Huge fan of the Blake Blossom intros on this one; something about the “overheard phone call” nature of them works so well to pull me into the setting. The continued slow unspooling of information to the listener about Blough City is great.
This also marks the point in my re-listen where my memories of the first season get a lot patchier. I think, if pressed, I could have dredged up something about this arc in terms of the masquerades, but not much else.
Another immediately and delightfully strong Art character: Tyler Taylor Pierce is a great name, and the hot dogs bit is hysterical. Chris, Florence, and Patty are all good, they’re each good Ali, Jack, and Keith characters (respectively) and they each have some excellent moments, and they’re simultaneously solidly within their player’s wheelhouses. Not a bad thing, to be very clear! But Tyler Taylor Pierce is definitely the standout.
In a number of ways, I think this arc falls into some of the same moment-to-moment beats vs. overarching narrative issues that PALISADE’S A Palette of Colors ran into. Which makes sense given that the Bluff arc is played in Noirlandia, a hack of Questlandia (which is the system in Palette). It just makes for some slightly awkward listening at times, where I enjoy the individual scenes, but then at the end of the episodes had some trouble keeping the overarching beats straight; I think it’s something to do with the differences in narrative scale. The scenes focused on specific characters work well, but they’re supposed to be knit together via the larger-scale scenes that are meant to show community changes…and it just never quite coheres for me.
I adore all of the Hector Hu details and backstory that we get here, especially Austin’s narration. It’s especially fun to be listening with knowledge of the overarching story of Bluff and Blough (and Blue) Cities, since all three key elements are here: the establishment of Bluff City as a location in the first arc, the addition of magical/supernatural elements in the second arc, and the reveal of Blough City in this arc.
Up next: an action movie!