#aromantic lead

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Eeler's Choice

Title: Eeler's Choice

Review Conducted After: Episode 3

What's it About: Fishing village and the struggle's its inhabitants face.

Strengths: Innovative setting!

Weaknesses: TBD

Other Notes: I'll update this after I listen to more.

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Old Gods of Appalachia

Title: Old Gods of Appalachia

Review Conducted After: Episode 20

What's it About: Interweaves historical exploitation and abuse in the Appalachian Mountains with the supernatural.

Strengths: All around solid with a clear vision of what it wants to be. The opening and closing songs are absolute bangers.

Weaknesses: Indigenous erasure is built into the premise. See, Old Gods of Appalachia is alternate history where no one settled the Appalachian Mountains before white settlers showed up because of the Horrors that reside there. If I had to take a guess as to why the creative team chose to do this, I'd wager that they wanted to tell stories about the Horrors tormenting white settlers without grappling with a history of indigenous nations having to deal with those same Horrors.

But an alternate history without indigenous people in an area should have radically changed things, and in Old Gods of Appalachia, it just...doesn't. The land isn't less fertile for white settler despite lacking a long history of indigenous cultivation. No indigenous people moved into the Appalachian Mountains in spite of the Horrors due to being pushed off their lands to the east of the mountains by white settlers.

You could make an entire audio drama about how things would be massively different if indigenous people never settled the Appalachian Mountains, and Old Gods of Appalachia just uses it as a hand wave.

Plus, "the Horrors lay sleeping until the white settlers woke them up" was Right There as a better solution!

Other Notes: Since this one's an anthology, determining "lead" is a bit trickier. I'm counting recurring characters who have a significant role in driving the plot.