Podcasts - A Selection of Rick Coste Productions
In the relatively early days of the podcast boom, Rick Coste Productions produced some above average short 'weird fiction' narrative series geared largely to younger audiences but which are listenable for anyone else. The wierdness is often, although not always, explained in more realistic ways than usual but every series has been well written enough to carry that off.
The Behemoth is the single voice (mostly) story of an unusual and weird road trip. A 'monster' (a mysterious stone man) arises out of the sea at Cape Cod and walks in a straight line across the United States. A lonely teenage girl, Maddy, makes her way to him and decides to walk with him. In the event she is a protective force for her silent friend as the usual suspects in a disturbed society insist on seeing the 'monster' as a problem rather than as a natural force to be respected and worked around.
It is a gentle and sensitive commentary on both teenage development in a world where adults are too busy or self-absorbed to listen and on an adult world that cannot think except in terms of fear, threat, 'news' and celebrity. A delightful and gentle weird fiction tale that is well written and well acted by the narrator.
The Behemoth 2 is a shorter follow-up that tracks 'Max' (the 'monster') to his appearance in the Solomon Islands fourteen years later with the attention on a more excitable young woman Izzy (a nice bit of characterisation) and Maddy's 'closure' (if it is closure). As well written as the first 'season', it nevertheless is a coda that would not stand on its own.
Scotch is perhaps the least of the series but not by far. It is a tale of madness or possession that manages to be both horror and measured in its horror. It works because as, a largely single voice production, like Behemoth, it allows the younger twenty-something listener to identify with the narrator as someone trying to make their own way in the big city away from a small town home with its own share of tragedy. If there is one thing Coste does well, it is to give voice to the uncertainties of the young as they become adult.
Another recommendation, similar in tone to Scotch, is Is There Anybody Out There. Although the resolution is quickly predictable and it is not really a science fiction story but rather a psychological drama, centred on two lonely outsiders who connect over ham radio, it is nicely written in short episodes and holds the attention.
We can add one more Rick Coste production to the list although this one is more suitable for older children and very young adults. Short and sweet in nine episodes Pixie gives us a fantasy about a girl demon who refuses to obey her father, the Prince of Darkness, and wants to enjoy the beauty of the world above Hell and to be 'good'.
It is low key but witty (there is a nice episode where C S Lewis' The Screwtape Letters are used as a primer for young demons in training) with a likeable familiar for Pixie in the kindly bat Wayne and a cast of grumpy demons who seem more irritable and curmudgeonly than evil. It is a simple tale of finding your own way and being free to make your own choices that will appeal to young adolescents trying to do just that.
There is an essential kindness and thoughtfulness in these productions that marks them out and I recommend them for that reason alone.