a post about podcasts
11/7/13 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neveralarchIt took me three days to write this post! I have been... doing things, I guess. Prep and the first weekend of my summer ren faire. Research-type stuff. Submitting IRB proposals. But I have also been thinking about podcasts!
I listen to podcasts (and their older/less internetty cousin, radio plays) while driving and while working and while getting ready in the morning. I need something to concentrate on so I can multitask, honestly - otherwise I get lost in my own thoughts or start wasting time because I'm bored. That's how I devoured the first 100 or so DW audios and got super into Gallifrey. And as I'm getting consumed by the latest tumblr discovery (ie Welcome to Nightvale), I thought I'd type up aquick surprisingly long post of my Thoughts on the podcasts etc that I've been into over the last two years or so.
Nebulous
Okay, so this is not actually a podcast - it was a series on BBC Radio 4. But it is definitely available on the internet if you know where to look. And I really like it (I think I've listened to the whole thing two or three times). The main character is played by Mark Gatiss, and the show is directed (and with occasional voices from) Nicholas Briggs, so I obviously picked this based on shared Whoness. It's a fun show about the post-apocalyptic future and a bumbling government agency; an agency run by Professor Nebulous, who was raised by clowns and accidentally destroyed the Isle of Man. Sometimes the writing drifts into slightly annoying 'edgy offensiveness,' but I don't remember anything majorly awful. Mostly it's just very snide, surreal, and sarcastic, which is my kind of humor. And there are bonus guest performances by Peter Davison, Kate O'Mara, David Tennant, etc. (Again, a good gateway from DW audios to other radio shows and podcasts for me.) I would definitely check it out if you can track it down.
Pop Culture Happy Hour
This is an NPR podcast! It is super rad, and you can listen to it here. Four people and occasional guests talk about just about everything. Linda Holmes is in charge and is a TV critic, Stephen Thompson is a music critic, Glen Wheldon is all about comics and wote a book about Superman, and Trey Graham is a theatre critic. They just have great conversations - I thought they'd all been friends forever, until I recently learned that they hardly knew Glen before they started doing the show together. I find them engaging even when I have no idea what they're talking about, and I have spent a lot of time listening to past episodes just to hear what they thought of Thor etc. Sometimes they have great guests like Tanya Ballard Brown, and they watch awards shows so that I don't have to. Overall just a great, positive energy podcast.
Bleak Expectations
This is another Radio 4 show which I tracked down with my internet abilities. It's a send-up of Dickensian drama and British historicals and it's AMAZING. It's written by Mark Evans, and the main villain is played by Anthony Head. A typical plot is orphan adventurer Pip Bin working against the dastardly plans of his ex-guardian Mr Gently Benevolent. It's honestly a little like A Series of Unfortunate Events, if those books were written with way more absurdity. This is not subtle humor, and it sometimes pushes against my limits re: the amount of 'edgy offensiveness' I'm up for in comedy, but once again I think it is mostly pretty good.
Mike and Tom Eat Snacks
This is a less positive review, alas. Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh talk about stuff and give over-the-top reviews of snacks. They're funny guys who obviously know each other really well, and I found a lot of it to be great. But there's this thing that they do sometimes where they say extremely misogynistic things and then go 'but we're all about respect for women. RESPECT FOR WOMEN.' which I was not down with. I guess the joke is that their misogyny is so over the top that it can't be taken seriously, haha, guys, can you believe we said that? But I have been exposed to too much sexist awfulness in life and on the internet, so I know that people do say things like that and mean them totally seriously. Thus - I cringe instead of laughing. ANYWAY, I did enjoy a lot of it, and apparently lots of people are fans, so you can check it out here if you like.
Thrilling Adventure Hour
I was SO INTO THIS and then I just got totally fed up with it, haha. This is a collection of four or five different old-time-style radio shows, each with their own storylines and characters. They're mostly really great and well-written. My favorites are Sparks Nevada (a space western) and Beyond Belief (adorable married socialite mediums), and if I was starting over I would probably skip Tales from the Black Lagoon (noir set in early Hollywood). Sparks Nevada has a lot of awesome early episodes that are just all of the fanfic tropes - Sparks Nevada and his sidekick Croach hate each other! And then A Weird Preacher Makes Them Do It and it's super awkward! And there's a body switching episode! And a musical episode! It's amazing! But I started to drop out when the shows seemed to get way more centered on Heterosexual Relationships for EVERYONE, to the exclusion of plot and character development. In particular, they started giving Sparks Nevada strings of short-term girlfriends, gutted Kroach's personality, and married off two of their side characters with basically no build-up or fanfare. (I'm blaming the writers here, not the girlfriends - they were pretty fun characters, but everyone except the Red Rider felt very tacked on. I feel the same way about Cactus Jim, who showed up and started taking over the show, even though I feel like he's a poorly-written character.) So basically I was really into the early show, but not so much the recent stuff. The main site for the show is here, but if you want to listen to eps 1-40 you'll have to go to iTunes.
Welcome to Night Vale
Back to positivity: THIS IS SO GREAT. Community radio broadcasts from a town dreamed up by a less-racist Lovecraft. There is lots of body horror and creepiness, but it's all delivered with humor and positivity and SINCERITY, it's wonderful. If I can deal with the horror elements, I am pretty sure anyone could (I have never successfully watched a horror movie or even horror comedy without flipping out, but I am totally fine with Night Vale). I think the distinction is that it's going for surreality more than a shock effect. Also! Incidentally queer main character, and apparently everyone's OTP becomes canon in one of the recent episodes (I'm not caught up yet). It's been popular on twitter for a while - the podcast's official twitter is gold - but recently a bunch of people on tumblr discovered it and have been making awesome fic and fanart and graphics (see this tag on my tumblr if you don't mind minor spoilers). It's really cool to watch a new fandom taking shape - the kinkmeme just popped up a couple days ago. If you only check out one podcast from this list pleeeease look at this one so that we can talk about it FOREVER, I love WtNV so much. It lives here.
Okay, now it's your turn - tell me about your radio shows, podcasts, etc! I would love to discover more, as I'm almost run out of Welcome to Night Vale to listen to.
I listen to podcasts (and their older/less internetty cousin, radio plays) while driving and while working and while getting ready in the morning. I need something to concentrate on so I can multitask, honestly - otherwise I get lost in my own thoughts or start wasting time because I'm bored. That's how I devoured the first 100 or so DW audios and got super into Gallifrey. And as I'm getting consumed by the latest tumblr discovery (ie Welcome to Nightvale), I thought I'd type up a
Nebulous
Okay, so this is not actually a podcast - it was a series on BBC Radio 4. But it is definitely available on the internet if you know where to look. And I really like it (I think I've listened to the whole thing two or three times). The main character is played by Mark Gatiss, and the show is directed (and with occasional voices from) Nicholas Briggs, so I obviously picked this based on shared Whoness. It's a fun show about the post-apocalyptic future and a bumbling government agency; an agency run by Professor Nebulous, who was raised by clowns and accidentally destroyed the Isle of Man. Sometimes the writing drifts into slightly annoying 'edgy offensiveness,' but I don't remember anything majorly awful. Mostly it's just very snide, surreal, and sarcastic, which is my kind of humor. And there are bonus guest performances by Peter Davison, Kate O'Mara, David Tennant, etc. (Again, a good gateway from DW audios to other radio shows and podcasts for me.) I would definitely check it out if you can track it down.
Pop Culture Happy Hour
This is an NPR podcast! It is super rad, and you can listen to it here. Four people and occasional guests talk about just about everything. Linda Holmes is in charge and is a TV critic, Stephen Thompson is a music critic, Glen Wheldon is all about comics and wote a book about Superman, and Trey Graham is a theatre critic. They just have great conversations - I thought they'd all been friends forever, until I recently learned that they hardly knew Glen before they started doing the show together. I find them engaging even when I have no idea what they're talking about, and I have spent a lot of time listening to past episodes just to hear what they thought of Thor etc. Sometimes they have great guests like Tanya Ballard Brown, and they watch awards shows so that I don't have to. Overall just a great, positive energy podcast.
Bleak Expectations
This is another Radio 4 show which I tracked down with my internet abilities. It's a send-up of Dickensian drama and British historicals and it's AMAZING. It's written by Mark Evans, and the main villain is played by Anthony Head. A typical plot is orphan adventurer Pip Bin working against the dastardly plans of his ex-guardian Mr Gently Benevolent. It's honestly a little like A Series of Unfortunate Events, if those books were written with way more absurdity. This is not subtle humor, and it sometimes pushes against my limits re: the amount of 'edgy offensiveness' I'm up for in comedy, but once again I think it is mostly pretty good.
Mike and Tom Eat Snacks
This is a less positive review, alas. Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh talk about stuff and give over-the-top reviews of snacks. They're funny guys who obviously know each other really well, and I found a lot of it to be great. But there's this thing that they do sometimes where they say extremely misogynistic things and then go 'but we're all about respect for women. RESPECT FOR WOMEN.' which I was not down with. I guess the joke is that their misogyny is so over the top that it can't be taken seriously, haha, guys, can you believe we said that? But I have been exposed to too much sexist awfulness in life and on the internet, so I know that people do say things like that and mean them totally seriously. Thus - I cringe instead of laughing. ANYWAY, I did enjoy a lot of it, and apparently lots of people are fans, so you can check it out here if you like.
Thrilling Adventure Hour
I was SO INTO THIS and then I just got totally fed up with it, haha. This is a collection of four or five different old-time-style radio shows, each with their own storylines and characters. They're mostly really great and well-written. My favorites are Sparks Nevada (a space western) and Beyond Belief (adorable married socialite mediums), and if I was starting over I would probably skip Tales from the Black Lagoon (noir set in early Hollywood). Sparks Nevada has a lot of awesome early episodes that are just all of the fanfic tropes - Sparks Nevada and his sidekick Croach hate each other! And then A Weird Preacher Makes Them Do It and it's super awkward! And there's a body switching episode! And a musical episode! It's amazing! But I started to drop out when the shows seemed to get way more centered on Heterosexual Relationships for EVERYONE, to the exclusion of plot and character development. In particular, they started giving Sparks Nevada strings of short-term girlfriends, gutted Kroach's personality, and married off two of their side characters with basically no build-up or fanfare. (I'm blaming the writers here, not the girlfriends - they were pretty fun characters, but everyone except the Red Rider felt very tacked on. I feel the same way about Cactus Jim, who showed up and started taking over the show, even though I feel like he's a poorly-written character.) So basically I was really into the early show, but not so much the recent stuff. The main site for the show is here, but if you want to listen to eps 1-40 you'll have to go to iTunes.
Welcome to Night Vale
Back to positivity: THIS IS SO GREAT. Community radio broadcasts from a town dreamed up by a less-racist Lovecraft. There is lots of body horror and creepiness, but it's all delivered with humor and positivity and SINCERITY, it's wonderful. If I can deal with the horror elements, I am pretty sure anyone could (I have never successfully watched a horror movie or even horror comedy without flipping out, but I am totally fine with Night Vale). I think the distinction is that it's going for surreality more than a shock effect. Also! Incidentally queer main character, and apparently everyone's OTP becomes canon in one of the recent episodes (I'm not caught up yet). It's been popular on twitter for a while - the podcast's official twitter is gold - but recently a bunch of people on tumblr discovered it and have been making awesome fic and fanart and graphics (see this tag on my tumblr if you don't mind minor spoilers). It's really cool to watch a new fandom taking shape - the kinkmeme just popped up a couple days ago. If you only check out one podcast from this list pleeeease look at this one so that we can talk about it FOREVER, I love WtNV so much. It lives here.
Okay, now it's your turn - tell me about your radio shows, podcasts, etc! I would love to discover more, as I'm almost run out of Welcome to Night Vale to listen to.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 04:13 am (UTC)BBC 4 has done some great dramatizations of terry Pratchett books. I think those are 'must listen to's' (well, if you like Pratchett).
I'd also recommend Kaldor Ciry and the sapphire & Steel series from Big Finish.
On BBC 4 I'd also recommend the 'Charles Paris' series.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 02:14 pm (UTC)And thanks for the other recs! I had heard of the Pratchett audio dramas, but I hadn't checked them out yet.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-12 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-16 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-16 02:50 pm (UTC)podcast - http://evers.podspot.de/rss
This is a podcast of a German comedian - Horst Evers.
audiobook - Walter Moers - Die 13 1/2 Leben Des Käpt'n Blaubär
(a mix of comedy, fantasie and fairy tale, narrated audiobook)
audioplay - Frank Schätzing - Der Schwarm (a thriller)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-19 01:11 am (UTC)