We're Alive: A Story of Survival, The First Season
created by Shane Salk and Kc Wayland; written by Kc Wayland
12 podcasts performed by a full cast
Ⓟ 2011, Blackstone Audio, Inc.
10.30 hours
Michael, Angel and Saul are three soldiers in present day Northern California ordered to report for duty: to restore order to their beleaguered city which is ravaged by "zombies." The infected are necrotic bodies that can only be truly taken down by fire or beheading and, the transmutation of the corporeal states is triggered via a bite from one of the infected.
Jim Gleason, Shane Salk and Nate Geez, as Michael, Angel and Saul respectively are noteworthy in voicing their roles convincingly, naturally and without getting into excessive hyperbole. However, the pulp tenor of the story lent itself to a temptation that many of the other performers could not resist: to drop into over-characterization or stereotyping. Mostly, this works to keeps the characters distinct; but occasionally, a performer's choices didn't work out quite as well as might have been expected: Claire Dodin plays Riley, a French restauranteur/survivor/Tower resident. Ms Dodin seems to have had a little trouble settling into a French accent, which seemed to have come by way of Britain and Asia; all of which left the character of Riley as something of a enigma until the story spelled it out as to who she was and where she came from. Datu, a Filipino who worked as the apartment building's maintenance supervisor before becoming the Tower's engineer, sounded more like Apu from The Simpsons than he did a native from the Philippines. There was no question as to who was speaking when any of the performers rendered their lines; it was just a bit jarring when a performer didn't really seem to be "in character."
05/24/2012 - Correction: Strikethrough of the word "Northern" in the first line. Bell, CA is a town in Southern California.
See Also:
- The Armchair Audies (Official Page)
- Armchair Audies (The Bad Employee/Bad Wife Edition - Inaugural Post)
- The Mark of Zorro (Audiobook Review)
- The Graduate (Audiobook Review)
- I, Claudius (Audiobook Review)
- "The Man Who Had All the Luck" (from The Arthur Miller Collection) - Audiobook Review
- "All My Sons" (from The Arthur Miller Collection) - Audiobook Review
- "Death of a Salesman" (from The Arthur Miller Collection) - Audiobook Review
- "The Crucible" (from The Arthur Miller Collection) - Audiobook Review
- The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mark Hammer, Vol. 3: Encore for Murder (Audiobook Review)
- Out of Head (Audiobook Review)
- The Zombie Podcast - We're Alive (Official Web-Site)
Other Stuff:
We're Alive: A Story of Survival - The First Season (created by Shane Salk and Kc Wayland; written by Kc Wayland; performed by a full cast) qualifies for:
We're Alive: A Story of Survival - The First Season (created by Shane Salk and Kc Wayland; written by Kc Wayland; performed by a full cast) qualifies for:
- The 2012 Audio Book Challenge hosted by @teresasreading at Teresa's Reading Corner and;
- The Armchair Audies hosted by @lithousewife at Literate House Wife
I borrowed a LIbrary CD edition of We're Alive: A Story of Survival - The First Season (created by Shane Salk and Kc Wayland; written by Kc Wayland; performed by a full cast) from Blackstone Audio, Inc. I had no involvement in the production of We're Alive: A Story of Survival - The First Season (created by Shane Salk and Kc Wayland; written by Kc Wayland; performed by a full cast.) I receive no monies, goods or services in exchange for reviewing the product and/or mentioning any of the persons or companies that are or may be implied in this post.
So....the French woman had troubles falling into her natural accent?
ReplyDeleteWow...you're totally a qualified reviewer. Good job, Billy!
Yep, if Ms Dodin is indeed French, then she had trouble settling into her own accent. There were points at which she sounded like she was trying to be British, i.e. landing a huge "caaahnt" right in the middle of her dialogue in one of the episodes and; in another section. delivering her lines in a small mouth way which made me wonder if she was trying to emulate an Asian accent. Only when Riley's back story is told, does Ms Dodin relax and settle into her character.
DeleteDude, the French woman is portrayed by an actually French person who was born in France. The Filipino guy is played by a man of Filipino heritage. I don't think you could get more authentic than that.
ReplyDeleteYou can see my response to Ms Dodin's performance above and; I also happen to be of Filipino heritage - which only means that regardless of heritage of the performer or listener, Datu still sounds more Indian than Filipino.
DeleteReviewer's working knowledge of the French accent must be from Peter Sellers films. Way to pay attention. I'll ignore this website in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you don't happen to agree with my assessment of Ms Dodin's performance and that you'll not be reading any of my future posts. C'est la vie :-)
DeleteWell, everyone seems to be angry about a good review. From the beginning, I honestly pictured Riley as an African woman from one of the many nations that speak French. It turns out I was far off, but that's what she really sounded like to me, and I was a bit disappointed when she wasn't what I pictured.
ReplyDeleteI know a great deal of Filipinos where I live, and not a single one of them sound like Datu. I don't even think it's a problem with sounding authentic, it's more of an issue of fluency delivering his lines. And ethnicity certainly doesn't convey a natural accent. I'm part Inuit and I couldn't do an Inuit accent to save my life.
Just remember folks. We Americans have MANY accents in our native culture, which we also must take into account...the immigrant population. Whenn in common speech....or heaven forbid, presented with scripts, read aloud opportunities or taking on, characters or such, not everyone stays in their own regional dialect consistently...and for start up programs...characters develop over time. Et al..anyone ever watch the very first SIMPSON shorts on Tracy Ulman? Uh, something tells me there is a drastic difference. Characters are sometimes developed over time because actors get comfortable. Othertimes, it might be direction, writing or coaching. We're Alive picks up steam after starting from the Bell, CA launch and actually DOES look back..at it's backstory. It's all good. Give it time and a chance. Even the haters you meet in life, just might grow on you if you adjust them..JUST right. Shirley...you know what I mean... - Burt -
ReplyDeleteI hate when a narrator's accent draws me out of the story.
ReplyDelete