Author Topic: EP325: Bad Dogs Escape  (Read 18935 times)

slag

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Reply #25 on: January 04, 2012, 03:58:52 PM
I actually kind of liked that this apocalyptic scene wasn't hopeful in the end. It kind of reminds the reader that not everyone you meet at the end of the world is ready to jumpstart the whole thing up again. It kind of did make me wonder about the man though. I wonder how long after he woke up those first thoughts of repopulation ran through his head. Him being a politician kind of made me think maybe he was already looking for some kind of advantage in the world. Even one so far gone as this one. Being the last man on Earth has its advantages, or so he might think before running into man eaters like this. Not to say they were man eaters, i refer to the Hall and Oates brand of man eater.

"Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol' storm right square in the eye and he says, "Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it."


Devoted135

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Reply #26 on: January 04, 2012, 05:44:47 PM
Oh bummer. I thought this was a terribly facile story that was wonderfully produced and voice acted. Such a lot of talent and effort went into this! If this turned you off of audio drama, please seek out more samples before making your final judgement on the medium. :-\

As for the story itself, I'm not at all convinced that these are the last two women on earth. It seems much more likely that a whole new civilization is underway and they're just two psychopaths who have somehow been given responsibility over this facility. Which does raise questions about the wisdom of the new society...



lisavilisa

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Reply #27 on: January 04, 2012, 07:34:08 PM
I also really get annoyed at stories - and people! - who masculinize "progress" and feminize "oneness with nature" or "serenity" or whatever. Frankly, that's total bullshit. In my experience, men and women are equally likely to desire control, power, and security, not to mention all the other things that come with being the apex predator of the earth.

I dunno, I liked the women as characters, but serene and at peace with nature? They were cannibals who ate Twinkies all day and toyed with their pray. Likewise, the man seemed the opposite of progress, he was a leader of a generation that had run the world into the ground, and then he tried to drop out and weather through it.

In a way they were a fun twist of the archetypes, with crazy women living off of defunct technology, human flesh, and junk food and a 'go getter' man who slept through a crisis and wants to spawn a race of inbred children with no resources.



ElectricPaladin

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Reply #28 on: January 04, 2012, 07:45:35 PM
I also really get annoyed at stories - and people! - who masculinize "progress" and feminize "oneness with nature" or "serenity" or whatever. Frankly, that's total bullshit. In my experience, men and women are equally likely to desire control, power, and security, not to mention all the other things that come with being the apex predator of the earth.

I dunno, I liked the women as characters, but serene and at peace with nature? They were cannibals who ate Twinkies all day and toyed with their pray. Likewise, the man seemed the opposite of progress, he was a leader of a generation that had run the world into the ground, and then he tried to drop out and weather through it.

In a way they were a fun twist of the archetypes, with crazy women living off of defunct technology, human flesh, and junk food and a 'go getter' man who slept through a crisis and wants to spawn a race of inbred children with no resources.

I see your point, but what I meant was that the women's rage - the thing that was supposed to justify their horrendous actions - has to be founded on something. The fact that they were women - and the story exhaustively detailed how much fun they had being women at the senator's manly expense - meant that it had to be founded in something. Since they talked a lot about how "progress" and desire for conquest and growth caused the collapse they so hated the senator for, I can only assume that it was for a reason.

I'll own it - I made a lot of assumptions in my critique. You could question all of them. Perhaps the main characters just happened to be female, because (in most cases) everyone's gotta have a sex, right? In my mind, though, every narrative choice has a reason, and tracing those reasons back leads me to places I find hard to stomach.

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balderdash

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Reply #29 on: January 10, 2012, 05:41:01 AM
In a way I feel like maybe this was the wrong story to get a full-cast production. It seems like maybe that was a little too much pomp and circumstance for what's really just a fun, relatively shallow and cynical quickie. Maybe that's why little issues in the production bothered me more than they really should have, I don't know. Some of the comments seemed a little unnaturally timed or not really quite responding to one another. I feel like maybe some of the apparent dissatisfaction with the story might have to do with it bearing more weight than it should just due to the presentation.



4WheelDrive

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Reply #30 on: January 16, 2012, 12:46:04 AM
Funny and well done but not a fan of "males = bad" fiction.   

Not a fan of "male=food" either.  Did I catch that right..."hang them upside down"...in the meat locker?




Kanasta

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Reply #31 on: January 16, 2012, 02:26:45 PM
Also found this pretty thin stuff. I kept finding myself thinking "How do they know these women are the only remaining survivors?" The world is a pretty big place! The production values were excellent though.



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Reply #32 on: January 19, 2012, 08:16:42 PM
It was a bit sparse and self-contained, and didn't necessarily pull it off the way some very self-contained stories can (remember Spar? also a very contained setting, essentially one act, and about unpleasant goings ons). I didn't get the whole feminist aesop that some people got from it though; and while the anti-anthropic viewpoint did seem preachy from the otherwise wonderfully whimsical predators that were Becca and Sam, the main theme and scenario of the story were solid: I found the idea that they have been able to play a game one by one with the awakening "vault" dwellers, betting on how long it takes them to mention reproducing for the survival of the human species. The implication is a comedic image of a series of top-tier engineers and sociologists and other experts falling into the same trap; and it was a unique take as it was not a "honey trap" in that the women were not being seductive to lure them into a false sense of security, it was instead just an implication of the predictable reaction some very take charge people tasked with rebuilding the world might have when they encounter Sam and Becca.

That was the scenario's strength, I thought. And the theme...well I enjoyed how Becca and Sam seemed to empathize or identify with the dogs rather than with the human species; and thematically the story's title seems to have double meanings. In some ways Becca and Sam are the Bad Dogs, as they are wasteland predators working in a group like the wild dogs presumably chasing "Mel Gibson"/Rep. Bob; and in other ways the most blatant intention is that from their perspective the vault dwellers are the bad dogs that ruined the planet for the rest.






Requiem42

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Reply #33 on: January 26, 2012, 01:30:56 AM
On the upside, I've just made an account for this forum based solely on this story.  Also, the production value, as mentioned by others, was fantastic.  Great job!

That said, this story made my stomach turn.  The protagonists were psychotic murderers, and because of the above average production value, we get to hear them do their job.  I'm all for the bad guys being the subjects of the story, but maybe not to this inhuman extent.  Same goes for a pedophile protagonist...let's not have a story about that in grand radio play tradition, eh guys?

Thanks.



CryptoMe

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Reply #34 on: January 26, 2012, 03:35:17 AM
"That was some amazing production there!"
"Hmmm. Story sucked, though."
"Maybe, but the forum comments give a more broad range of opinions. Some very interesting interpretations, too."
"Yeah. I enjoyed those more than the story, I think."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Me too."
 



4WheelDrive

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Reply #35 on: January 30, 2012, 12:10:32 AM
Well, that was a twisted bitter little misanthropic piece to end the year.

You said it brother.



justenjoying

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Reply #36 on: January 30, 2012, 04:35:03 AM
The implication that these women where the reson they where dying on the inside as well as the outside, just makes
me smile. This could have been a Pseudopod story. Time is really precious and we forget how little of it we have. The game
they played, I've played with girlfriends of mine. It is truly amazing how quickly it comes to sex. There is so much medephor
in this story as well. The dogs being fed to the dogs. Time is in their hands, but they wear it on their sleves. And so one. I
love how dense, fun and scary this is and I can't wait for more like this one.



jwbjerk

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Reply #37 on: February 02, 2012, 02:27:38 AM
Listening to the two pychopaths play with their mouse wasn't enjoyable or funny at all.  Also the dialog only story left out any explanation about  who/what the two women were and how they survived so long as the only human survivors.  That explanation might have been interesting, but the not funny, toying with their prey wasn't.
That sums it up pretty well for me.

There's not much there besides the joke about how quickly it will come to "replenishing the earth".

In a way I feel like maybe this was the wrong story to get a full-cast production. It seems like maybe that was a little too much pomp and circumstance for what's really just a fun, relatively shallow and cynical quickie. Maybe that's why little issues in the production bothered me more than they really should have, I don't know. Some of the comments seemed a little unnaturally timed or not really quite responding to one another....
Especially the start of the story, it seemed like a random series of one syllable words.

Doing a drama with everyone recording in different places is a tricky medium. Doubtless it too more effort to coordinate, but frankly i consider the production value of an average single-narrator escape pod episode better than this.  But then again, i consider the average escape pod episode to have a very high production value



Scattercat

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Reply #38 on: February 03, 2012, 11:11:42 AM
Was I the only one who assumed the women were lying their asses off basically the whole time?  I seriously doubt they are the only two survivors left; they seem cynical enough to not even have bothered to search for very long before settling down to while away their remaining years pulling the metaphorical wings off of flies.

I kind of liked it.  It wasn't deep at all, but I don't think it was particularly trying to be.  I think it was just a character study of a couple of violent psychopaths at the end of the world; as justenjoying said, this was closer to a horror piece rather than the usual postapocalyptic outlast/rebuild trope.



Devoted135

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Reply #39 on: February 03, 2012, 03:23:20 PM
Was I the only one who assumed the women were lying their asses off basically the whole time?

nope  ;)

As for the story itself, I'm not at all convinced that these are the last two women on earth. It seems much more likely that a whole new civilization is underway and they're just two psychopaths who have somehow been given responsibility over this facility. Which does raise questions about the wisdom of the new society...



DKT

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Reply #40 on: February 03, 2012, 05:37:19 PM
Was I the only one who assumed the women were lying their asses off basically the whole time?  I seriously doubt they are the only two survivors left; they seem cynical enough to not even have bothered to search for very long before settling down to while away their remaining years pulling the metaphorical wings off of flies.

I kind of liked it.  It wasn't deep at all, but I don't think it was particularly trying to be.  I think it was just a character study of a couple of violent psychopaths at the end of the world; as justenjoying said, this was closer to a horror piece rather than the usual postapocalyptic outlast/rebuild trope.

This is relatively close to my take on it.

From earlier comments, it seems like there's quite a few posters who think that we're supposed to relate to these characters (specifically, the women), and because they're obviously violent psychopaths, we don't, and thus the story failed. Which is fine, but...that's not necessarily how fiction works for me, and that's not at all what I took from this story. The way I heard it, it's more suggesting whatever your cause/belief/purpose is, digging in and being an uncompromising fundamentalist can be very dangerous. Especially when you have certain triggers.

As everyone else has said: excellent production and excellent readings.


Farseeker

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Reply #41 on: February 08, 2012, 02:51:27 PM
Am catching up on some back podcasts...

My reaction was, "Well, that was pointless and not terribly entertaining." None of the characters were either believable or likable. The situation was contrived. It offered no insight or new perspective. Outcome was predictable.

The best part about the story was the "I'm just lonely" line, nicely written and nicely delivered.

Good production value doesn't make up for lackluster story.



hardware

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Reply #42 on: February 21, 2012, 02:31:19 PM
Well, I like the radio theater format, and one of the reasons I like it is that it helps moving away from exposition and lets much more to the listeners interpretation of what is really going on. That's why this story was the right one to do in this format. Are the two survivors (I don't hold too much importance to the fact that they were women) really crazy, or are we merely watching a clash between cultures? It would make sense that those having to get through the apocalypse would not have much sympathy for those causing it. In fact, they might have been put there to prevent anybody coming out in their own world. Really unnerving story, but that's a good thing in my twisted head.



Myrealana

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Reply #43 on: February 21, 2012, 03:03:38 PM
This episode was very well produced.  It was also very well performed.  As for the writing...Not my cup of tea.  Seemed like a bad quest from Fallout 3. 
Exactly what I thought.

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Unblinking

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Reply #44 on: February 21, 2012, 03:38:47 PM
Throughout the whole story I had the image of the story superimposed on an image of two guys (perhaps Larry the Cable Guy and Wichita Rutherford) shooting rats at a garbage dump.  Am I the only one?  Yes?  Well, okay then.

The main problems with this for me were:
--No one to relate to.  I didn't have anyone that I wanted to root for, and I did not find it humorous so I was just waiting out the clock.
--It was clear from the very beginning that they were going to kill him, and that they'd spent their time entertaining themselves by doing this.  So it didn't even have a twist going for it.

I just didn't care.  I'm sick of reading lovingly written uncompelling serial killer stories in the Drabblecast slush, this felt like another one of those.

I tend to agree with scattercat and Devoted135, that they are completely lying their asses off about the state of the world.  My guess is that there are plenty of pockets of surviving humanity, but they just get their jollies off killing and eating freshly thawed elitists because they are psychotic.



Unblinking

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Reply #45 on: February 21, 2012, 03:53:30 PM
One other thing:
I did think the Vista joke was hilarious.  One of those that won't age well, but at the moment it's quite funny.



Chuk

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Reply #46 on: February 21, 2012, 05:41:26 PM
I didn't like much about the story, but I wouldn't mind hearing more audio plays on EP.

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Reply #47 on: February 21, 2012, 05:48:50 PM
One other thing:
I did think the Vista joke was hilarious.  One of those that won't age well, but at the moment it's quite funny.
I loved it too, and I think that it will age well. Vista is one of those calamities that will haunt a company forever.

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childoftyranny

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Reply #48 on: February 24, 2012, 06:20:21 PM
This is a hard story for me to comment on because I just didn't like it. Because of that I've been spinning it over in my head again and again to try and be fair to it, and I'm likely still going to be fair.

What it felt like the most to me, was a revenge story, I come at this because of the countless revenge stories I've read being a fan of transformation of people, starting all the way back with King Lycenae(sp) and so many stories of that subgenre are revenge stories. I don't much like those these days as they tend to be simple the story can be complex and the characters wide ranging but they always break down to something simple and usually cynical. Even if this wasn't meant to be just that it had that feel.

We have some background and very tropish, world destroyed by the "others" greed and now people who could be "better" exist. Our two cases don't appear to be much better but I agree with the few others that they seem, unreliable, at best. Why would we trust what they say, they might not have much reason to lie but then again their reasoning for killing people seems slim too.

Our Antagonist felt like an empty shell to me, pretty much the stereotypical wrong type of human male, and a politician to boot. So I didn't sympathize with him, but I also didn't sympathize with our protagonists. That might be on purpose and isn't required, recently reading the first part of a book about a Dark Elf, you have a protagonist who is an evil person, any good done was purely accidental, yet he was an interesting character...I found myself not caring about these two, their mindset, their interest in time and clocks...just didn't make me wonder about them.

I suppose that's about it, to finish up with a terrible quote, "there wasn't any there, there," for me. 



LaShawn

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Reply #49 on: April 27, 2012, 04:02:01 PM
Echoing everyone else in that I liked the audio production, but was lukewarm on the story itself. Though there were some great lines: "I'm just lonely." and "Just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean it *works*".

The whole story makes me think about the Bechdel test--how long in a movie two women can go without talking about romance or relationship or something cliched girly. Seems like the women made their own cruel twist on it.

And for some reason, I'm hungry for Twinkies now.

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