this story’s world, with its very deliberate societal inequality – the question of who is being kept safe from the virus is given a stark spotlight as the episode develops. It’s a very intriguing development to the story, and I’m looking forward to the rest of this season.
A Sky Full of Pods 