LifeAfter: Full Season

November 14, 2016 9:07 AM

The 10 episode series follows Ross, a low level employee at the FBI, who spends his days conversing online with his wife Charlie – who died eight months ago.

Riding the feed of The Message, LifeAfter is the "second season" of GE Podcast Theater, which they call "Her meets Ex Machina".

posted by Etrigan (9 comments total)

The first episode dropped over the weekend, and even though I knew the conceit, the moment when Charlie goes "off script" still literally stopped me dead in my tracks.
posted by Etrigan at 9:09 AM on November 14, 2016

Listened to the first episode while doing yard work this weekend. Overall I liked it, but am a bit unsure if this is going to play out in a non-trite fashion. I thought the acting and sound work was a big improvement from The Message.
posted by noneuclidean at 5:59 PM on November 14, 2016

So just did Episodes 1 and 2 together this afternoon.

During Episode 2, I kept thinking the whole time how robotic Charlie's voice sounded. There was a staccato quality that made it sound a little like someone had reshuffled and repurposed words she'd said in those 2000 messages. After listening to The Message, I wasn't sure if it was intentional or just a quirk of the voice actress, but from the end of the episode, it sounds like it's deliberate.

It sounds like they're going to trade access for information. Curious to see how far Ross will go to stay connected.
posted by mochapickle at 6:31 PM on November 25, 2016

The voice actor behind Ross is doing some really remarkable work. McLeod sounds so familiar, but I just can't pin down who the actor is.
posted by Etrigan at 9:47 AM on November 28, 2016

I finally placed the voice actor behind McLeod - it's David Zayas.
posted by tautological at 9:41 PM on December 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes! Thank you! I confess, it didn't occur to me to think beyond white guys, but I'm glad they didn't change the character name to something Latino just because of the actor.
posted by Etrigan at 5:50 AM on December 18, 2016

So they went daily this week, apparently to get everything out before Christmas. I can't help but think they're just burning it off because no one's listening, which would be a pity. It keeps getting better.
posted by Etrigan at 5:47 AM on December 21, 2016

Episode 9: I think we got our first in-text confirmation that this is the same world as The Message, when McLeod asked whether they would all get the "alien breathing disease" from listening to the headphone signal.

I figure that Ross is running his own anti-Sasha game at this point, despite seeming in all ways to be a convert. Again, the actor is doing some extraordinary work.
posted by Etrigan at 6:16 AM on December 22, 2016

Well, they tied everything up pretty well. I wouldn't have minded a bit less foreshadowing (I won't spoil it in anyone's Recent Activity for a little while), but I would place this as just above The Message and firmly in the top tier of New Radio Plays.
posted by Etrigan at 6:17 AM on December 23, 2016