Thursday, August 7, 2008

New World Orders - fictional podcast review

More and more people use the report a podcast feature on this blog. Thus, I also found New World Orders, a fictional podcast telling a tale of world wide conspiracy. It is an entertaining ride, but I kept wondering whether this is intended to be a thriller or not. The story is so full of cliches, it could be a satire, but then again, that is not so clear either. The funny thing is, it is exactly this ambiguity that kept me listening.

For one, I was caught enough by the thriller, to want to know what was going to happen next. I wanted to know how the conspiracy works and I wanted to see the lonely hero succeed in his quest against it. Although, he seems so puny in comparison to the invisible enemy and he couldn't brush his teeth without them knowing. And they do not refrain from bribes, threat and murder to get their way.

But secondly, there was the thrill of observing the story and figuring out what the writers and performers are thinking. Are they deliberately going over the top a bit, in order to satirize the genre? And what about this hitman of Austrian descent - he sounds exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Are they thinking of specific movies and actors for their characters? And what of this impersonation of George Bush, the father - that surely is more comical than tensely thriller-like.

So, eventually, this is a great podcast where everybody can have his own preferences served. If you want straightforward entertainment - there is the thriller with the evil schemer and his hidden agendas, with the silenced witnesses, the bribed ones and the lonely few who catch a whiff of something suspicious in the air and who investigate and then find themselves facing the invincible Moloch. If you like conspiracies, there is the question: who would want to cover up global warming? If it is not the big industry that wants to go on polluting, then somebody with long term vision. But what could he gain with a planet going sick? And who is behind the JFK assassination and the blowing up of the Space Shuttle? If you like Hollywood thriller movies, you can play the game of who is who in the story. The coldblooded killer is Schwarzenegger, but who are the rest? If you are struck by the cliches, you can observe the satire, the subtle poking at the over-construed genre.

More narration and fiction podcasts:
Namaste Stories,
Forgotten Classics,
Celtic Myth Podshow,
Librivox,
Sonic Society.

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