podcast fanatic

The Statistics
What’s it called? One Eighteen: Migration
What is the show’s website? http://oneeighteen.libsyn.com/
When was the first episode produced? February 2008
How long is the average episode? Around 30 minutes (usually)
How often is an episode released? Once a week (well almost)

The Review

I have long thought modern horror movies suffer from being able to show too much thereby leaving nothing to the audience’s imagination which is why I have always laughed at films featuring the undead. All that blood and screaming seems very unrealistic to me and is therefore funny rather than scary.

Audio drama is a very different entity though.

Through readings from the journal of Jonas Waight listeners to One Eighteen: Migration learn the fate of the small town of Greenly following the events of 13 June 2008 when the dead started rising from their graves (and other places). The drama uses great writing, excellent sound effects and decent acting to unfold the story while listeners’ imaginations develop their own individual pictures of this particular post apocalyptic hell. I listened to the most recent two episodes while driving alone at night and will admit that I locked the doors of my car, avoided the side streets that cut 10 minutes off my drive because the main road has more lights and broke the speed limit for most of the trip. Zombies 1: Listener 0.

The show is produced by the very experienced Will Ross of the now defunct (?) Smart Bomb Radio, Barfly and Quick and Dirty Tips for a better Second Life fame which undoubtedly explains why this podcast has such excellent production values. Will mentioned that each episode takes about 30 hours to produce and it shows. I can’t think of a podcast with better audio quality and production. It demonstrates for those who haven’t learned it yet that less is often more: the sound of Jonas writing in his journal for example is a simple but very evocative addition to the show.

There are lots of extras available with this podcast including story recaps at the beginning of each episode, bloopers at the end of each episode and bonuses such as the You Tube clip in which Will shows how he chooses the sound effect for a finger being broken. I for one will never look at celery the same way again. The website includes episode summaries, a full cast list (including all the guest actors and episode re-cappers) and an outlet for the anally retentive amongst the audience to become members of the continuity police.

Even if you’re not normally interested in zombie stories I’d recommend you give this show a try.

Just don’t listen at night. Or alone. Or via a transmitter.

Rating
Will download every episode, listen to it immediately and, in all likelihood, become a stalker of the show’s creators.