Weird Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Podcasts ... and a Political Satire
Life After/The Message (2016)
The Blood Drawn Chronicles (2016-2018)
The Switchboard (2017)
Life After and its sequel The Message adopt a method that is usually tiresome and has become hackneyed already in the fictional podcast space - the dependence of narrative on the detritus of technology (usually left-behind tapes, voice messages, recordings and so forth). Here, however, the use of recordings from a social platform on a mobile phone works in the first season because of the subject matter. The sequel also plays nicely with the potential for sound to become dangerous: there is a point where the listener might wonder, perhaps for only a second, whether he or she is doomed to a horrible death.
The basic conceit of Life After is that someone who has lost a partner or other loved one finds that some mysterious form of AI or alien force has been able to reproduce the lost person's personality to such an extent through a social platform that the 'victim' can become persuaded to join them by 'uploading' (what you and I would call death). The first series unfolds as a thriller as the FBI tries to unravel the conspiracy using and sometimes abusing one of their own employees whose ambiguous relationship to the cult creates much of the interest in the story.
This is another dark tale, similar to the Black Mirror TV series, that has something to say about depression and the suicidal impulse that may come from loss - the 'thanatos principle' - but also about self-deception. It is on the edge of truly disturbing at times.
The sequel The Message moves away from the social platform and recordings to offer a more conventional drama introducing the idea of something alien having introduced itself into our communications systems, killing by sound. Government agents initiate this story but the central figures are scientists who have to work out the motivation of the alien/AI force underpinning both stories. Their conclusion becomes genuinely interesting and might tell us something about why we should be wary of letting AI loose on us.
There are twelve seasons of the dark fantasy The Blood Drawn Chronicles and very enjoyable they all are (though don't give up when you hit the one that is a bit slower than the others). The main protagonist is Mayrick the Valpir, a vampire-like creature (though quite definitely not a vampire) who comes from another world of aristocratic honour, bloody wars and competition between 'houses' (in the tradition of Dune and Game of Thrones). He comes to earth in exile and the seasons take us through his adventures in a variety of fantasy situations (all familiar perhaps to lovers of the genre but none of them hackneyed in their use here) that work towards his redemption through love with an elf-like creature.
In fact, the cliches can be ignored because the rich imagination and characterisation and almost constant adventure (despite Mayrick's propensity to soliloquise like an alien Hamlet) make this highly enjoyable. One character in particular - a cunning but loyal dwarf 'made' vampire who befriends Mayrick and who gets all the best lines - is so well played (the podcast is an ensemble performance) that you pine for his return whenever he departs.
There is lots of bloody action, imaginative landscapes and emotional trauma for Mayrick whose psychology is explored in depth and central to the tale. The writers have also created a complex background Valpir mythology with cleverly developed echoes of Christian theology. The sometimes lugubrious Mayrick's 'religious' torment is very much part of the story. A long listen but thoroughly enjoyable.
The Switchboard is an Irish show that has a lone lighthouse keeper communicating with the rest of the world and suggesting that dark and Lovecraftian things are taking place that threaten the maintenance of reality. It is not over-excitable. Its menace is nicely subdued but very real and sometimes humorous in a very Irish way. Each episode follows a precise repeated format, the sort of thing that should comfort from familiarity but which, in this case, builds up an atmosphere of creepiness. The core story, supplied in small segments, is of a mystery ship whose behaviour implies unimaginable horrors.
The London Necropolis Railway has nothing to do with Andrew Martin's crime novel. It postulates a way-station run by ghouls between this life and whatever fate is ultimately in store for us (left mysterious) for the dead. The ghouls are unimaginative and not very sinister jobsworths in a hierarchical system looked down upon by the collectors who actually bring the souls to the railway. The ghouls simply make sure the trains run on time.
Into this rather depressing apparently necessary bureaucracy comes a cliche - the private investigator who keeps absconding from attempts to get her on to the train because of an unresolved crime involving a shape-shifting demon who is killing humans off (like her) in the guise of a collector. Needless to say this is a crime that needs to be solved by the bureaucracy which has an enemy within. It is wittily written and acted and, although it ends perhaps a little perfunctorily, nicely mixes the fantasy and the crime genres to fill a few hours. There are no surprises in the plot but the mise en scene is nicely done and it is hard not to like the show.
We have an oddity in The Echo Protocol which might perhaps be considered a political conspiracy story except that it is so unusual that it transcends the genre and should perhaps be seen as a political satire that is more subtle than most. Five former Presidents (Republican and Democrat), who largely loathe or despise each other, meet to discuss whether to initiate the mysterious Echo Protocol to deal with the arrival of a new populist incumbent of the Presidency who threatens to disrupt the Constitution and impose an authoritarian regime with mass public backing.
You would think that this might be some predictable fictional intervention by one of the usual liberal suspects at the expense of their bete noire Trump. If it was, I would not have bothered to listen on. In fact, it is more ambiguous than that. It takes no sides although the story is told from the perspective of the past Presidents, led by a woman President (so we know it is fiction). The populist incumbent appears rational and intelligent.
The previous Presidents exhibit the behaviour of political snakes at times. You are treated as intelligent and allowed to decide yourself whether a bunch of political snakes are in the right regardless of their nature and plots because they plot and conspire to protect the Constitution, albeit using somewhat dubious means, or whether the populist President is being outplayed by a Secret State that prefers a Constitution they can manage to a democratic mandate that threatens their cosy world. You can play it either way according to partisan prejudices - and America today is riddled with those.
Arca - 45672 is an average adventure science fiction drama with decent characterisation and solid acting but a rather old-fashioned interplanetary story-line. It could be from the 1950s if it was not for the threat to the planet from nuclear warfare being replaced by the threat to humanity from planetary degradation. If you are not too demanding and find it easy to suspend disbelief, it will pass a few hours happily enough on a dull journey.
Confessions from the Nocturne Nebula is a solid 'noir' told in the first person by the psychopathic Nolan Stone, owner of a successful night club on a 'station' in an earth-origin space system in the future. The 'Maltese Falcon' is a box of high value hallucinogenic alcohol concealing another politically-sensitive high value item which allows a hint of the tropes of space opera without distracting us from the noir tale of double-dealing and complex plotting that drags a man to the edge of disaster more than once. What is good about this story is that it wears the science fiction setting very lightly and concentrates on the 'noir' tropes so that they no longer seem quite so cliched as they are. Well written and acted within its tradition, the future space system seems no less real than Chandler's Los Angeles but with the twist that we have three different cops playing off each other as part of the plot. The story-telling is leisurely, maybe slow once in a short while, but it captures the imagination and it satisfies.