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- Bobby's Snacks Vol. 37: Sharks, Friends, & Family
Bobby's Snacks Vol. 37: Sharks, Friends, & Family
Bob Raymonda
February 02, 2025
Happy #AudioDramaSunday Folks!
Apologies for the delay on this one, but I (like I’m sure many of you) have been feeling burned to an absolute crisp. It feels impossible not to succumb to the utter exhaustion of the relentless doom scroll, and I’ve certainly been defeated by that impulse more than once, but am also trying to remind myself that our species has survived through many a hostile takeover by fascistic oligarchs in our time. I have a baby on the way, and I have to choose to believe that the pendulum will swing again, in my lifetime, into a kinder direction where the desire to take care of the most vulnerable members of our communities isn’t seen as a weakness, but a necessity. Because otherwise? I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this will be an easy proposition. Especially as we have to watch this administration’s gestapo tear families apart, or witness as members of our queer family succumb to the annihilation that they wish for all of us. But trans people, and immigrants, have existed since time immemorial. And will continue to do so, regardless of what they’d desperately like to see become of them. Which I why I continue to, and will always, read and write stories that imagine a world that accepts and loves people for exactly who they are. And recognizes that the villain, always and forever, has been the relentless quest for greed and power and wealth that pits the rest of us against each other. I don’t have any other choice. Because as it always has, for as long as I’ve lived, storytelling will be the thing that thing that reminds me what any of this is for. Being alive. Embracing every chance I’m given to connect to the wider world around me. A chance to be a part of something, regardless of whether or not it fits into the prescriptive box that our ~leaders~ would like for it to. Fucking genocidal maniacs.
On that cheery note, let’s chat fiction. It’s the only thing that makes sense anymore:
I genuinely believe that this season of Goshawk is some of the most revelatory, interesting work that K.A. Statz and Travis Vengroff have ever created in their entire time as a part of this community. Witnessing the kind of horrors that have always been relegated to the no-spaces of arctic wilderness running amok in a heavily populated area, where the wider members of the gathered families have chosen to gather, is terrifying. It’s something that we’d never have expected this world to give us a chance to experience, and yet here we are: on the ground, with our heroes as they attempt to escape threats who have no business being here. chef’s kiss
This show only gets better with every single release. I know I’ve said this before, a million times, but good god every time I press play I have no clue what will be happening next. Our ship’s captain and resident robot have switched bodies? We’ve come across the gigantic corpse of a dead human giant, floating through the cosmos? We’ve spent countless hours LARP’ing our way through a murder mystery, all while the unknowable nature of the universe arounds us sits just beyond our reach? I’m obsessed. That’s clear by now. But one thing I wanted to mention, that I’ve been particularly grateful for in the last two weeks, is the clear influence of David Lynch's Twin Peaks character, Gordon Cole, who’s loud and specific vocal delivery is a clear influence for our narrators as they depict fan-favorite explorer Artifice. It feels like such a loving homage, and one that’s especially pertinent in the wake of our world’s loss of one of our most wonderful weirdos.
I fell off of this show back in the fall, but recently had to spend multiple entire days building 64 IKEA benches for my day job, so I finally got back on the horse and strapped in for some long trips through the multiverse. I’m so excited to see Casper beginning to reunite with Labouza and the other sisters, especially as we get to further know more about his son and the current threats who’d like to thwart the ships trips through space. I’m still not entirely caught up, but witnessing the Muckelwains thwart various guards and rescue Ava through a combination of calisthenics and a discussion of Gulliver’s Travels was mighty satisfying. Plus, over at the Horizon, Frank is finally opening up a bit more about the effect his time with Clementine has clearly had on his life, and the entire community around him. Can’t wait until I have another long day of tedious activities, so I can finish the rest.
The last two episodes of this show were two of the maybe most affecting episodes they’ve released yet. The first of them, where we learn about the recent prevalence of spontaneous compulsive honesty, thanks to a new flower appearing all over the earth, was a god damn Trojan Horse. I spent that entire runtime thinking: oh thank god, Jamie and Malik are getting along swimmingly. They’ve finally moved on from the fact that Malik clearly knew that Jamie wasn’t coming back, even though he never acknowledged it until she finally had the courage to do so… until in the episode’s final moments. And we realized that Malik, who has been pro-Liar Liar Flower from the get, is quickly overtaken by them, and he ham-fistedly admits that he very much does not get why Jamie isn’t moving back. Not at all. The emotional gut punch of them ending the episode without a resolution? Followed by an episode where they’ve forgiven one another, but are clearly still taking a time apart? So much so that they decide to split an episode in half, no longer a chat show, but instead two disparate stories delivered by each of them individually? Soul crushing. Until, that is, Jamie’s hot dad reminds them both how important their friendship has always been. GOD. I LOVE THIS SHOW.
Here’s another show that I’ve caught up to multiple episodes of in the time since my last update. And god, is it only getting better with every single release. No longer content to theorize about their sister’s whereabouts over voice notes, Dimitri and Guadalupe have decided to take matters into their own hands (with Junie’s help from afar, of course) and try and follow her trail. It’s fantastic to see them trying their hand at the family business of spy craft, even if they are so clearly woefully out of their own depths. But my favorite moment, bar none, between these newest releases? Was the introduction of a handsome, rogue-ish ally from their father’s past, played to utter perfection by Giancarlo Herrera. An actor who, no matter what kind of character he’s playing, always perks my ears up when he arrives on the scene. Because I know for a fact that I am about to FEAST on another golden performance. And this one here? It was one of his best yet.
Holy ever loving shit, The Case of the Filched Fork is the most wonderful episode this show has ever created. I honestly need to have a word with Lauren Grace Thompson and Ian Geers for how deeply they made me feel for John Watson of all people. This series has spent so long telling us that the high-society adventures of Sherlock and his writerly assistant are so sensationalized, so deeply, frustratingly so, for our heroes that I could never have any room in my heart for them or the relationship they have with one another. But when the curtain is peeled back, and we finally see how the man is dealing with the apparent death of his one-time partner and best friend, as he wanders the very Merriment Park dedicated to their adventures, only to reveal that he feels in every way unseen and unheard by the man that he so clearly loved? Gosh. I was so wounded when that one ended, that I felt like I needed to call a manager and complain about how deeply they’d eviscerated me. PERFECTION
Working my way back through Midnight Burger’s overlong runtimes meant that I only caught up with one more episode of this show, so I still have a long way to go to get current, but gosh, is it still breathtaking. I absolutely adore how breathtaking it is in its simplicity. Sir and the Apprentice toil away through their work in a way that feels unnoticed, and yet absolutely vital, to the memory of the souls that they choose to discard or keep. A beautiful example of taking a very specific frame that allows for minimalism on a production level, but maximalism on a storytelling level, leaving open the doors for all sorts of wildly different genres and tropes to emerge, depending on the remnant that has been left behind.
We’re still firmly within season prologue territory, which means we’ve only got another bite-sized update of Bet’s current living situation, and yet this one was still very sweet. We see that the family is still doing their best to have weekly dinners, even if those weekly dinners have to be via Zoom, which comes with its very predictable and yet charming moments of parents who are incapable of understanding technology. We also get some great growth from Elaine, who is getting better about knowing when to stop a line of questioning if one of her daughters is clearly unready to discuss a topic further, much to her own chagrin. I’m feeling very excited because I may or may not definitely have written one of these minisodes that’s coming up (I totally did) and I can already see the breadcrumbs for the story it tells starting to show up!
I’ve only listened to the first episode of this beautiful new piece of historical fiction from Walking Cinema with production by Jonathan Mitchell of The Truth, and I’m already completely hooked. This examination of Martin Luther King Jr. through a hyper-specific, small slice of his life (the aftermath of a non-fatal stabbing he experienced during a book signing in Harlem in 1958) is astoundingly beautiful. The performances byJordan Mahome as Martin and Billy Eugene Jones as Howard Thurman, an old family friend and famous Black Mystic, who sits with the reverend in his hospital bed as he recovers are nuanced, and beautiful. And the sound design, score, and production by Mitchell are pristine, as one can be expected by one of the foremost pioneers of the American audio fiction scene. I cannot wait to listen through the rest.
We’ve officially released episode 2.02, which means you’ve finally gotten a chance to meet Lieutenant Commander Antony, a terrifying new villain played pitch-perfectly by Giancarlo Herrera. I will legitimately never forget the feeling I got when I heard his audition for the first time, and realized: we had our man. The way that he’s able to plug into the quiet, calm competence of a man who will happily rend his way through every single Proximan that comes across his path, with the kind of utter glee that he used in his first confrontation with the disgraced Captain Root? Truly perfect. And gosh, wasn’t it great to have Josh Rubino back in the saddle as our resident bureaucrat? One of my favorite things about our show is how we’re able balance the comedy, the drama, and the suspense, and this episode has all three of those in spades. Also… I just so happened to have heard episode three this week, and trust me when I tell you: it’s another really fun one. 😈
And my gosh, the day is finally here! We finally got a chance to experience the brilliance that is Gabriel Urbina making his mark on this behemoth of an audio fiction masterpiece. And Christ, he absolutely delivered. The idea of faking not a single death, but instead the death of an entire nation? It seemed impossible at first, but none of us should ever count Arthur out. If that man has anything, it’s a fierce tenacity to finish any task that he sets out before himself, no matter how massive. And as we witness his relationship with Méabh de Brún’s Queen Basila unfurl over the cross of four decades, we see that if anyone is up for the task? It’s him. A beautiful meditation on leadership and legacy. Astounding stuff.
And just like that, our supernatural southwestern desert otherworld is back from its first hiatus of the year! And how delightful was our return. This one felt like a nice, usual reintroduction to our pal Cecil and his weird little town, as the Flakey-O’s corporation returns to deliver its delicious bowls of nutritious wheat by-products. I especially loved the weather tune on this one, “Call ACab” by Sam Stone. And hey, while I may not feel like I can quite see the beginnings of the wider adventure that this team will take us on this year just yet, I’m just glad as always to step back into this gnarly place that will forever feel like home.
BONUS SNACK
Look, I’m nothing if not predictable. If you want to get my attention? You give me a densely beautiful metafictional frame tale that includes multiple intersecting plots in two wildly disparate genres? And I’m all the way in from page one. But truly, Nnedi Okorafor takes this assignment to a whole other level with her newest novel. In it, a disabled Nigerian American author, fed up with the entitled students at the university where she adjuncts, and another rejection for her most recent literary-novel, decides to forgo the genre she’s stuck with for her entire life and write a post-apocalyptic story of the robots who will inherit the earth, which just so happens to be the thing that catapults her to superstardom. There are so many threads that are being expertly juggled across this book, but the final twist that comes in its last few pages are the thing that made me throw it on the ground and scream: “Holy fuck!” I’m not kidding. This is my new favorite book of all time. And if any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you? You should run to go buy your copy. You will thank me for it.