Well, it looks like I'm going to be following up at lot of the shows I gave review to in the past. I've reviewed lots of season ones, now I get to review season twos. Usually, I'd add something more to open with, but I think we should just jump right into it. We're taking a look at season two of The Phone Booth.
This season changes the format a bit. The Covid-19 Pandemic still happened in the world of The Phone Booth. As such, Joe can't travel around. Instead, he has people email their stories to him, and he reads them aloud, occasionally with some assistance. However, just because this season is a bit more barebones doesn't mean the stories pack any less of a punch.
The Phone Booth, like many audio dramas, was dealt a bad hand with regards to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Still, Keenan Ellis made it work to the best of his ability. He handled the narration for episodes with male protagonists, and he got Elizabeth Seely to narrate the episodes with female protagonists. The episodes from the first half of this season are purely narration, but the episodes from the second half include some sound effects. As previously mentioned, despite the limited working conditions, the stories pack quite a punch. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that they're easily on par with what we got in season one in terms of writing quality. Keenan certainly made the most of what he had to work with.
Okay, let's tackle the individual episodes. The episode numbering continues from last season, which ended on episode six. Our first episode is a two-parter. Episodes seven and eight are titled "Crossroads." Joe receives an email from Archibald Turn. He talks about the chaos immediately following B-Day. However, he also talks about how Nashville, Tennessee became the heart of a renewed music movement. The heart of this movement was a bar called Crossroads.
This season of The Phone Booth saw the introduction of two-part episodes. In fact, all but two episodes of this season are two-parters. Keenan has mentioned in the past that he had been writing the scripts of The Phone Booth for many years. I don't know how long this episode was planned. I bring this up because I thought that maybe music wasn't the best subject to start of the season given the reduced production capacity. In an ideal world, it would have been nice to hear some of the music, but I understand that Keenan was having to make the most of the hand he was dealt. Pretty sure none of us on the podcasting could have seen the pandemic coming. For what it's worth, I found the writing itself to be very compelling. I've mentioned in the past, Keenan is an excellent narrator. He was more than capable of carrying the episode on his own. Even without hearing the music, I had a very clear feeling of what it would sound like.
It was interesting to see how the entertainment industry was affected by B-Day. Though, on minor criticism I would have would be that I wouldn't have gone with Covid-19 happening in the world of The Phone Booth like it did in ours. I would have gone with something more fitting to the universe. Say, maybe some sort of new disease that mutated as a result of B-Day, or maybe someone with disease powers getting out of control. Still, that's just a fairly minor point.
Overall, the season starts out strong with a fairly good two-parter.
Episode nine is titled "Safe Space." Joe gets an email from a yoga instructor named Alice Kessler. When she was a child, she was happy and adventurous. Then she hit puberty and was struck by crippling anxiety and agoraphobia. She became a paranoid recluse and a shut-in as an adult. In fact, the highlight of her week was briefly chatting with the cute pizza delivery boy. Oh, but she got plenty of time to chat with him once B-Day happened.
The writing on this episode was very well-written, but it somewhat dismays me that I found the protagonist as relatable as I did. I've had my own dealing with anxiety and depression. The part where the pizza boy is the highlight of her week was also regrettably relatable. I liked how there's wasn't any trigger for Alice's anxiety, it just happened for no apparent reason. I found it interesting that Alice's power is to generate force field bubbles. There are several episodes of The Phone Booth where people's powers appeared to be luck of the draw more than anything. This episode seems to hint that people's personality plays at least some role in determining what powers they get. Alice wanted to retreat into her own little bubble, and B-Day gave her the power to literally do that.
On the other hand, perhaps it depends on what you happened to be doing when B-Day struck. Alice and pizza boy wound-up buried beneath the rubble of her apartment building, but survived because she created a force field in-time. Pizza boy got the ability to see in the dark, a fairly useful skill in such a situation. But there are other episodes, as we shall see, the suggest that powers really do just develop at random. In any event, it is nice to see that things worked out for Alice, and that's she's working on becoming a little more social.
All in all, another strong episode of The Phone Booth.
Episode ten is titled "Costume in the Closet." Joe gets an email from a man named Mason Demyer. He tells about what it what like to be a parent in the days following B-Day. He also discusses his short-lived stint as a superhero.
This was another very interesting episode. It showed that most people who got powers weren't in a rush become superheroes. Or if they did, they didn't stick to it very long. Let's use Mason as an example. He gained the ability to fly...and that's it. He's not any stronger or more durable than your average non-powered human. Sure, maybe he could drop somewhat heavy objects on people from above, but he really wouldn't be much use in a fight. Hey, at least Hawkman has a mace. There's also the fact that it can get pretty cold up in the sky, and a spandex suit probably won't provide you very much warmth. Mason found that out the hard way. It always amazes me, when I'm flying in an airplane, to think that the temperature outside the airplane in the negative degrees.
Then there's the fact that, though crime occurs regularly enough, you aren't going to come across a crime every time you go patrolling. In fact, most of the time patrolling would be rather boring. I worked student patrol my first year of college, so I speak from experience on this one. Still, Mason was able to find happiness even without being a superhero. And hey, his power is great for saving kites from trees.
An episode that has elements of deconstruction, but never gets too dark for its own good. Once again, an excellently crafted episode.
Episodes eleven and twelve are titled "Animals." Joe requests a message from a death row inmate named Jesse Dominski. By the time Joe got the letter, Jesse had been executed. She served as a field veterinarian in the Rocky Mountains in the years following B-Day. Her specialty was anitropes; people who mutated into human-animal hybrids following B-Day. Jesse recounts the story of uncovering an illegal anitrope poaching operation, and how this set off a series of events that landed her on death row.
I'd been hoping we'd get an episode about the human-animal hybrids, and now here we are. And it's a two-part episode at that. Throughout the episode there's a running question of just how human the anitropes are. Most people view them as just mindless animals without any shreds of humanity left. Jesse, however, maintained that they are still human, even if they have changed quite a bit. I'm inclined to agree, as there is evidence to support this view. My personal theory is that the anitropes retain their original memories and personalities, but have been reduced to animal-level in intelligence. Obviously, this means they can't form complex thoughts anymore, and often default to instincts. They're aggressive, but no worse than a wild animal would be if a human gets too close. I'd imagine most anitropes feel scared more than anything, and this, combined with their inability to form complex thoughts often leads them lash out and attack humans.
There is evidence within the episode that support's this. Jesse's sister became an anitrope following B-Day, and seems to have retained some of her memories and personality. Though, eventually she did get the urge to join an anitrope pack in the mountains. Apparently, anitropes are among the top ten most common powers following B-Day. Most character mention lots of people flying after B-Day, so we know flight is fairly common. I'd also imagine super strength is fairly common, as Jesse is the second character we've encountered with that power. I wonder what the other seven are. Also, I loved how Keenan included bits of ambient noise, particularly animal sounds, to help give a little something extra to this episode.
I sympathized with Jesse's perspective, but I could see where the other charters were coming from as well. Anitropes probably killed a lot of people following B-Day. It's also mentioned that there were a lot of executions of prisoners following B-Day. In some cases, it was because conventional prisons simply could hold them, or because they might start a riot, which would be even worse given that most of the other prisoners also have powers. The point being, the post B-Day world was a harsh and unforgiving place, and that often meant having to make tough calls. Though, I'm still with Jesse. If a human kills an anitrope, and it isn't in self-defense, it ought to be considered murder. I thought that the reveal of the poacher's identity was well-done, though I had my suspicions as the reveal got closer. I also thought the poacher's power was pretty ingenious. It is certainly sad that Jesse was executed for killing the poacher, but perhaps someday, history will vindicate her.
This was an episode I was hoping we'd see, and it certainly did not disappoint.
Episodes thirteen and fourteen are titled "Champ." Bishop Cline is widely considered to be the founding father of the United States of New England. However, he doesn't consider himself a hero, just a man. In fact, the way he tells it, his cousin Charlie was the real brains behind the new nation. He recounts his childhood with Charlie, and their hunts for the elusive cryptid Champ. He also tells of how he and Charlie forged a great, if flawed, nation out of the ashes of B-Day.
First of all, I wanted to clarify that Bishop is the guy's first name. He's not a clergyman. I was wondering how Keenan was going to top the last two-parter. As it turns out, quite well indeed. Last season, it was mentioned that America split into five nations following B-Day. The way things were described made it sound like America reunited, but this episode seems to indicate that America is still Balkanized. Though we did get hints of that last episode, where it was mentioned that the Rockies are considered the broader of civilized America. Everything west of the Rockies is apparently the Wild West reborn. Well, except for Los Angles, which is dominated by the hive-mind entity known as The Union.
In my younger day, I too fantasized about securing for cryptids, before I wised up to all that. Still, they are fun part of what I consider to be the modern-day mythology of America. Champ is a Loch Ness Monster style cryptid claimed to live in Lake Champlain. Bishop power is that his bones turned to iron. This would give more evidence toward the idea that powers develop at random. He was out on the lake with Charlie at the time; the last place you want to be with heavy iron bones, especially when you can't breathe underwater. And it does appear that each person only gets one power, so thank goodness Charlie got the boat ashore in time. On a related note, this episode does give evidence towards my theory of anitrope psychology. Bishop recalls seeing anitropes waiting for crossing signals and holding the door open for each other. This suggest they do retain their personalities and memories, if only in a limited capacity.
I liked how this episode showed how society rebuilt following B-Day. Bishop and Charlie rallied together and formed a new army known as the Iron Core. The cities and towns of New England, like pretty much everywhere else, had basically become independent city-states following B-Day. The Iron Core untied the scattered towns and cities of New England into a new nation: The United States of New England. Bishop handled the military stuff, while Charlie handled the governing of the USNE. For a while all was well, but then Boston happened. Up until then, the USNE only expanded its territory to towns that couldn't survive on their own. Boston was self-sufficient and had no desire to join the USNE. Despite this, the USNE declared war on Boston.
I should here note that Boston's full name was the Principality of Boston. So, the cradle of the American Revolution reverted to monarchism? Hmm, maybe they deserved to get conquered, but I digress. Anyway, Charlie was opposed to this, but he lost support due to the people losing trust in a man without powers. So, he stepped down and Bishop took over, but then he too lost support after the economy turned bad.
I had wonder if people without powers faced discrimination. It appears, at least in this instance, the answer is yes. This is particularly sad as Charlie seems to have been a fairly commenter leader. After being ousted from power, he moved to the Northeastern Kingdom, which is apparently a region in Northeastern Vermont, and not a nation like initially assumed. Still, the United States of New England is one of the most stable nations of the post B-Day world, so Charlie and Bishop's efforts weren't in vain. Granted, they occasionally had to indulge in questionable actions at times. We get hints that the towns the Iron Core "liberated" weren't as destitute as we have been told. Then there is the business with Boston.
A powerful end for season two of The Phone Booth.
And so that's all the episodes of season two of The Phone Booth. Keenan was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, but he certainly made the most of what he had to work with. I am very much looking forward to season three. It's going to be a while until it comes out, as Keenan wants season three to be the best it can be. Obviously, that will be much easier once the pandemic clears. It also turns out that season three will be the final season of The Phone Booth. I know Keenan has other projects he's working on, such as his newly launched podcast The Endless Ocean, but I still can't believe season three will be the end. It feels like we've just scratched the surface of The Phone Booth, and the stories just keep getting better. Still, I'm aware that there's only so many hours in a day, and only so much time that can be devoted to producing audio dramas. I eagerly await season three, and I wish Keenan well in all his future endeavors.
But enough about all of that. If I haven't made it clear by now, you should really go listen to season two of The Phone Booth. Unless you haven't listened to season one, somehow, in which case listen to it, then listen to season two. It is a quality superhero audio drama, and I can't recommend it enough.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I
will see you guys next time.
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