And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This
is the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD Sutter, and this is episode one hundred and
eighty six. Well, you might be sitting there thinking, you're JD,
what's going on? Why are you releasing a podcast on this date? Of
all dates, You're not supposed to have a podcast at the end of the
Month's supposed to be the first Monday of every month. But today is a
special day. September thirtieth is International Podcast Day, so I decided I'm going
to give you a little extra bonus content to celebrate International Podcast Day. So
this little extra content is my gift to you on this day and not require
but if you would like to reciprocate, please share Audio Theater Central with a
friend or go and give us a rating and review on the platform where you
listen to the show, So that would be much appreciated. But in this
extra bonus episode, I'm going to share with you a little bit of the
content that you would get if you are a pass holder to ATC Backstage.
So I'm going to share with you a couple of initial reactions. One is
of an Adventures Nodssy Club episode, which we don't really review here on the
main podcast, and also an initial reaction to a new show from River Cross.
So that's coming up in just a moment, But first I wanted to
share a couple of audio drama updates with you really quickly, So let's get
into that. We interrupt this program to bring you a special report and in
other news tonight, a brief look at the headlines. Now they want exciting,
fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining like this. Our first item is
Lamplighter Theater has just launched a new app for their audio club membership. Now
they've had this club for a while where you could get access to their audio
dramas, but this brand new app is just launched for iOS and Android and
the club is twelve dollars a month and there's thirty two audio dramas on there
now. All of these are feature linked audio dramas and twelve audio books as
well, if you didn't know, lamp Ladder also produces audiobooks of some of
their titles, So there are twelve audiobooks on there right now, and they
said they are going to be adding new audiobooks every month, so there's a
link in the show notes if you want to go ahead and check that out
again. Twelve dollars a month for that audio club membership from lamp Ladder.
Matt Music has announced the next Patch the Pirate adventure. It is called Passage
to Paradise and it will be launching on October third, twenty twenty three,
so just a couple of days away that brand new production from Patch the Pirate
is coming out. And lastly, if you are a fan of Doctor SEUs,
there is a new Cat in the Hat cast, which is and audio
drama of sorts released as a podcast featuring the Cat in the Hat and fish
from the book The Cat in the Hat and it is geared towards children,
So this is one that parents might want to check out and see if it's
something that they can share with their kids, and it's definitely worth looking into.
If you would like to hear more in depth thoughts on that, you
can join backstage because I did a full initial reaction to the first episode of
this new show. Well that'll do it for the updates. Let's jump into
our main content for this bonus episode what do you think of our little plan?
Your characters were weak, your dialogue was cliched, and you didn't have
much of a story. Wonderful everyone, We have a delightful show. It's
the Michael, a true genius to you symbolism in that way, you may
even get a standing ovation. So, as I said a few moments ago,
what I'm going to share with you are a couple of what we call
initial reactions quick eisodes. Now, these are episodes where I will just sit
down and record some off the top of the head thoughts immediately after listening to
an audio drama and those go to our Audio Theater Central backstage members. So
these are raw, unfiltered, unprepped for initial reactions to the shows. So
they are not quite as polished as the reviews as you get here on the
main podcast, because again these are recorded immediately after listening to a show.
I don't always even have the full credits for things, and so as I
said, it's just raw and unfiltered reactions. So they're not always studio quality
audio either, because most of the time they are just recorded on my phone.
So it's just a way for me to create some extra content for our
backstage pass holders, so they get a little more of a behind the scenes
sort of look at these and they're not even always full fledged reviews because they're
literally just, you know, the first things that come to mind as I
have listened to something, and sometimes my thoughts change on productions as I listen
to them. Again, I usually try to listen to a production two or
three times before doing a full podcast review, so again you're just getting a
little peek behind the curtain or a look backstage into my thought process as I
listen to audio dramas. So with all of that said, the first one
that I'm going to share with you is my reaction to Adventures and Odyssey episode
nine to fifty nine, which is a club exclusive and it's called Dose of
Virtual Reality. And this was released to Backstage in April of twenty twenty three.
So here you go, how do you backstage pass holders? This is
JD and I've got another initial reactions crickosode for you today of and Adventures and
Odyssey club episode. I'm trying to get through all of these as quickly as
i can get all up to date on them, So in this episode,
I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on number nine fifty nine of Virtual Reality,
and I gotta say right at the top, I loved this episode.
I had a lot of fun with this one. So when it first started,
I was like, Molly, who is Molly. It took me a
little while to remember who she was, and then I'm like, oh,
yeah, that's right. That is Pollhouse's granddaughter. So I figured it if
she was in the episode, then he was going to show up at some
point too. And of course they set the stage to bring him into this
video game competition actually not just a video game VR game competition, And when
they first started talking about VR, I was like, ah, man,
is this going to be cheesy? Is it weird? Having VR gaming in
Odyssey? We think of Odyssey a lot of times is like this, you
know, this quintessential, charming, little small town that's a little bit behind
on technology, aside from WIT's end, which always seems to be at the
forefront of the latest technology. But anyway, it wasn't It wasn't cheesy.
It was done really well, I thought, and it was really cool seeing
this other side of pole House again. We had that episode a little while
back where his other family members are first introduced to us, and I was
hoping that they would bring them in more often, so I was really excited
to hear this one once I realized who Molly was, and it did not
disappoint. I love that line and the early part of the episode where when
they're having the discussion Molly and her mother about who to invite to this gaming
competentian and she suggests her grandpa, and Molly says something like does he even
know how to play video games? Or does he even know what they are?
Or something like that they had her mom says, when he was a
kid, they made shadow puppets on cave walls. I like that. That
was pretty funny. And once we actually get into the game and he starts
noticing these signs, I knew that was going to play a part in the
plot somehow, that he was going to figure out something in the game for
her, because she was like, you know, this guy, he's too
old, he doesn't understand video games, but he's a last resort. He's
my only option and I want to compete in this event, so I have
to go with him. She's not really paying attention to what he has to
say, so I knew that that was going to play a part, that
he was going to figure out something to do with the signs, And when
he read that one about fiery trials or something, I'm like, that sounds
like a paraphrase of a scripture verse. So I knew that that was going
to show up somewhere later on, and it did. It definitely did.
And oh, I gotta say this, I absolutely loved the music, in
particular that transition after Polhouse dies in the game. It wasn't like the first
time, but that main sequence after he's died multiple times, and the transition
at the end of that scene where it sounds like it might be something you
would hear in a video game as your character dies or whatever. That transition
was just super cool. I loved it. It was very different. And
when we get to the credits and I hear that it was John Campbell,
I was a little bit surprised because I wasn't expecting that. The whole episode
music had a little bit of a different feel to it, and I liked
it a lot. Also, the little tone that played when your character died
in the game, I'm wondering if that was something that the sound designer came
up with. Or if that was like something that John did. But either
way, it was cool. It sounded like the right kind of effect.
Over All. The sound design itself was really good too. Zach Schneider,
the newer sound designer on the team, now, did this one sounded really
really good. I do have one little gripe with this one, and I'm
really really surprised that this showed up in an Odyssey episode. They don't usually
let things like this slip through, but there was this line. Okay,
so let's jump back for a moment when Molly says to her mother something about
Allison and I got special permission to compete together since her dad was out of
town and my dad is basically you know. She doesn't finish the sentence,
so I don't remember if he was ever referenced in the previous episode which she
appears in, So I'm assuming that was intentional. That was an intentional thing
to kind of give the listener a clue that, you know, there's something
more to this family or whatever, kind of keep you on the edge of
your seat about what what's going on is you know, what where is he?
But then later on, when pull House and Molly are chatting, having
this kind of heart to heart talk. He has a line where he says,
you and your dad used to play video games together when he was still
alive, didn't you? Okay? I know that they were trying to let
the listener know what had happened to the dad. This is the big moment
when they reveal it. But that line is so clunky. First of all,
of course they would have been playing games together when he was still alive,
because you can't play games video games together if somebody is not alive.
So that line was just very clunky. I'm using the same word because he
can't think of another one. But the second thing is why are they just
spelling it out like that. These characters already know what has happened to him,
and if they were talking to each other, you know, without the
listener being there, they wouldn't say it like that. I mean, it
just it felt a little bit off to me that phrasing, you know it
maybe something like, you know, Paul House could say something like, I
know that video games was something that you and your dad used to do together,
you know, because it's obvious in the in the next few sentences what
happened because that he references the funeral and then things like that, so we
know we're gonna we're gonna find out exactly what happened to him. Sorry for
the noise, I gotta loud vehicle outside, hopefully that's not too noisy,
but we are going to find out exactly what happened. So they didn't need
to just spell it out so plainly like that. It just it just felt
a little on the nose, and it jumped out to me so much because,
like I said, the Ventures and Odyssey usually doesn't have that issue with
dialogue. That's a little bit flunky. I know again, same word,
but the only thing I can think of at the moment. This one was
written by Bob House, and generally I like his scripts a lot too,
so I don't know, just a little bit, little nitpicky thing that stood
out to me. And that's the only thing really in this whole episode did
I thought was a little bit off. Overall, really really liked it.
And even though initially I was a little dubious about the whole VR thing,
how are they going to make this fit into Odyssey in an interesting way and
not make it sound like they're just trying to be down with the kids.
Or something like that, you know, but it was good. It was
really good, and like I said earlier, the signs definitely do play a
part. As soon as he in the competition, as soon as polls,
Pulhouse says something about the sign that says think on these things, and he's
finally starting to put things together. I'm like, Okay, I knew this
was coming, but it was done in a cool way. I knew that
they were going to win the competition. It was just not really much of
a surprise the way things played out. I saw that whole thing coming,
but I still enjoyed it, So I guess that is a sign of a
good episode. And of course I am definitely not in the target demographics,
so maybe kids wouldn't see that coming and would still be surprised. I don't
know, but I really liked this one. Loved the thing at the end
where they go to Wits end and pull House makes a comment about a quadruple
scoop explosion. Whatever that is. That's a new menu item from WIT's end
apparently. But again, overall, really really fun episode. This is one
that I will be replaying. I liked it a lot. All right,
talk to you next. Time. And the next one is my reaction to
episode one of a brand new show from River Cross. Now, this one
was just released a backstage yesterday in fact at the time of this release.
So this is brand new. And this new show from River Cross is called
Bridge to Freedom and it will be coming very soon the full mini series.
So here is my initial reaction to the first episode of Bridge to Freedom.
Hey there, JD coming at you again with another initial reactions quick episode.
Again, this one is coming straight to the media host, no post and
no editing on this, so I hope you don't mind, just trying to
get these out as quickly as possible. And I am reacting to episode one
of Bridge to Freedom. This is the brand new series miniseries show. I'm
not sure exactly where it fits into the to the line up here, but
it's from River Cross. So we had holding Esther from them a couple of
years ago, and well now I'm blanking on what the other show from them
was. Oh goodness. Anyway, this is their third little mini series and
it is called Bridge to Freedom. This is the first episode and they're calling
it a pre release episode. I just got access to this, I think
two days ago, and It is about twenty four minutes and I just finished
listening to it, and boy, I can tell already that we're going to
be in for another heart wrenching story this Oh goodness. Like there's no opening
host on this, so maybe that's why it's called pre release, because there's
nothing. There's no book ins or raps on this yet, so maybe that's
going to be added still, I don't know, and I don't have any
notes in front of me, either on the cast or anything. I just
know that Todd Bustide was the recording engineer and pretty sure did all the post
on this show as well. Now, originally I was told that John Campbell
was returning to compose the score for these episodes, but then they shared an
announcement that Aaron Fullan was actually going to be doing it, So I have
no notes on that. Whether how that all worked out, whether the music
I heard in this was from John or from Aaron, I don't know.
But why I'm talking about the music, I'm just going to say this real
quickly. The opening Q is really nice and it really sets the tone and
the location. It has that African continent vibe and sound to it, and
it sounds really cool, But then the rest of the qu's throughout that sound,
that particular vibe, you know, with like the drums and that sort
of African music sound is very absent. So that's why I'm kind of not
sure about the whole composer situation. Sorry about that noise there from my computer,
but so I'm kind of wondering now if maybe the opening theme was written
by one composer and then the rest of the music by another. So I
don't know, but I thought it was an interesting choice because if I'm remembering
correctly, the previous two series holding Ester and I just remembered the title of
the second one, Jiboda Bridge, they all throughout it had that similar sound
to it, a very cohesiveness throughout all of the music that really set it
in that place in the world or that part of the world, and this
one it is a little bit missing there. I mean, there's nothing wrong
with the music. It still sounds great, but it just sounds more like
a traditional, suspenseful, mysterious or even a little ominous in certain parts music
for like you that you might hear in any other audio drama, any other
kind of thriller or something. So I don't know. Again not the music
is not bad, but it just it's missing that flavor to it. So
anyway, moving on to the rest of it, the post production, like
the sound design, it's stellar, it's fantastic. The you know, Todd
Bustide is a master. It sounds great, the acting really great. So
there's no complaints there for me from me, I should say, on those
aspects of it. But again, this is going to be a very dark,
heart wrenching story. I can tell already. It sounds like it's going
to be dealing with orphaned children or maybe even child brides. I don't think
that's a spoiler, because that is brought up within the first couple of minutes
of the story. And then we have a similar thing to I believe it
was holding Esther, where it sounds like a relative is willing to sacrifice for
lack of a better word, there young children, young relatives, and oh,
it's just it's awful, it's terrible, and that these kind of things
are happening in this modern day world is horrific. It's absolutely horrific. And
so I'm gonna say this is probably not one for the little kids. As
with the previous releases from River Cross. Now, there is a caveat here
that it's probably not for little kids here in North America, because thankfully,
most children here do not have to deal with this kind of absolutely terrible thing
and these horrible situations. And I'm trying to not be too specific, partly
because they don't want to give away any plot points, and partly because it's
just awful, unspeakable stuff that happens in the previous releases from River Cross,
and it looks very much like that's where things are headed in this one as
well, and sadly, tragically, that is the reality for these young children
in the part of a world where these stories are taking place, and it's
it's heartbreaking, it's heartbreaking, and that is why I am such a believer
in what River Cross is doing, using these stories to help people or children
or young women who have had to face this this awful stuff and young men
as we dealt with the child soldier issue in Jabota Bridge, helping them to
recover from the trauma of having to deal with this stuff. That's their whole
goal, that's their mission, is using stories to help heal and minister to
these horrible these children who have been in these horrible situations and the healing power
of a story it's amazing. And so this is not a show that I
think you're going to want to listen to for enjoyment. It's it's not one
of those kind of stories. It's one that you'll listen to for information,
to inform you about what is going on. Because you know, people who
are not directly involved in the ministry aspect of River Cross and those of us
who are listening to it as just fans of audio drama, we're coming at
it from a very different perspective of what the actual use of these shows are.
And so you know, if you are sensitive to any of these kinds
of issues, then you know you may not even want to check this one
out. But it's it's so well made. They get high quality actors,
and again the post production is top notch. So I'm definitely going to continue
listening, and I think it is important for us to know what is happening,
what is going on, and and lend our support in whatever way we
can to help try to change things, because again, it's horrific stuff and
I feel like I'm rambling a little bit here, but my goodness, it's
it's an amazing work that the River Cross is doing and being able to use
these stories as as a core part of their mission is an amazing use of
audio drama. So episode one of Bridge to Freedom it's time marks all around
for for the production as a whole content itself. Be forewarned, it's it's
going to be dark. But if that interests you, if you do want
to check it out, you can do that. You can become a part
of the River Cross mailing list and there's a link on their website to sign
up and they will send you the first episode of this series to check out.
So if that sounds interesting to you, be sure to do that and
support Rivercrosse in any way that you can, even if it's just sharing some
of their information or their posts online. But Bridge to Freedom episode one very
very well done, and we'll see what comes from them next. All right,
talk to you later. Well. I hope you enjoyed this little extra
bonus content for International Podcast Day, And if you're not already a backstage pass
holder, please come on in and join us. The link is right there
on the homepage at audio theater Central dot com. If you want more content
like this, then that is the place to go. Most of the content
these days is initial reactions quickisodes, but occasionally there's also first impressions of trailers
or teaser audio for different shows, and some extra bonus full length podcast review
episodes and stuff like that. So all of that is in ATC backstage.
Come on in. We'd love to have you join us, but if you'd
like to get in touch with us, head over to Audio Theatercentral dot com,
slash contact and the show notes for this episode. All right, Audio
theater Central dot com slash one eighty six. Thanks again for joining me.
I'll see you next time. Audio Theater Central is a production of porch Light
Family Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandanio. The show is
produced and edited by Yours Truly. Our website is audio theater Central dot com.
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