Second Shift

[juldea]

So at least 1.5 years ago at Arisia 2007 I heard about "Second Shift" for the first time: a radio drama created by people around the Boston area, probably of interest to geeks/dorks. I think that is pretty much the sum of what I knew about it then and for the next year and several months. I had vague thoughts both Arisias of, "Oh, maybe that's something interesting to see," but didn't have sufficient impetus to go check it out.

A couple of weekends ago, I was at bleemoo's birthday festivities over the course of a weekend, and had both bleemoo, rigel, and usernamenumber mention Second Shift as something to check out. The latter two are actually involved in it as voice talent, too.

So, on Saturday morning as I contemplated how my plans for the day involved two hour-long train rides, at least one hour-long bus ride, and a 30-60 minute walk, I decided I'd perhaps download some of it and see what it was like. So I downloaded the first six episodes, and began listening to them as I traveled.

I am hooked. I seriously enjoy this series. I like the characters; they are people I care about, people who I can empathise with. I like the situation they're in and am extremely pleased by how much cliche there is NOT. I like the voice talents. I like the writing; each episode has at least two lines to make me giggle or laugh out loud.

I have experience with very few audio dramas. I have been a longtime listener of the old Hitchhiker's radio series, and I have heard the first two episodes of The Fantastic Fate of Frederick Farnsworth the Fifth. Hitchhiker's is really a mix of a book on tape and a radio drama in my mind, by which I mean it has a narrator. F^5 uses very little narration but is a non-serious story, or at least came across to me that way. Second Shift uses no narration, only the voices and the sound effects, and is telling me a story. Sure there's humor involved, but the plot and the characters are what push the story forward.

I'm amazed by the quality of the whole production team involved. As I said, there's no narration, yet when listening I have a pretty clear picture in my head of pretty much every scene. Just from voices and things they're saying I have mental images of the characters (and I really am going a bit mad wondering, "How is it they can make her SOUND taller?") And the whole fact that there's a created language involved just hits my buttons!

So I have a new thing to be slightly obsessed over. They're in the middle of recording season 2 right now, but all of season 1 is available for free download (for lower-quality audio; pay just a little bit of money for higher quality.) I suggest you check it out and geek along with me: http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com

Comments

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

One of us! One of us! You can join us in the "Aaaaargh need more Second Shift aaaaaargh"!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Yep, I have drunk the 2S kool-aid.

[bleemoo.livejournal.com]

As of a few episodes ago, they joined a commercial podcast network. What that means for you and me is that the high-quality episodes are now just as free as the low-quality ones. There's a few seconds of advertising in each one, but it's really unobtrusive.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I already bought my season 2 insider's pass. No worries! :)