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    • Showing only topics with the tag "drama". Back to normal view

    4. Favourite audio dramas/fiction podcasts?

      ~hobbies Ask (survey)
      Over the last year, I've found myself listening to quite a few audio dramas. I've never been one for traditional podcasts so it was pretty surprising to me that I loved them so much the moment...

      Over the last year, I've found myself listening to quite a few audio dramas. I've never been one for traditional podcasts so it was pretty surprising to me that I loved them so much the moment they went from nonfiction to fiction. It's pretty similar to watching TV, except you can still use your eyes for other tasks! Audio books are nice too, but they don't quite scratch the same itch. So with all that, here's an unordered list of some of my favourite audio dramas (along with a small synopsis and some personal opinions), and I invite you to post your own in the comments!

      Title Official Synopsis Personal Notes
      ars PARADOXICA When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe. Along with everything in the official description, this one also has secret codes at the end of each episode so you can play along at home, and has a cast with quite a bit of diverse representation.
      The Imperfection Charlie and Amber suffer from a disorder that causes a constant stream of hallucinations. When they discover that their psychiatrist is missing, they rally together with the other patients to search for him. Along the way, they encounter secret societies, half-human half-spider centaurs, and a hidden borough of New York under the East River. But how can you find the truth when you can’t tell what’s real? This one is mostly a comedy with a rather absurdist sense of humour, but it has some really heartfelt moments. The creators are professionals as well, so the sound design is very nice to listen to.
      Wooden Overcoats Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family’s failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor – the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in business… A British comedy through-and-through, I've had to stop listening to this one in public for fear I look totally crazy, giggling like a hyena. It's also totally family friendly, so you can listen to it with your kids/parents/neighbour's dogs as well!
      NORA These recordings were emailed to us without explanation. The sender has not responded to any questions. We cannot confirm the veracity of the information contained within, but believe that the creator of these recordings is acting in good faith. The woman, who calls herself NORA, is investigating a strange series of events that wander between the boundaries of perception and reality. There is some suggestion of organized crime, paranormal influence, or perhaps simple madness. We will continue to make these available as they are sent to us. They present no danger to the listener and seem to provide a source of support for the creator. Ok, this is a strange one. It's pretty short (only 7 episodes of about a half-hour each), but I was left thinking about it for days afterwards. If you like more weird, interpretive stories, this one is up your alley. It kind of reminded me of House of Leaves, which is a book I love a lot, so take that as you will.

      All of these can be found on basically any podcast app (I use AntennaPod on Android), so if any piqued your interest, do give them a shot!

      37 votes

    33. "The Reckoning" - there are some problems

      ~tv Text 468 words
      BBC has just put out a 4 part "factual drama" based on Jimmy Savile. It is available here. Steve Coogan plays Savile. Here is the IMDB page for it. For those who don't know, Jimmy Savile was a...

      BBC has just put out a 4 part "factual drama" based on Jimmy Savile. It is available here. Steve Coogan plays Savile. Here is the IMDB page for it.

      For those who don't know, Jimmy Savile was a live dj, a radio dj, and a tv presenter. He played local dance halls, and then moved to Radio Caroline in 1958 when he was 32, and he moved to BBC TV in 1964 when he was 38. There were allegations made against him right from the start of his dj career, and as time went on these became more and more known among the public, but organisations failed to deal with them and failed to hold him to account. When he died hundreds of people came forward. After extensive police investigations police concluded he was a prolific sex offender, and probably the UK's most prolific sex offender. Wikipedia article about savile, and wikipedia article about the abuse scandal.

      Coogan is a great, he's clearly a talented actor and he does pretty well here. The show heavily features a dramatic representation of Savile's biographer, Dan Davies.

      The show covers Savile's entire career. It shows changing public perceptions of him, it shows him testing boundaries and getting away with minor rule breaking, it shows the manipulations of power he used to get access to girls.

      But there are problems here. There are many complicated reasons why people don't report sexual abuse, and this show fails to do anything but pay minor lip service to those. Biggest for me is the focus entirely on Savile, and not the systems that enabled his abuse. Clearly he is the only person responsible for the abuse, but how did he get away with it so long, why didn't anyone stop him, why did organisations let him continue? There's a mealy-mouthed attempt to explain this, but that's a few lines of dialogue at most. This is important! The question of "How do we stop abusers?" needs a robust, evidence based, approach that doesn't stop at a shrug of the shoulders and "we dunno, he was a master manipulator". He absolutely wasn't, he was just brutally uncaring and wealthy. You come away from this show thinking that organisations were well meaning but a bit clueless, but that wasn't the case. Society just did not care about abuse enough to prevent it from happening, and we need to examine why we allowed it to happen.

      Each episode starts by interview survivors, and it's good that their voice is prominent.

      The TV drama Three Girls about the Rochdale Grooming scandal is better - it focuses on victims and how they were let down by the system. Or you could watch The Red Riding Trilogy one, two, and three - this is fiction, but features investigations into the Yorkshire Ripper case.

      5 votes