April 23, 2018

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THE LIST

1. Showcase from Radiotopia - "Errythang #4 - The Good Guy Myth"
This is probably the best thing I've listened to all year. Al Letson conveys the inescapable horrors of masculinity that have manifested in countless headlines, all in a novel and deeply personal way. Rarely does an episode manage to experiment with form and tell an absolutely chilling story. 

2. Hang Up And Listen - "The Not Michael Jordan Edition"
Musical theatre, basketball, sports talk radio that manages to be mostly not about sports, and the creator of Parks & Recreation all make an appearance on one of the most delightful editions of HUAL ever to grace the podwaves.

3. 99% Invisible - "The Hair Chart"
Kudos to 99PI for delivering something totally unexpected to my listening queue. I know that hair is both deeply personal and potentially political, but the role design played in the evolution of style is nothing I've ever pondered. 

HONORABLE MENTION
The New Yorker Radio Hour - "Pope Francis the Disruptor"
Planet Money - "Tariffied"

SOMETHING NEW

Sandra is the new audio drama from Gimlet. The premise: an Amazon-esque company has an artificial intelligence technology that is actually just humans in some sort of demented call center. Essentially, it's a weird middle ground between the defunct ChaCha and the imminently more advanced voice assistant technology of Siri/Alexa/Google. This is an extremely odd setup, and despite being pretty vague and unbelievable I was still ready to be surprised and tantalized over the course of seven episodes.

The expedient season length is similar to Homecoming, the first Gimlet endeavor into star-studded radio plays, and initially the attainability of binging the whole series kept me listening. Two things ultimately slowed my roll. First, the advertising. While the ad spots were intriguing, it is not a good idea to try and weave in narrative advertising while trying to tell a story in the body of the work. It wasn't so much confusing as jarring. Sure, you might argue that network television has been offering such pernicious disjoinders for decades. But in the age of on-demand content I've grown accustomed to imbibing an entire piece of work from start to finish without interruptions (save for those that I dictate myself. #dessertbreak).

In addition to intrusive capitalism cramping my style, the writing kind of fell off as the story developed. There are a lot of loose ends that crop up with no compelling direction. The felonious boyfriend, the oddly motivated supervisor, the errant caller that becomes a major character, and the heroine at the center of the story all lack any kind of spark. I didn't care how they are tied to the comically evil corporation one bit. This unknown territory is somewhat of a staple in an action/sci-fi/thriller, but while those genres may be found in smidgens the story feels too thinly spread. The cheeky parallels to big tech's overreach had some potential, but I was left very unsure about what exactly the show wanted to say. It deserves props for being a little slice-of-life, but the cliff-hanger of an ending didn't send my mind racing with hypothetical directions the show could take in future episodes.

Finally, the acting. Homecoming brilliantly showcased the comedic and dramatic chops of an all star cast. Sandra lobs up the likes of Ethan Hawke, Kristen Wiig, and Alia Shawkat only to have the performances fall flat. OK, maybe serviceable is a more equitable way to couch the work from these theoretically blameless working artists. After all, there's not a lot to work with in the material, and maybe voice-acting is not a strength of these well-regarded names from the screen. Perhaps it's a credit to the talent that the only time I thought about the acting reputations in play was when I remembered they were involved. But that realization only served to reinforce my general feeling of "meh."

Without any kind of context about the audio drama landscape or the producing company, Sandra is not the worst thing I've ever heard. Knowing about Gimlet and the largely stellar track record they have, however, this show listens a lot more like a tentative first step than a product that follows on the heels of two wonderful seasons of Homecoming. I guess they don't call it a sophomore slump for nothing.


From: Gimlet
Recommended for: People who have never heard an audio drama.
Drop Schedule: Wednesday, Seasonal:One-Time(All episodes available as of April 18th, 2018)
Average episode length: 25 minutes
Rating: Break It

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