Some Love for The Penumbra Podcast

This past week, I stumbled into the Penumbra Podcast through a random tweet in my timeline. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen it mentioned, but this time I bothered to look into it and give a listen. Now, I’m struggling to keep myself from devouring the whole series in short order. Despite my attempt at restraint, I have already gotten a ways into season two and can’t help but listen to multiple episodes everyday.

Hyperion City is wonderful and horrible and breathtaking all at once. I’m a sucker for a sci-fi setting, but the world of Juno Steel is particularly interesting to me in how it portrays the typical faults of a futuristic society in its own unique way. Plenty of futuristic dystopias involve overpowered corporations, nosy and expansive media empires, and the contrast of the haves vs the have-nots, but the Penumbra Podcast manages to include these tropes without making them seem tired. I’m still very early in Second Citadel’s storyline, but I find the world building to be interesting, particularly because of how much they have to communicate through primarily character dialogue. There’s so much information to be packed in about the humans and the monsters and the world they inhabit and, without much in the way of narration, the writing has to clever to get the audience the information they need.

That’s only one of the ways the dialogue in the Penumbra Podcast really shines. It’s fast paced and witty, but the show doesn’t devolve into pithy quips without any depth. The show handles drama and romance and deep existential brooding with the same skill as comedy. Some of this is because of the great writing that produces stunning poetic narration and hilarious exchanges, but the acting plays a key role, as well. The voice acting is strong enough to make those well written words land. The combination makes for a riveting radio play, the likes of which I never imagined existed.

The excellent writing and acting bring the story to life, but what makes these stories so automatically important to me is their unabashed queerness. No one in Hyperion City is straight and it’s never important, expect for in the way it is extremely important for a listener who’s starved for that representation. Personally, I prefer the Juno Steel storyline over the Second Citadel one because the cast of characters and setting in Juno Steel resonate with my own identity and experience more closely. And I love sci-fi. That definitely plays a role, too.

I’ll run out of episodes of Juno Steel before too long, but for now I can take comfort from this queer sci-fi detective story. A genderqueer protagonist fighting crime on Mars is exactly the hero my younger self never imagined having and exactly the hero I’ll always need. I see myself in Juno and that’s strange and new and at times uncomfortable. It’s a good uncomfortable, though.

I hope I can one day make something that will change someone’s life the way the Penumbra Podcast has managed to change mine. It’s been a week since I found this podcast, but I know it will be a touchstone for the rest of my life. Stories have the power to bring light and clarity to a reality that is dark and muddled. I want there to be more stories out there like the Penumbra Podcast to give us some light out here (and I want to make them myself).

Murder Mysteries for the Uninitiated

I don’t consider myself a huge murder mystery fan. I haven’t read a single word by Agatha Christie or any other famous mystery writer and that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I am, however, a big fan of a few murder mystery tv shows. I’d recommend these series even to the murder-mystery-adverse tv fan because they delight beyond any of my expectations of the genre.

The first I’ll mention of these series is Midsomer Mysteries. It has nothing to do with the horror flick of a similar sounding name; Midsomer is just a fictional region of England where the show takes place. Midsomer’s villages have a tendency toward campy murders and odd characters. For a show about detectives investigating suspicious deaths, Midsomer Murders manages to be humorous, witty, and a generally warm show. If you enjoy this show, there’s plenty to binge your way through. The seasons may short, but there’s 21 (soon to be 22) of them and episodes tend to be about 90 minutes long. The cast of season 21 is entirely different from season 1, but both seasons, and every other in between, contain great episodes. Midsomer Murders may border on ridiculous at times, but it rarely fails to be entertaining.

Promotional photo for a circus themed episode of Midsomer Mysteries, S20E6: Send in the Clowns. Image found at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118401/mediaindex?page=6&ref_=ttmi_mi_sm

Left to right is Lawrence Fox as DS Hathaway and Kevin Whately as DI Lewis on the set of Inspector Lewis. Image found at https://www.thedailybeast.com/inspector-lewis-on-pbss-masterpiece-mystery-tvs-smartest-sleuths.

Next on my tv-murder-mystery-favorites list is Inspector Lewis (or just Lewis if your in the UK). This is technically a sequel series to another tv mystery show called Morse, but don’t worry, you can enjoy it just fine with out that background. I’ve never seen Morse, but I still adore Lewis. This show has a heavier tone than Midsomer Murders, but makes up for that with great writing, deep and interesting characters, and complex plots. They find time between deep conversations and grave discussion of murder for witty remarks, which is my jam. I’m hoping there will eventually be another series as a sequel to Inspector Lewis because I can’t get enough of these characters even though I respect them not dragging the show out for infinite seasons. This show may not be mindless tv for a lazy night, but if you want something to really dig into, Lewis may be for you.

Promotional image from the world’s most wonderful murder mystery series, Murder, She Wrote.

Image from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086765/mediaindex?ref_=tt_mv_close

The final murder mystery I’d recommend is my favorite: Murder, She Wrote. This show is the absolute best of all. It is the epitome of the cosy murder mystery genre, as murder mystery author, Jessica Fletcher, solves cases involving suspicious deaths that seem to follow her everywhere. Jessica is a wonderful protagonist, played by the delightful Angela Lansbury for 12 seasons. This show feels like a warm hug or a cup of tea on a cold day. It’s not as dramatic or mentally taxing, but holds a viewers interest with diverse settings, unusual deaths, and amusing characters. Jessica’s hometown of Cabot Cove is probably the murder capitol of the world and her inability to avoid crime scenes is borderline sinister, but this show is the one to watch out of the murder mystery lineup.