The Second Oil Age

This podcast was right up my alley. I love the efficient dialogue and the dark steely vibe, the ambient supportive sound design was just enough to fill in necessary gaps in the narrative and not overdone. The narrator was superb…reminded me of Aeon Flux The writing is tight and eloquent with an ending befitting the spirit of the story. My only gripe was was the faux ads. As entertaining as they were, they detracted from the gravity of the storyline. Overall, well done.

The details and storytelling really creates a new immersive world. I have to disagree with other reviewers and say that the fantasy advertisements (like the bladerunner billboards) only help to create this world. Quite creative! I listen to almost all the sci-fi podcasts and this is one of the better and more believable ones. Its like a cinematic film playing in your head. The choice of words to describe things is fantastic. Keep it up!

This was just fantastic. The voices and sounds were very believable and it had a great storyline. You could visualize everything. I thought one of the coolest features was the fake/futuristic commercials that were played around the real commercials. Made them feel not so jarring in the middle of the episode. Please make more!!

One of the very first things I noticed was how much I loved the in-universe advertisements and radio show segments. It gives such a depth to the world that wouldn’t be possible through storytelling alone, and provides an excellent outlet for exposition without it sounding boring and like an infodump. I love the new take on a mermaid-like species. It seems like a very realistic way humans would interact with an Other civilization. The story is also very intriguing. I will admit, it took a couple of episodes to really take off, but it was interesting enough to keep my attention until then. I also think the episodes are a pretty good length. They might be a little short, but it’s not a big complaint and they work at the length they are. My one criticism is the narration style. I’m not sure I like the heavy narration from the main character. I have gotten more used to it, but I wish there was more dialogue between characters. The moments when characters interact are where the voice actors really have a chance to flex their muscles, but they don’t get that chance very often. I’d rather that more of the narration gets told through dialogue or sound design. But if that’s my only criticism, then honestly this show did a great job. Plus, it stopped standing out to me so much as I sunk more into the story. Excellent work!

They combine in-show, fictional ads with irl ads. This is so obnoxious. I understand the need for ads if you’re not paying for a sub. But when you go from a brooding, monotone narrator into an ad screaming about a new ABC show or ring cameras, separated by fictional ads for “krab steaks,” or “temporary graphene skin alteration,” it just makes it too difficult to listen to. More so when the same ad plays multiple times in one show 🤮

I think that this podcast has a lot of potential; an interesting plot, unique characters, and compelling arguments about climate and humanity. However, the podcast is severely lacking in context for the listener. It is one thing to leave things to the imagination or for future reveal, but another thing entirely to not describe settings, context for information that is “common knowledge” in universe, and what the main character looks like. The podcast is somewhat impersonal; it seems like it was a script for a tv show that didn’t get enough funding, so they just had someone read off the script in a monotone voice, said it was a podcast, and called it a day. As cool as the premise is, it is NOT suitable (in its current form) to be a podcast. You have to be REALLY attentive in order to get the full picture, and seeing as most people use podcasts as background noise, it is simply NOT user friendly.