LifeAfter/The Message

Both seasons were incredible. So good I had to listen to it for a second time right away. Both stories are totally unique (love the season 1 Easter egg in season 2), the editing is perfection, the acting is phenomenal (Every. Single. Character.), the direction is spot on, the music is beautiful and additive, the sound production is lush and intimate and just amazing. Bravo!

First season is worth a skip. Second season starts out awesome, but halfway through it turns into this substandard police drama with AI thrown in. Not my cup of tea personally. Was perfectly content exploring the dynamic of the protagonist and the existence of his AI ghost wife. I found most of the supporting characters quite dull and one-dimensional. But I still enjoyed the first half of the second season and the overall acting enough to warrant a 4-star. There were even some moments where the series played with psychological horror elements. These scenes were a joy to listen to and genuinely creepy. You’ll know them when they come up. Let’s just say you’ll never hear stuttering the same way again. Take a drink every time Ross gets interrupted by somebody. I’m not responsible for your liver.

Just finished both of these podcasts. Separate seasons, stand alone stories. I thought they were fantastic, enthralling, great voice acting, I really felt like I could put myself into the stories. For anyone into amazing sci-if stories, I recommend. The Message is a short season, short episodes. Life After is a longer season and longer episodes. Go for a drive, go for a walk and give them a listen.

S1 (The Message) makes good fun of lots of the most used toys of the Fiction Podcast medium ... found tapes, the investigative journalism tripe, horror ... and one of the best but most underutilized tropes of the medium ... a special sound experience. But ultimately, S1 ends up feeling kind of empty and cliched. S2, LifeAfter, however, is fantastic! It gives us more real and relatable characters. It asks more subtle questions about the medium of audio storytelling and portable personal audience-controlled entertainment and the way that intersects with social media & personas, and has a cooler, more subversive, more punk, plot. All suspended in a contemporary feeling workplace mystery. S2 is one of my absolute most favorite Audio Dramas thus far.

I can’t believe I actually finished this. On apple podcasts this is one show with two seasons but on Spotify it’s two separate series where Life/After is described as being the sequel to The Message. It doesn’t matter in which order you listen to them though. I kept seeing people recommending both so much so I went in expecting to be blown away. I hated both. They’re both dull with many nonsensical elements. The Message was better by a very small fraction and Life/After is definitely one of the worst audio drama/podcast I’ve ever heard. I think the only reason people hype these up is bc of the super duper shocking twisty ending. The characters were all so extremely unlikeable. There’s none I relate to or feel empathy for. There were no redeeming qualities. It didn’t start out as a drag and then get better. I kept waiting but it just never happened. They both sucked from beginning to end. Two stars is probably overrated. There’s way better audio dramas out there. No need fo waste any time on either one of these.

For the love of god please give us an option to purchase this without ads. I have been listening to this fall asleep for 2 years straight. And now you have added ads and I can no longer use it. My heart is broken it is such an amazing podcast. This is a devastating blow please I will pay you all the money for an ad free version. It would be z 5 stars but with the ads it is unusable.