Arden

Really enjoy this parody of the usual crime podcast show. I like the banter between to Bea and Brenda it reminds me of old screwball comedies. While it is a parody the crime they are investigating does have me intrigued so it work on the mystery level as well as the comedy level.

I actually really like this show. The story is well written and clever, the wayface commercials are funny, and the premise is fresh. But the audio is terrible. The actors quietly mumble one line and then blow your ear drums out the very next one, and in some scenes one actor is way too loud and the other is so quiet you can hardly hear them. It’s been difficult to get through the first season because of this. I really hope they get someone capable of fixing this for future seasons episodes or I may have to find a different podcast.

Half way through season 1 and liking it! It’s definitely more of a comedy than an enthralling mystery, but a fun listen. However, the volume of this podcast ranges from 3 to 8 (out of 10) and I’m constantly having to turn it up and down. It’s made it SO hard to listen in the car while traveling. 😩 Other than that, enjoying it.

I am NOT a frequent listener of fictional podcasts, though not for lack of trying! Every once in a while one catches my interest, but usually I struggle to get through even one or two episodes. Weird, because I love audiobooks and actual plays. Arden is an exception. While some aspects are a little silly for my taste, most of it is pitch perfect. It has the kind of referential world building that makes you feel smart, and adds up to feel like a substantive engagement with genre and form rather than a pastiche. The fictional ads are always a chuckle, I always smile at the Karina Longworth reference, and there’s an extended Kenneth Lonergan allusion midway through the second season that lands super well. Also, the cast is strong and the two co-leads have amazing chemistry. The only part I don’t understand is how it retells Romeo and Juliet, but not being much of a Shakespeare head hasn’t impacted my enjoyment. If anything, knowing that kept me from trying it for ages—if I had realized that it was a fictional true crime investigation about celebrity worship in the aughts I would have picked this podcast up much sooner. The first season is great! I am excited to hear the rest!

This show has its heart in the right place. I appreciate the important and timely message it’s trying to send about media, celebrity, and misogyny; but, ultimately, Arden doesn’t have the writing chops to be a good vessel for these themes. I’d happily recommend Episode 11, where the story really does land; however, it lands largely because the two protagonists are almost entirely absent in it. The rest of Arden is a character-driven story about two podcasters, but I never felt a connection to either of them. The characterization never goes much deeper than the rational smart one and fun quirky one, and the dynamic between them amounts to little more than constant bickering and sexual tension–which, as you can imagine, grows tiresome quickly. All in all, Arden’s premise could have been truly powerful, but it doesn’t manage to live up to that ambition. And, well, I’m getting kind of tired of stories about women that just leave me feeling sick, and sad.

I wanted to like it but it’s hard to get around how horrible these characters would be if they really covered a murder case like this…. In real life they would be deeply insensitive and unethical as investigators with how they absolutely make light of people’s alleged murders. Also not a fan of humanizing billionaires like they can exist without exploitation of the working class, which they absolutely can’t. Andy should be paying the crew more but instead he funds cutesy things like moon mines as if that’s not a feature of a dystopian society that that level of luxury exists alongside homelessness. Not to mention the glossing over of the death of a homeless teen and mutilating his body like he didn’t matter to anyone because he was homeless. They just said “oh I’m such a bad person maybe” and moved on completely. All this and Andy being presented as a lovable character and all the cop loving weirdness made the whole show very unrelatable. I know it’s supposed to be a comedy but god it’s so neoliberal that it’s just grating in the end.