Bubble: Complete Season One

June 13, 2018 11:27 AM

Fairhaven is a literal bubble in a world gone wrong, where monster hunters deal with goblins, the gig economy, and dudes named Chad.

Bubble is the first scripted comedy podcast from Maximum Fun, the network that brings us The Adventure Zone, My Brother, My Brother, and Me, and many more.

posted by Etrigan (17 comments total)

I liked this first episode! It was extremely recognizable as Written by Jordan Morris and I’m interested to see if his sensibility and humor shines through in the future episodes written by other people.
posted by something something at 6:46 PM on June 13, 2018

I'm not familiar with Jordan Morris's work, but I liked the first episode too. Wacky enough without being all elbow-jab "Hey, check out THIS wackiness!", and a good balance of satire and plot.

Alison Becker is on this week's Judge John Hodgman (so as to plug Bubble), and is of course a delight.
posted by Etrigan at 6:35 AM on June 14, 2018

I really enjoyed this! My main complaint is I wish they could do something different with the transitions... The music is fine but hearing that same stinger every time got a bit tiring.
posted by kmz at 7:33 AM on June 14, 2018

Oh, I forgot -- I am not entirely in on the narrator yet. She almost had me with some Arrested-Development-narrator-esque dropin that I can't remember now, but it wasn't quite obvious enough, and it didn't feel like the story had earned that yet.
posted by Etrigan at 7:59 AM on June 14, 2018

I really loved this first episode -- really liked Mitch and Morgan. And, I'm surprised how likable Van is for all his awfulness. I'm a fan of Kyle Kinane too, so I like him voicing the masked man. The narration is a little heavy, and I wonder if it will dial back in later episodes. This first episode was originally a pilot script, so maybe the stage directions will be less invasive as this becomes more of a radio-play.

She almost had me with some Arrested-Development-narrator-esque dropin that I can't remember now, but it wasn't quite obvious enough, and it didn't feel like the story had earned that yet.

But it was a joke about bitcoin! I can always get onboard a joke about how tiresome bitcoin people are.

The music is fine but hearing that same stinger every time got a bit tiring.

Hate those stingers, but I loved Coulton's "Come Ride a Boat."
posted by gladly at 9:29 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I can always get onboard a joke about how tiresome bitcoin people are.

It was such a good joke, but the production and the out-of-nowhere-ness of the narrator-as-interrupter stepped all over it.
posted by Etrigan at 6:33 PM on June 14, 2018

I loved Coulton's "Come Ride a Boat."

I don't always love Coulton, but this week's "Your Body Is a Sexy Place" is a true masterpiece.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:16 AM on June 22, 2018

This gets better by the episode, but I may be prejudiced by both John Hodgman as "Standard Guy" and Danielle Radford as "RA / Doula".
posted by Etrigan at 10:11 AM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

So this is a colony established by the B Ark, right?
posted by books for weapons at 1:16 PM on July 4, 2018

I think that's Janet Varney as the street vendor who sells Mitch the squid, and I had a nice out-loud laugh on her "I never put it back" line reading after Mitch asks for the Viagra.

I'm partial to the McElroys anyway, but I love them as Van's bearded roomies.
posted by gladly at 8:42 AM on July 5, 2018

Okay, so we kinda have to talk about Jesse Thorn now.

Last week, he tweeted something to the effect of "I'm glad Bubble didn't turn out lame like the rest of audio drama." He deleted it and posted a "clarification", but a lot of the audio drama community (especially the indie corners of that community) has turned on Thorn, MaxFun, and Bubble. A few people I follow have said they stopped their MaxFun subscriptions because of that tweet (as a last straw, with some vague references to other issues people have had with him).

I haven't gone that far, but I have pushed Bubble (and Judge John Hodgman) down my priority lists.
posted by Etrigan at 9:34 AM on July 25, 2018

What did his original tweet say, is it archived anywhere?
posted by something something at 9:57 AM on July 25, 2018

"I'm probably most proud of the fact that so many folks who (like me) think that audio drama is usually kinda lame love Bubble."
posted by Etrigan at 10:12 AM on July 25, 2018

That’s pretty tame, in my opinion. I’ve spent ten years of my life listening to Jesse’s work and I guess I’m out of internet outrage. People are entitled to have and express preferences.
posted by something something at 10:24 AM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think it's a bummer, nobody likes their taste impugned. He could have easily said something like, I'm proud of Bubble for being a new take on the audio drama format that really appeals to people who aren't usually into audio drama (like me).
posted by books for weapons at 10:35 AM on July 25, 2018

Episode 7 has a very good parody song
posted by JDHarper at 8:59 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm really enjoying this but I am wondering how they keep it up. We've now escalated all the way up to everyone against the new superbad and we're only in episode 8.
posted by phearlez at 2:21 PM on August 8, 2018