Podcast round-up

In case you were wondering, I'm not dead.  To make up for my absence, let me give you a podcast round-up.  These are the podcasts I've been listening to:

Limetown
Limetown, population 300 0.

Limetown was a small, prosperous community nestled near the limestone caves of Tennessee.  It was made up of a collection of brilliant minds, and was entirely self-sufficient.  Everyone there had a purpose, a role.  Although no one outside of town knew exactly what was going on in Limetown, it appeared to be humming along quite happily - a model community.  Then, 10 years ago, 300 men, women, and children disappeared following a panicked 9-1-1 call.  How can 300 people just disappear without a trace - no bodies, no notes, no...nothing?  American Public Radio journalist Lia Haddock is determined to find out just what happened in Limetown all those years ago.  But, perhaps some mysteries are best left undisturbed.

This is a short podcast audio drama that is good for newbies to the genre.  It's paced well, and the story keeps you riveted.

Uncanny County
Uncanny County is a collection of short audio drama stories similar to The Twilight Zone.  The stories are funny, touching, disturbing, and of course, uncanny.  The stories are loosely connected, but each chapter can stand alone on its own.  I listened to this while I was waiting for the next installment of King Falls A.M., and in fact, Sammy and Ben make a guest appearance in one of the episodes.

The Box
Addison Gilmore is a college drop-out working in a book shop when she discovers a huge, heavy box hidden behind dummy books on the shelf.  When she finally gets it open, she finds that it's crammed full of journals kept by people called "Operatives".  These Operatives investigated strange phenomena across the country, and some of the journals date back to as far as the 1800s.  If they're real, that is... The tales inside are so unbelievable - strange, horrifying, and unexplainable.  Like a good journalism student, Addison decides to try to verify the contents of these journals before dismissing them as some strange, elaborate, long-running fiction project.  But the closer she gets to the truth, the closer something seems to be getting to her.

I thought that The Box had some good stories, but it falls short in a few areas.  One of the biggest is the poor sound balance.  The sound quality of the readings is great, but you have to really crank the volume up to hear the parts where Addison is talking about the stories and her research.  You end up with an effect similar to the late-night infomercial: quiet t.v. show that you have to crank up to hear followed by "BILLY MAYS HERE....!".  My other gripe with this show is that it doesn't spend enough time actually focusing on the journals and the entries within.  The latter half of the show is mostly about Addison trying to get away from whomever or whatever is trying to get the journals back while she tries to track down some of the people related to the journals.  I was hoping for more stories like Stretch and Bridget.

Wolf 359
My latest obsession.  If you liked Red Dwarf and Mystery Science Theater 3000, you will love Wolf 359.  The crew of the Hephaestus is orbiting a distant red dwarf known as Wolf 359 seeking signs of alien life.  Communications Officer Doug Eiffel is our main point of contact, and through him we get to know Dr. Hillbert (crazy Russian mad scientist), Hera (sarcastic A.I. autopilot), Minkowski (gung-ho scary commanding officer with a soft spot for musicals) as they try to stay sane for their two year mission.  This might be difficult, considering the mandatory weekly chess tournaments, a killer plant monster lurking in the air vent system, and the fact that their only entertainment is one VHS copy of Home Alone 2.  Not to mention there's something....off about the whole mission in the first place.

This series balances humor, action, and drama really well.  It starts out funny and light, but it sets up darker story elements early in the series and, even when things start taking a serious turn, it never goes completely grimdark.  I highly recommend this one.

The Bright Sessions
What do you do if you're a young adult and you suddenly start feeling other people's emotions, hearing voices in your head, or time-travelling whenever you have a panic attack?  Well, if you know how to use Craigslist, you seek out Dr. Bright: Psychotherapist to the Talented.  She specializes in helping young people deal with their emerging Talents, no matter how strange and unexpected they may be.  She's part of a larger network of an underground network dedicated to seeking out Talented people, but the network....might not have the Talented's best interests at heart.  Dr. Bright certainly doesn't seem to think so.

The Bright Sessions follows several of Dr. Bright's patients.  The best part of this series is that you get to watch everyone grow and learn to accept their Talents and who/what they are in more ways than one.  If you've ever felt different and/or hoped that you had superpowers, you will like The Bright Sessions.

And that's all for now.  I hope you find a new favorite podcast to listen to through this post.  Hopefully I'll be back on track with some other reviews here soon.