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Bobby's Snacks Vol. 29: I Know We're On a Schedule
Bob Raymonda
September 29, 2024
Happy #AudioDramaSunday Y’all!
I’ve spent the last few days at the New Jersey Web Festival, which means that most of this newsletter was written on Thursday evening. So far, I’ve bumped into my good pals Tal Minear, Anne Baird, KC Wayland, Roshan Singh Sahmbi, and Damian Syzldo, I’m sure I’ll bump in to several more of you today at the Gala as well! I’m really hyped that I’m getting to experience this fest for the first time this year, as while I’ve been selected and awarded in the past, this is my first chance I’ve actually been able to attend. I’m extra excited because, unfortunately, I’ve had to pull out of this year’s Austin Film Fest, and I was worried I wasn’t going to get in any officially sanctioned pod-hangs in before the end of 2024. Regardless of whatever happens with Forgive Me!’s nominations, I’m thrilled to have our team recognized for what is, in my humble opinion, a submission of one of our best and most important episodes we’ve ever created, and getting to listen to a clip from that up on the big screen on Friday? It was unreal. I can’t thank Ned Donovan and Neem Basha and the entire organizing team for the work they’ve spent in the last several years championing audio fiction, and I’m so excited to get to share #FeeltheMagic right alongside them.
In other news, I did just find out that LAKE RATS, a brand new dramedy thriller pilot I wrote this summer, was not selected in this year’s Audible Podcast Pilot Development Program. I’m genuinely okay with this news, not because I didn’t want to be selected (of course I did), but getting to be a finalist, and having a conversation about my work with the incredible team in charge of the program was a hugely affirming experience. I worked my ass off to get into that room, and knowing that that was recognized was no small boon for my self esteem. I’m choosing to celebrate the entire experience as a win, in no small part, because it got me off my ass and gave me the deadline I needed to try bringing this story to life. And who knows? Maybe it’s still got some legs ahead of it yet. Congratulations to everyone who was ultimately selected: I’m positive that you deserved it.
In the meantime: I’ve still got a lot of irons in the fire. Windfall season two production continues to move along nicely, although we have decided to give ourselves as much grace as possible when it comes to an official release. That being said, we’ve got our trailer in the can, and have even commissioned an update of our classic Castle in the Clouds concept art by my friend/original artist Kriztille Junio to go alongside our audiogram once we’re ready to share it with all of you. I’m bursting at the seams to show you this thing: she’s such a talent, and I’m so happy that we were able to work together again. Other than that? I’ve got something cooking that I hope to share with all of you before the end of the year. I hesitate to get too deep into the details on that just yet, but I think it’s something that’ll be an exciting extension to all of the work I’ve been doing on this newsletter over the last year and change.
One last note: today is my brother Adam Raymonda’s birthday, so please send him your love!!
And now: fiction.
Oh, The Triangle. They’ve become one of my absolute favorite fixtures in all of present day Night Vale. From the very moment they were introduced, as the new erstwhile teens who were taking up the Librarian-slaying torches of now Councilwoman Tamika Flynn, I was fully on board for them. But the fact that now, they’re concerned with developing an identity outside of 1) their age, as they hope to continue providing heroic support to Night Vale for years to come, and 2) their enemy, as they plan to thwarting any threats that may befall the town. Granted, they spent a decent chunk of time considering and communicating their updated branding, while the town was beset by nefarious Cattle Wranglers, so their effectiveness may vary.
It’s the end of our summer of crossovers! And look, it might be fall already, but life just sometimes really decides to life, you know? This script, by my pal T.H. Ponders beautifully subverts what one might expect from a mash up between these two shows. Rather than stuffing either of Arden’s hosts into the confession for an episode, as we typically do with these bonus specials, Fr. Ben and Fr. Klem get a chance to be on a podcast for the first time ever nudge nudge, wink wink! It’s a delightful romp with a cast full of characters I love, including Sarah Rhea Werner’s Darla and my wife, Sam Twardy’s Emma! I hope you’ll all give this one a spin, and wait patiently for our Halloween special, which is right around the corner and even more special than you can even imagine thanks to an appearance from the one and only Jeffrey Cranor!
Things are looking pretty grim for our pal Emmeline Ayuba. The Church of Unitology is taking a very PR-style approach to the ever-increasing horrors befalling Ganymede, blaming her for the violent monsters loose in the streets. And to top it all off? She’s got to contend with the ghost of her dead sister, whose devotion to the Church in the midst of this is awful, while also facing the threats of the armed military presence patrolling the city, killing civilians who they’re forcing to stay quarantined in place. It’s a tense, incredible episode with some of the best horror production I’ve ever heard. A massive props to the entire Bloody FM and George A. Romero Foundation teams for pulling this thing off!
Pasadena takes a backseat this week as we go back in time and witness the Diner’s alliance with the Sisters from the lens of Lauren Grace Thompson’s fantastic character BertBert, a bleeding heart journalist who works to report on injustices throughout the wider multiverse. From her initial perspective, their actions are horribly selfish: the Sisters have discovered a pathway to a safe space, away from the Ted Empire, and they’re gatekeeping it to themselves. Her message to Leif, when this is her understanding of the situation, is terse and brutal. And frankly? Well deserved, with his history of spotty communication… but slowly she comes to realize the true intentions behind the Diner & the Sister’s alliance that has far reaching positive implications that show that maybe Leif’s not so bad as she first thought.
I’m super burying the lede here, but last weekend was my beautiful little sister Delaney’s wedding to her long term partner Mike and I had the absolute privilege to officiate for them. I also had the privilege of driving… a lot to, from, and in the vicinity of, the ceremony which meant that I had a lot of time for podcast listening. On the way up, we marathoned the entire rest of the season of this show and gosh, what an absolute delight. It’s got a great Poirot moment to reveal the identity of Mitzy’s killer, with a twist that defies your initial expectations. The story is well wrapped up, but I’m stoked to see where this team will take the series in an upcoming second season!
While I didn’t finish the first season of this show, I’m now about halfway through, and wow: is it special. It’s giving me perfect The Island vibes, with a big ol’ dash of Jessica Jones in there for good measure. I’m loving the chemistry between leads Dan Johnson and Sabrina Dahlgren as the amnesiac Roscoe and Tavi, and Michael Allen Herman is doing a delicious job as the titular silver-tongued Kai. A perfect blend of sci-fi intrigue, tropical paradise, and dangerous adventure hi-jinx. This is absolutely worth a listen and I’m chomping at the bit to get to the end of the season.
When I read the script for this week’s minisode One Question by Alexander Danner, I legitimately weeped. The work that Mike Linden has done across this series for years as a whole variety of characters is second to none, but Guy and Marlo are on a whole nother level. Seeing the culmination of their years long relationship, blossoming into a full on friendship, including a full-on hopeful and loving monologue from the typically monosyllabic (almost Silent Bob-like) Guy is an absolute triumph. Plus, getting to hear all of the hilarious improv that he did while acting against himself for the dialogue edit was unreal. We’ve got a lot of great new episodes coming up over the next month, with bonus episodes every week of October, and even a crossover coming in November… Stay tuned, Redlineans!
This one was a toughie for me. I’m a longtime Bioware obsessive, between my love for the original Knights of the Old Republic game through both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises. I am beyond excited for The Veilguard, so when I found out there would be a scripted podcast coming out in the lead up introducing us to some of the companion characters, anchored by a fantastic voice cast (hello Mae Whitman I adore you), I was immediately sold. But then I listened to it. And as much as the production value by the team over at Pod People is fantastic (shout out to Timestorm sound designer Michael Aquino), the script was pretty lacking. Coming from the scribe of Blackout, the underwhelming Rami Malek vehicle that boasted unreal Hollywood-level production values, but also suffered from some uninspired script decisions that kept me from ever bothering to finish. There’s just… a clunkiness to the dialogue in both series that screams: I’m not sure how to tell a story in audio without having my characters physically describing everything they do, as they do it. So while I’m intrigued by the story itself, and was very pumped to hear an appearance from my beloved Dread Wolf… I couldn’t help but wish this production was written by a team of people with deeper ties to the independent fiction podcast community who have a better understanding of what makes this medium tick.
I’m really loving checking back in with this show with every new broadcast and watching the different ways in which Malik and Jamie experience the new horrors that pop up every day. Malik may or may not have had to serve a table full of a faceless family who could only mime the movements of enjoying their meal (you know, having no mouths to feed with and all), but at least they tipped well! While Jamie found this story particularly shocking, Malik took the whole thing in stride. You want to know something else I love about this show? The fact that, because it’s about a chat show, advertisements for their merch can be folded into the world of the series, rather than existing as a bonus at the end. I realize that my love for this show within a show sort of contradicts my criticisms of Dream Sequence in my last update… but the thing that’s different here is that it’s a fictional chat show. This is not another fictional investigative journalist seeking out the heart of a mystery. This is two close friends, who have a deep history with one another, reacting to the world outside as it happens in real time. So it takes that old, reliable frame and twists it in such a way that it becomes new again. That’s what makes it work.
The third story from Jeremy Ellett’s new horror/sci-fi anthology straight up disgusted me. And that was the point! We go deep into the bowels of a house’s plumbing that has, quite literally, seen some shit. It’s weird, it’s gross, and it’s playful in the kind of way that as much as you want to turn it off and look away, you can’t help but wonder what reprehensible thing is about to be described next. A huge shout out to both the episode’s scribe Tyler Peterson and performance by Peter Lewis, who provided a real one-two punch here.
Speaking of my pal Jeremy Ellett, we got to the end of their Dead Ass miniseries… and wow, what a triumph. This series was equal parts scary, hilarious, and cathartic, sometimes all in the very same scene. What I really can’t get out of my head, though, is the moving tribute that Jeremy made at the top of their second episode for their childhood friend who they were first introduced to George A. Romero’s works with in the first place, who unfortunately passed at the beginning of this year. It was so beautiful to see them get to achieve that dream, of playing in such a massive influence’s sandbox, all the while paying homage to the person that helped them discover that passion at all in the first place. I’m so proud of them for this achievement, and I hope that they’re taking all of the time they need to celebrate it.
Fiction had some slimmer than usual pickings at this year’s London Podcast Festival, but we did get another fantastic live show from one of my all time favorites. Starting things off with a love letter to zinc, along with a mortifying physical manifestation of it named Zinkzy, and segueing into the memoirs of Bovine Poet-Laureate Michael Banyan? Brilliant stuff. Plus we get to the meet the voice behind the series long-running Mitchell’s advertisements, and learn about her history with the family of powerful beef and dairy product magnates. God, what I would do to get to experience one of these shows in person someday… maybe next year.
I’ve been seeing this one bop around for the past few months, and I’m a big fan of Lily Rabe, so I figured it’d be worth giving a shot. I’m not familiar with the work of Voyage FM, but I wasn’t surprised to find out that the writer of this series, Adisakdih Tantimedh, had a work history that included both novels and radio plays for the BBC. The scripting for this show was effortless with naturalistic dialogue, a perfect blend of action-in-scene, and effortless narration that didn’t get in the way of the story being told. I’m only through the pilot, so I’ll have to see if it sticks the landing, but I have far more faith in this production than a lot of other stuff I’ve heard recently, and I’m excited to dig deeper. Plus, I love the idea of a woman waking up on a colonized Mars, ten years after landing there, only to learn her husband had become a dictator, and planned to kill her in order to further endear himself to the new planet’s tribal populace.
While I mourned the end of the long-running scripted fiction show Midst, I was delighted to learn that it was in the interest of expanding into the medium they original envisioned for the series in their initial brainstorming stages: a rich setting for an actual play series. Bolstered by the production values offered by joining Critical Role, and even a few incredible tie-in comics, it’s so apparent that this is what the team has been wanting to do for a long time. The original series creators/erstwhile-narrators’ chemistry is just as strong here as it ever was, and has me so incredibly stoked for the future of this world in storytelling.
I’ve been meaning to dive into Xperience J’s seminal work for years: having first premiered all the way back in October 2019. And while I’ve only listened to the pilot so far, I can see the early fingerprints of the hallmarks of her work that I’ve seen in the intervening years since. Anchored by a fantastic performance by the creator herself, and endearing ensemble cast, and a downright steamy ending? This show is definitely not safe for work, but it’s definitely fantastic! Really excited to see that she’s working on season two, and am so ready to be all caught up in time for its eventual premiere.
This week, we got to see what it would be like if Kozlowski came across a town full of children with reprehensible parents, and decided that he’d go against the team’s no kids rule and give them new life. Longtime Imploding Fictions producer Maty Parzival played against Hemi Yeroham for their first ever voice acting appearance, and they absolutely crushed it. This episode was sweet, hilarious, and as darkly comedic as ever. And the fact that their cover at this point in time, in the late 1280’s, was as a group of rat catchers and Arthur had to contend with a rat king? chef’s kiss
My gosh, this show is such a delight. I actually listened to this brand new episode yesterday while driving back to Montclair for the last batch of screenings… of which our pal Hannah was a part! This week, we get to explore the Wasteland ruins of Miami where we meet Lagarto, a greaser P.I. with his ear out for any job that’ll get him to his next drink. While he’s on the opposite end of the country from the Goldengate community and the zombie hoard baring down on them, it’s plenty clear that their paths will cross sooner than later.
Speaking of P.I.’s… I was thrilled to discover this show yesterday as well! While I missed its screening earlier in the afternoon, I had a chance to briefly meet creator Ella Gale, and hearing the general pitch for the show confirmed without a shadow of a doubt what I needed to be listening to on my drive home. I’m already halfway through the series and truly obsessed. This gritty North-Pole set noir follows Candy Claus, Santa’s bastard daughter, as she’s roped into the conspiracy of a missing star and an elf who’s gone too soon. It is truly everything and features none other than Kyle Kinane as a truly dirtbag version of Santa Claus.
BONUS SNACK
It’s extremely rare that I treat myself to a nonfiction podcast these days. Not because I’m not interested in the genre, but because I spend so much of my week listening to and producing fiction audio that I don’t want to listen to anything else. But Jamie Loftus is one of those people who I will always pay attention to. The work she’s been doing with this show, of tracking down and interviewing previous Internet Main Characters about how their memefication has effected their lives, both in the immediate aftermath and the years since is truly vital. What I particularly love is how she’s giving deep space for varied perspectives on topics that deserve wider discussion than can be accomplished by simply speaking to the interview subjects themselves, as she’s done with series on Curvy Wife Guy, why there are so many Mormon Influencers, and Overly Attached Girlfriend. It’s a truly inspired piece of internet ephemera, and I implore you all to listen to it!