Stay up to date with free updates
Simply register for Art myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.
If you need proof that fiction podcasts are no longer a niche interest, consider the megastars currently being lured into the sound booth. Once a low-budget genre typically broadcast on late-night radio, audio fiction has now crossed over into podcasts along with many major acting talents.
Last month brought two new, outstanding fiction pods. The first, Tom Slick: Mysterious Hunterstarring Owen Wilson and Sissy Spacek, is about “the most interesting man you’ve never heard of.” Slick (Wilson) is a scientist, researcher and alleged spy whose story unfolds through a series of recordings found in his daughter’s house long after his death. In the first episode, we see his granddaughter Liv (Schuyler Fisk) braving the bats in her mother Claire’s (Spacek) attic to retrieve the tapes, after which the two open a bottle of wine and press play.
From there, the drama splits into two timelines: one with Liv and Claire listening to the tapes and gasping at the contents, and the other with the voice of Slick telling his own story, which begins with his early years in Texas as the son of a self-made oil tycoon. Slick Sr. came to his fortune during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1910s, leaving behind a $75 million fortune that enabled his son to pursue his ultimate dream: finding the Yeti in the Himalayas.
His early life was eventful. When Slick was 14, his father died, meaning he was “forced to be a senior in high school, even though I only knew how to be his younger brother.” A few years later, his house was raided by notorious robber George “Machine Gun” Kelly, who took his stepfather hostage. Before turning to the Yeti in the late 1950s, he is said to have worked for the CIA, hunting down fugitive Nazis.
Wilson is well cast in the title role, an Indiana Jones-meets-Edmund Hillary figure full of charisma and daring, while Spacek is a more down-to-earth presence as the daughter who meets her father posthumously. The soundscape is excellent: ambitiously layered and loud in a way that’s entirely appropriate for a rollicking and fun action-adventure series.
Unsinkableanother story of heroism and adventure, is also loaded with A-list celebrities, including ConsequenceBrian Cox, John Malkovich and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. The series is inspired by the true story of a ship, the San Demetrio, that made the perilous voyage across the Atlantic during World War II, evading German battleships and submarines. The sound design is impressive – best heard with headphones – and the cast acquit themselves well. But the series is hampered by a script full of cliches and mind-numbing explanations.
podcasts.apple.com, wondery.com
