- Who are the heroes and villains of each series? If you think the roles are clear, how does the podcast signal that a character is a hero or villain? If you think the roles are unclear, how might the podcast clarify the character roles for you?
- Producer/Reporter Kelly Horan inserts herself as a character in Last Seen. Why do you think she chose do this? What role does she serve to you, the listener?
Tunnel 29:
The Stasi are the obvious villains in this series. The podcast shows this through mentioning the nefarious reputation of the Stasi and how they bug unsuspecting people’s houses. Joachim is the hero, which is shown through their kind words describing him in the first episode, and giving him humanizing moments, like trying pineapple marmalade for the first time. The biggest indicator is that he is willing to risk his safety and newfound freedom to help others in East Berlin escape to West Berlin.
It remains unclear, however, if “Fred”, the newly recruited Stasi spy is a villain or hero. While the episode ends with him going to look for Joachim, the audience does not know if he will actually turn Joachim in. The character of “Fred” is put forth by the podcast as neither good nor bad. He is an intelligent and likable hairdresser who also has a desire to earn money and not be ____ for his queer lifestyle. While agreeing to help rat out those who are assisting with East Berlin refugees seems outright unethical, it remains to be seen whether he will actually do it. I imagine that the producers will either keep his character morally ambiguous, but it is possible they will explain that he has done something irreparable or extremely redeeming.
On a side note, I can appreciate the natural background sounds that come up throughout this podcast, but the crunching of toast seemed a little too twee. The podcast seems to want you to be in some form of suspense and the toast crunching sound feels like an odd tonal shift.
Last Seen:
It doesn’t feel like there are any main characters other than Rick Abath in this podcast. And the producers are very careful to not say one way or another that he definitely stole from the museum. They show the facts of the case that implicate as well as possibly exonerate him. This podcast doesn’t appear to delegate people into the heroes/villains category. Even the burglars that got away with 12 pieces have not been vilified. One of the burglars is described as kind to the security guards and no one interviewed or narrating describes them as anything particularly negative–they are just some very successful thieves. If they wanted to demonize Abath or the burglars, producers could have underscored with dangerous music or described the negative consequences their actions incurred on others.
I believe Kelly Horan inserts herself as a character into the podcast’s narrative to serve as an audience surrogate as well as a center of focus. There is a lot of information about this case, and having someone to focus on as they discover new things keeps it manageable. It also allows the audience to feel as though they are discovering things with Horan, making the podcast more engaging.
Audio Experiments 