There comes a time when you think you’ve experienced all audio drama has to offer. As a critic for over a decade, that path to becoming jaded about the thing that brought you so much joy is a very real possibility. That goes for any critic in any medium. Part of it is how well they can argue their case of why the story is good, bad or neutral. Another is when you’ve experienced so many stories, you begin to see more of the faults than the elements that are actually working. This audio drama is the first one in a long time where that sense of boredom and the “been there done that” mentality bec ..read more

The audio drama series, “The Temp” has been running since 2019. Each episode follows the career of Bernie Pfelger as a temporary hire for all various odd jobs in the world. The creator, Michael Wilhelm also voices the character with the same temperament as someone from a 60s television show. An Amalgamation of Characters and Jobs Perhaps the second most interesting aspect about this show comes from the sheer number of years this show has been around and arguably no one has been talking about it. For a show with a format like this to last seven years as of this writing is something miraculous ..read more

The podcast “Mortis Maledictum” is a dark fantasy anthology and a world created by Devin McCamey and Martin Shannon. One would think these two aspects would link together. A larger tapestry made up of smaller stories, each one adding to it like a quilt. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite come off as the authors intended. At least not nearly as fast as one would expect in a post-MCU world where everything is connected. This review will look at the first three episodes and episode 17: “Labyrinthine Shades” as well as the book version these tales come from. Dark Fantasy, Pacing and Narration in an A ..read more

Preface Here’s something exciting and fresh for the site. University of Michigan Press was kind enough to give me an advanced reader digital copy of Neil Verma’s upcoming book called “Narrative Podcasting in an Age of Obsession (affiliate link)” Below is a Pre(View) of the book’s introduction and opening chapter. When the book comes out on June 3, 2024, I’ll post the second half of this article. What is Narrative Podcasting? If the book “Theatre in the Mind” took that initial step toward a bronze age of looking at podcasts as a scholarly subject — this book takes the second, larger leap toward ..read more

The relatively new show called “Don’t Write Me Off” is a fresh take on an old favorite of the medium. That being an anthology show. It takes a page from shows like “Untold Tales” where there are multiple authors, but no overarching narrative connecting them. At the same time, it does have a frame. Not a frame like Pendant Productions “Seminar,” but something more along the lines of a meta narrative. An audio drama contest. Awards like Audioverse are great for audio dramas in the same way Sundance is good for films. “Don’t Write Me Off” has an award show as the frame and the stories themselves ..read more

The first season of the suspense/horror show “The Burbs” has few moments of actual horror in the vein of a Stephen King homage. It relies heavily on loud-sound jump scares to get the listener’s heart racing. Often times the reaction of the characters is scarier than the actual catalyst itself. From the start, the mixing of background music and dialogue with narration compete with each other for dominance. The microphones or voice filters used certainly don’t help with identifying what is said before the first instance of the title read. This is an expedited review. Stephen King Suspense and Qu ..read more

A smorgasbord of miss or cringe humor where the creators seem self-aware at the ridiculousness that is “Magic Rocks from Hell.” If you’re a fan of reference or old pop culture humor, you may like this. Those looking for a more nuanced comedy with a story, might want to stick with a less bombastic story. For a comedy, I think maybe I laughed once throughout the five episode series. It was a WTF kind of laugh at an overtly sexual alien with some out-of-date and bonkers lingo regarding intercourse. Muppet humor is perhaps the most descriptive word to use when discussing this audio drama mini-seri ..read more

Back in the Spring of 2023, I bought and listened to Graphic Audio’s adaptation of “The Boys” comic series in preparation for the return of the Amazon Original’s return for season four. I hadn’t even touched the show aside from maybe one or two YouTube videos where they described it as a dark satire on super hero movies. While not a comparative piece, this review will have moments where I compare the audio dramatization with the television show. I’m still roughly halfway through the first season on Amazon after fully listening to the Graphic Audio versions. Obviously this won’t include anythin ..read more

Originally published on the UI7 Live website in Spring 2023. Theatre in the Dark started—as the name suggests—in a theater, in the dark. Their first audio play “Three Stories Up” premiered in Fall 2019. They performed the play live in person, but in “pitch black conditions.” Once the pandemic hit, they switched their strategy to an audible one. The nonprofit’s artistic director Corey Bradberry also works with Second City in Chicago as a director and teacher. He teaches improvisation, writing and acting at the 50-year-old theater company based in Chicago and Toronto. Bradberry says ..read more

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