The Cleansed: A Post-Apocalyptic Saga

This story has multiple main characters and groups with many intersecting threads—but a lack of deep character development makes it difficult to keep up with who those characters are and how they relate, keeping this enjoyable tale from being great.

Lots of fun. Great characters and sound effects. Even some philosophical musings. Only negative I would say is that the constant, long, loud, tedious arguments that Mark, Luke and Maria had regarding every single decision and the long winded angst over every single death or loss tended to get exhausting after awhile. Otherwise, very enjoyable. The evil Saul character was especially a lot of fun to listen to.

The quality of the cast and overall production is outstanding. The universe they built is fun and interesting. The only drawback is the development of some of the characters. While the voice actors do an awesome job, they way some are written can get annoying or their motivation is lost in fast character development. I would love to see this podcast continue.

I've just found this series (in December, 2016) and am currently in the middle of Season 2. I came here to see what others have thought of this show. It's a credit that I'm still listening and haven't given up; it's holding my interest enough to keep listening. That said, I'm not actually sure if I'm interested or merely staring at a train wreck and can't look away. Positives: Fast-moving storyline, though sometimes too fast and/or confusing. The actor playing Lucien is very good. I love the main narrator's voice. At times the sound effects aren't moderated very well but I felt the audio effects improved greatly as the show progressed. Negatives: Several things confuse me. We have an omniscient narrator until suddenly, a first person narrator appears. Is Maria writing in a diary? Are other narrators just babbling to themselves? Telling the story in the future? Dialog is often weak. There are so many little flaws that yank me out of the story, e.g. characters repeating each other's names unnaturally. "What do you think, Maria?"' "Luke, I don't know. But Luke, you and I are the only people standing here in the woods right now." "I know, Maria. So I'm not sure why I keep saying your name since our voices are easily discerned." "Luke, we must make it easy for any stupid people listening." "Ah! Good point, Maria." There is bland acting and there is overacting. Lots and lots of overacting. Character development is lacking. Characters make absurd decisions and I'm again yanked out of the story while trying to figure out why in the world...fill in the blank here. [Why Maria instantly trusts John? Why David lets his wife and two children head out with John on what must seem like a suicide mission? Oh, right. His glasses broke. Etc.] Saul is truly a one-dimensional antagonist—a cliched bad guy who's bad because, umm, he's just very, very bad. The Jesus stuff is way overdone. I like this part of the story but a little Jesus-freaking gets the point across. And oh god, the hymns!! That blood-of-the-lamb song will haunt me for weeks. I dunno. I think if "The Cleansed" was this production team's first effort at a serial podcast they didn't fail but neither did they nail it. There was enough improvement from week to week that I'd be willing to check out a new serial should they make one.

I've been getting into podcast stories (not just "talkshows") over the past two years and I had high hopes for this one... only to be fairly disappointed. The premise of the show is great, but it seems like an audio clip of a tv show. Lots of context is missing, changing between scenes and time is confusing, and backstory just doesn't seem to flow nicely. I really wanted to like this one, but came away disappointed.

Made it through episode 6, but I can’t do it anymore. Storylines are convoluted, and uninteresting. The production actually isn’t as bad as some of the other podcasts that Realm pukes out (The Sheridan Tapes is an audial nightmare), but it definitely couldn’t salvage this yawner. Lastly, shame on all you rascals who tee up the fake 4 and 5 star reviews. You’re part of the problem.