#the adventures of mechabetty

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

[oots-digitalmedia]

Queer Rep in Adventures of MechaBetty

Title: Adventures of MechaBetty

    Status: Indefinite Hiatus

    Creator: Unknown, @titankore

    Cast: Jennifer Tiles, SonicPAJ, RiotMode, Liz Madden, Alex Atley, Shuttershade, Paul Ender

    Queer Creators: Unknown

    Accessibility: Captions on YouTube

Summary: Short version: It's a radioplay with a heavy mix of AtomPunk and ElectroSwing

Long version: The Adventures of MechaBetty is a fun throwback to old fashioned radio dramas with some modern twists.

Do you ever find yourself staring at the wall wishing you could listen to something interesting? Have you found that the television has, after 60 years finally lost its novelty? Do you find that the radio has nothing good playing except modern music?

Then the Adventures of MechaBetty may be something for you!

This exciting radio drama follows the audacious adventures of the two-ton dynamite dame from another dimension, MechaBetty, genius inventor and general savior of the planet Earth. Inside her powerful mechanical suit, and with the help of the crew of the USS Eldritch, she fights awful aliens from outer space bent on wreaking havoc on humankind!

Tags: Unknown

This entry could especially use more information from listeners, particularly about whether or not it is queer.

Check out our other queer podcast recommendations here.

[epic-semicolon-ftw]

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDyvaVOTgQ7T1AKevzQ07LPNml4KMHfYX

[podcake]

Audio Drama December: Neon Nights: The Arcane Files of Jack Tracer Review

A week has already passed and here I am again on a Sunday morning trying to justify my sudden yearning to peal back the monochrome layers of the noir genre. Noir in audio drama is an interesting little specimen that I might not be able to go into much detail about in the upcoming year, though the constructs of genre, narrative, and aesthetic choices truly do flourish in this particular style and covering it was inevitable given this line of journalism.

I’ve already offered my thoughts on the topic a few weeks ago and what I thought of The Penumbra mere days from now, so let’s spare the introduction and get to the second part of a very much anticipated dual review month. Today’s case to crack is Neon Nights: The Arcane Files of Jack Tracer, a supernatural mystery series brought to you by Evil Kitten Productions. 

It tells the story of Jack Tracer, a cop gone private investigator, who spends his days keeping track of the strange and eerie events of Neon City where he encounters some strange people and even stranger events surrounding them. It’s the broader lens of the whole plot but makes room for some innovative individual stories nonetheless. 

Neon Nights adheres to a sort of supernatural edge that I found strangely lacking in a lot of noir podcasts I’ve come across. Though The Penumbra certain has its moments, the more bizarre elements were almost always on behalf of smoke and mirrors and some sci-fi technology that makes sense within the world’s universe while Neon Nights has a more distinct air of the occult in play which can be both a strength and a weakness depending on the stakes-more on that later. 

There’s creepy cults and mystical items and just something that implies there’s a bigger, badder thing on the surface that the series hasn’t quite admitted to yet. Episodes are often divided up into ten to fifteen minute shorts that boil down to a four part complete product when put together. It manages to pack quite a bit of lore and intrigue in just a few short moments and the individual pieces flow together nicely into a pretty gripping series of events.

Neon Nights has some authentically noir inspired tropes to its design from its acting, to music, to use of old-timey sound effects that almost make you feel like you’re listening to it in black and white. The opening track is wonderfully rustic with some bass and piano over some soothing vinyl crackling and even without any background music, you still get this sort of jazzy vibe from the whole ting.  

As far as audio editing goes, it certainly knows how to make use of the most subtle of sound effects to improvise an idea of space and can seamlessly flow between narration and conversations with little stumbling. 

The presentation is certainly Neon Nights’ strong point, seeming to know all the best ways to make a scene feel as exciting or tense as it needs to be. Even through the most subtle of music selection and rain effects, it brings many of the moments to life and leaves a lot to drink up even with the short run times of individual episodes. 

If there was anything here that I really found myself liking it was the unsettling mood it was able to pass off in only a few seconds of an opening scene. This especially goes for episode four of “Case of Shady Grove”  that gave me some strong Psycho vibes and the entirety of “House of Joy” that not only had one of my favorite antagonists but a nice perspective switch between the two leads and what had me rooting for Red immediately. And with that in mind, we can nicely segue into some complaints.

I’m sorry to say that the lead character Jack Tracer doesn’t have the most pleasant of voices. Though I admit the rasp and aggression of his performance has its charm here and there, it’s often just a touch too absurd to take seriously. It gets just a little more bearable in later episodes, though it just wasn’t as easy on the ears as it could have been for our returning protagonist.

As I said, I honestly found myself most enamored by Red, the troubled but equally competent leading lady whose got some nice bite to her performance and a presence you quickly get comfortable with. I always looked forward to her returns and saw her as more protagonist material in the long run.

The dialogue is luckily, at least most of the time, in Jack and the supporting cast’s favor as even if Jack isn’t someone I enjoyed listening to more than a few seconds of, at least his words carried some weight. Now this is only a majority of the writing that can be credited as such as Neon Nights’ tends to fluctuate between some generally solid bits of dialogue and narration and, dare I say, laughable one liners that sound like something straight out of a early sixties comic strip.

So you might just be taken out of the moment when a character drops a cliche phrase into your lap with a straight face and the scene doesn’t pause itself for a laugh track. If this is intentional or not is always a struggle to figure out with noir shows given the hammy nature of their origins and it’s not like Neon Nights is fully exempt from a certain degree of theatrics. A given for a show of this brand, though it would be nice if Neon Nights could decide if it wanted to go full camp or not-giving me the same tone problems I had with The Adventures of MechaBetty.

Neon Nights isn’t exactly the most original of noir shows out there and lacks a certain element of surprise and critical thinking that I often found in my listening of The Penumbra. The supernatural edge can often leave mysteries a little hollow with the villains made apparent in just a few minutes of screen time and the explanations and build up being boiled down to “because magic”. 

Despite this, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained and that the show didn’t have me interested in what new mystery might bubble to the surface. I’m more intrigued by the bigger picture being painted here and I certainly didn’t leave behind the feed feeling unsatisfied. The cases are just creative enough to get you interested in the conclusion and you certainly don’t mind the characters you get to go on the journey with.

Listening to Neon Nights is just fulfilling enough to keep you coming back if not out of curiosity then at least some fun world building and a nice supernatural twinge to the noir formula. It’s an easy and digestible listen that may not be trying to reinvent the wheel but at least has all the pieces to be turning in the first place.

[riskystandard]

Could you do an Adventures of MechaBetty cover art request? It's a podcast about a giant cyborg woman fighting aliens in an alternate 1950s.

something like this, maybe? i’m not posting this with the next batch because i’ve never heard the show

[asexualchloe]

Just in case y’all didn't see, the folks behind the Adventures of Mechabetty are putting on an event! Check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1266948996755671/

[knighting-vale]

6 away from my next 100!

So I'm 6 followers away from my next hundred and to celebrate I will write some short fics this weekend! Send me some podcast prompts!

[tyrannuspitch]

@ettaperrault @shaselma @raimijenner 

thank you all so much?? i hadn’t heard of most of those things so i know have a list to choose from rather than like. two things i must like because they’re my only options

[raimijenner]

lgbt podcasts that deserve more attention in my gay opinion

please let me know if you want details about the lgbt+ representation in these, and feel free to add on :D

death at a low price- my very very fave as probably most of my followers are aware of at this point. scifi/comedy about a group of dangerous queer ppl and aliens who run an interdimensional convenience store. search herbarium podcasts to find it

spines podcast- horror/mystery about a woman who has scary dangerous powers and only remembers a fucked up ritual and information about her “friends” and who tries to figure out what she is and what happened to her and whats going on with certain sketchy orginizations

inkwyrm- scifi/romcom that is basically gays in space fashion magazine version. also includes a lot of cliche gay relationship drama that i live for

freed- soft apocolypse is the best way i can describe it. its a really sweet podcast about a badass lady who makes broadcasts about her progress fixing a mountain town. later on she makes friends that help her out and theres conspiracys and a lot gets revealed about the world. also my fave

junction series-  drama/romance about 4 high school girls who try and start a podcast to find a girl who went missing but get really off track because they are all really gay for each other and have a lot of relationship drama

adventures of mechabetty- scifi/mecha/action about a scientist who turns herself into a mech w the help of her team in order to fight off an alien invasion. really lighthearted and fun

to whom it may concern- fantasy/supernatural about a mentally ill woman who gets haunted by a dangerous ghost and the group of ghosts that are trying to help protect her. Look on the official blog @to-whom-it-may-concern-podcast for this one

oakpodcast- scifi/interactive podcast about an autistic jewish spy who gets stranded and becomes homeless and is forced to uncover the truth behind the bioweapon that she was exposed to

the girl who set out to seek a living wage- fairy tale about autistic fantasy lesbians destroying capitalism and living happily ever after

the blood crow stories- horror podcast about a college student who goes through old psych records of the passengers ofa ship that sank in the 1940s (i think??) and then realizes there is a monster feeding off everyones pain and fear. heads up that this will emotionally destroy you

[heir-to-the-diamond-throne]

Masterlist

I’ve actually received a few people interested in my current list of podcasts so I’m writing them all down (also it’ll be helpful in case my podcast app decides to crash and wipe my library for the fourth time)

I just want to preface this by saying I’m probably still missing a few that I haven’t been able to remember. Also there’s a few on here that have finished, a few I’ve stopped listening to and am waiting to see if I’ll go back to, and a few that I haven’t gotten around to listening to yet.

1. 2 Dope Queens 2. 36 Questions 3. A New Winter 4. A Scottish Podcast 5. Action Science Theatre 6. Active Radioactive Radio 7. The Adventure Zone 8. The Adventures of Mechabetty 9. The After Disaster Broadcast 10. Alba Salix, Royal Physician 11. The Alexandra Archives 12. Alice isn’t Dead 13. All in the Mind 14. And that’s why we Drink 15. Anything Ghost 16. Archive 81 17. Ark City 18. Ars Paradoxica 19. Astonishing Legends 20. Athiest Apocalypse 21. Attention Hellmart Shoppers 22. Audio Diary of a Superhero 23. Audio Drama Production 24. Audio Verse Awards 25. Augustine 26. Aural Traditions: Anthology 27. Aural Traditions: Crosswired 28. Beast of Bardon College 29. Bedtime Stories 30. Beef and Dairy Network 31. Big Data 32. Bizarre States 33. The Black Tapes 34. The Blood Crow Stories 35. Boone Shepard 36. The Box 37. The Bridge 38. The Bright Sessions 39. Bronzeville 40. The Bunker 41. Bunker Buddies 42. Busy Gamer Nation presents I Love Bees 43. The Call of Cthulhu Mysteries 44. Carpe DM 45. Celestial Blood 46. The Cleansed 47. Code: Severe 48. Coffee Break Chinese 49. Conversations with People who Hate Me 50. Cool Games 51. Cop Doctors 52. Corpse Club 53. Creepy 54. Critical Hit 55. Critical Role 56. Crossing Wires 57. The Cryptid Keeper 58. Cthulhu and Friends 59. Cults 60. D&D is for Nerds 61. The Dark Tome 62. Darkest Night 63. Dead Oaks 64. Dead Ringers 65. Dead Serious 66. Deadly Manners 67. Dear Hank + John 68. Deck the Halls 69. The Deep Vault 70. Defence Learning Portal 71. Detective 72. Diana’s Monster 73. Diary of a Mad Man 74. Dinosaur Park 75. Discovery 76. The Discovery Adventures 77. Don’t Worry; It’s Only the End of the World 78. Dopple Avenue Hurt 79. The Drift and Ramble 80. Drywater 81. DWM presents Unwritten 82. The Earth Collective 83. Easy Japanese 84. Edict Zero 85. The Elysium Project 86. Empty 87. End of All Hope 88. EOS 10 89. Fables Radio 90. The Faculty of Horror 91. Fall of the House of Sunshine 92. The Family Tree 93. The Far Meridian 94. Fictional 95. Field Craft Survival 96. Flash Forward 97. Focused AF 98. Freed 99. Friends at the Table 100. Gallowtree Radio 101. Geek by Night 102. Generation Why 103. The Ghost Radio Project 104. Ghosts in the Burbs 105. Girl in Space 106. The Good Friends of Jackson Elias 107. Good Morning Zahera Ward 108. The Gray Area 109. Greater Boston 110. Hackable? 111. The Harry Strange Radio Drama 112. Haunted Places 113. The Haven Chronicles 114. Hayward Sanitarium 115. Heaven’s Gate 116. Hector vs the Future 117. Hello from the Magic Tavern 118. Help Me 119. Henderson + Havner 120. Herbarium Podcasts 121. History of Alchemy 122. The History of Rome 123. Hollywood and Crime 124. Homecoming 125. Horror City 126. How to do Everything 127. How we Roll 128. Hunt the Truth 129. Hush 130. I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats 131. Illusionoid 132. Immunities 133. In Darkness Vast 134. The Infinite 135. The Infinite Bad 136. The Infinite Now 137. Inkwyrm 138. Inner Sanctum 139. Inside the Exorcist 140. Inside the NYPD 141. International Waters 142. It Makes A Sound 143. Jim Robbie and the Wanderers 144. Join the Party 145. Junction 146. Kakos Industries 147. Kevin’s Cryptids 148. King Falls AM 149. The Kingery 150. Knifepoint Horror 151. Knights of the Night 152. Knite Coffee! 153. Lake Clarity 154. The Last Podcast on the Left 155. The Late Night Driving Show 156. LEARN 157. The Lesbian Romantic 158. Lesser Gods 159. The Leviathan 160. Liberty 161. LifeAfter 162. The Lift 163. Limetown 164. Lore 165. The Lost Cat 166. The Lovecraft Covenant 167. Lucyd 168. Mabel 169. Magic Lessons 170. The Magnus Archives 171. Mars Corp 172. Marsfall 173. The McElroy Brothers will be in Trolls 2 174. The Meat Blockade 175. The Mental Illness Happy Hour 176. Misadventure by Death 177. Miskatonic University 178. Mission to Zyxx 179. Modern Audio Drama 180. Mollyville 181. The Moonlit Road 182. My Brother, My Brother, and Me 183. My Brother, My Brother, and Me: Fantasy Football League 184. My Favourite Murder 185. Mysterious Universe 186. The Mythology Podcast 187. Myths and Legends 188. Neon Nights 189. The Night Blogger 190. Night Time 191. No Extra Words 192. No Such Thing as a Fish 193. The No Sleep Podcast 194. Oak Podcast 195. The Orbiting Human Circus (of the air) 196. Organism 197. The Orphans 198. The Orpheus Protocol 199. Ostium 200. The Other Stories 201. Otherverse 202. Our Fair City 203. Paralyzed 204. Passage 205. The Penumbra Podcast 206. Pleasure Town 207. Plumbing the Death Star 208. Podcast Detected 209. The Podcast Method 210. Podcasts Collected 211. Point Mystic 212. Poplar Cove 213. Powder Burns 214. Public Domain Universe 215. Purrcast 216. Qwerpline 217. Rabbits 218. Radiation World 219. Radio Demons 220. Ray Gunn + Starburst 221. Real Ghost Stories Online 222. Return Home 223. Rex Rivetter: Private Eye 224. Rippercast 225. The Rogues Gallery 226. Rose Drive 227. Rover Red 228. Ruby: The Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe 229. Rusty Quill Gaming 230. S-Town 231. Sable 232. Saffron and Peri 233. Sage + Savant 234. Sawbones 235. Sayer 236. Scared? 237. Secret Cabinet 238. Seminar 239. Serial 240. Serial Killers 241. The Shadowvane Podcast 242. Shattered Worlds RPG 243. Shut up a Second 244. Sirenicide 245. Small Town Horror 246. Snap Judgements Presents: Spooked 247. SOFREP Radio 248. Someone Knows Something 249. Space 250. Space Log 251. Spines 252. Spire 253. Spirits 254. Star Talk 255. Station to Station 256. Stay Talkingish 257. Steal the Stars 258. The Strange Case of Starship Iris 259. Strange 260. Strangers in Space 261. Stuff to Blow your Mind 262. Stuff you Should Know 263. Subject: Found 264. Subvercity Transmit 265. Supervillian Corner 266. Synesthesia Theatre 267. Taking Care of Paul 278. Tales of Nowhere 269. Tales of THATTOWN 270. Tanis 271. Terms 272. Theatre for the Mind 273. The Theatre of Tomorrow 274. The Thrilling Adventure Hour 275. Timelapse 276. Tokyo Hotel 277. Tribulation 278. True Crime Garage 279. The Tunnels 280. Twelve Chimes it’s Midnight 281. Uncanny County 282. Uncanny Japan 283. Under Pressure 284. Undiscovered 285. Unexplained 286. Unsolved Murders 287. Urban Chicken Podcast 288. Urban Decay 289. Victoriocity 290. We’re Alive 291. We’re Alive: Lockdown 292. We’re so Bad at Adventuring 293. Weird Work 294. Welcome to Night Vale 295. What the Cluck 296. What’s the Frequency 297. The White Vault 298. The Wicked Library 299. Wisecracks: The Squanch 300. Within the Wires 301. Wolf 359 302. Wooden Overcoats 303. The Writers Panel 304. You Are Here 305. Zoolaplex And a couple of podcasts that haven’t come out yet: 306. The Big Loop 307. Tarnum

[oots-digitalmedia]

Queer Rep in Fantasy/Sci-Fi Podcasts

Looking for your next fictional queer fantasy/sci-fi podcast? Check out our previous entries under the break:

The 12:37

Adventures in New America

Adventures of Mechabetty

The Adventures of Sir Rodney the Root

Alba Salix, Royal Physician

Ars PARADOXICA

Audio Diary of a Superhero

The Axe & Crown

BCRS - Late Nights with Sonya Romain

The Bright Sessions

CARAVAN

Cyber

Dark Ages

Diana’s Monster

Dining in the Void

Dreamboy

Elixir

EOS10

Epiphany: The Story of a Heartbeat

Extraordinary Terrestrials

The Falcon Banner

Don’t Worry; It’s Only The End Of The World

The Far Meridian

The Ghost Radio Project

The Glass Appeal

Greater Boston

Hello From The Magic Tavern

Inkwyrm

Inn Between

Interference

Jarnsaxa Rising

Jim Robbie and the Wanderers

Kaleidotrope

Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services

King Falls AM

LEARN Podcast

LifeAfter

Lost in Williamsburg

MarsCorp

Mentally Healthy

Moonbase Theta, Out

Mount Olympus University

New World Sonata

The Nuclear Solution

Null/Void

OAKPODCAST

Oblivity

The Once and Future Nerd

The Orbiting Human Circus (of the air)

The Orphans

Overkill

The Penumbra Podcast

The Pilgrimage Saga

PleasureTown

Raising the Dead Again

Ray Gunn & Starburst

Sidequesting

The Strange Case of the Starship Iris

Supervillain Corner

Tides

The Two Princes

Under the Electric Stars

Valence

Violet Beach

Welcome to Night Vale

Within the Wires

Wolf 359

Zoo

Missing your queer fantasy/sci-fi favourite podcast? Put it in the replies or tags and I’ll make an entry!

Check out our other lists here.

[realbigpodcastslut]

I’m finally making a masterlist of podcasts:

Caught Up On

36 Questions

The Adventure Zone

Alba Salix

The Alexandria Archives

Alice Isn’t Dead

Archive 81

ars PARADOXICA

The Black Tapes

The Blood Crow Stories

The Bridge

The Bright Sessions

Dead Serious

The Deep Vault

Drywater

The Elysium Project

EOS 10

The Far Meridian

Find Marvin Podcast

Hadron Gospel Hour

Herbarium Podcast

Inkwyrm

It Makes a Sound

Jim Robbie and the Wanderers

Kakos Industries

King Falls AM

Lake Clarity

Lesser Gods

LifeAfter

Limetown

Lore

The Meat Blockade

The Message

The Orphans

The Penumbra Podcast

RABBITS

Rover Red: ALone in Apocalypse

Rover Universe

SAYER

Small Town Horror

Space Log

Steal the Stars

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

SubverCity Transit

TANIS

Testing Connection

Uncanny County

Under Pressure

Welcome to Night Vale

Within the Wires

Wolf 359

Wooden Overcoats

Listening To/Just started/Missed a few episodes

The Bunker

Greater Boston

Hector vs The Future

Mabel

The Magnus Archives

Marscorp

My Brother, My Brother and me

The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air)

OTHERVERSE

Our Fair City

Tales of THATTOWN

Will start them, someday

A New Winter

Adventures of Mechabetty

Athiest Apocaplyse

The Behemoth

Big Data

Charlie’s Mailbox

Earbud Theater

Freed

Hello From the Magic Tavern

Help Me

Hosts of Eden

HUSH

The infinite Bas

Junction Series

The Leviathan Chronicles

Liberty Podcast

The Lift

The Once and Future Nerd

Passage

Point Mystic

Qwerpline

Radiation World

Return Home

Ruby: The Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe

SABLE

Scotch

The Shadowvane Podcast

SPINES

Spire

Station to Station

Subject: Found

Tunnels

Wormwood

You Are Here

If you need any suggestions on what to list to, I’ve got most of you covered

[podcake]

Week Three: Adventures of MechaBetty Review

Robots, cyborgs, and androids are not territory very commonly explored in audio drama and I don’t think anyone is going to correct me on that. We’ve had our fair share of artificial intelligence from nearly every sci-fi show on the planet or otherwise organic humans with mechanical attachments or replacements, but the whole sentient metal warrior thing just hasn’t really come to full circle.

When it came to covering the concept of innovation for this year’s September in Review, Adventures of MechaBetty was an easy qualifier that I didn’t have to dig too deep into to find its unique qualities. 

From the title to its short but open ended description, Adventures of MechaBetty by someone I only know as Titankore, is likely one of the more “out there” pieces of audio drama I’ve come across, and that’s saying a lot. This is mostly dealing with premise alone, its plot sounding like something right out of an action cartoon or anime, and that’s certainly something I can’t say for a lot of shows.

Though I’m awfully familiar with both topics and even find myself emulating it into my online identity, be it through the use of tasteful gifs or railing these reviews out in between episodes of OK KO, I have yet to see it properly be put to use in an audio format beyond the usual discussion between working adults. 

(Which one’s your favorite? Mine’s the Pizza Party Podcast.) But that stuff is all grounded in reality while my tastes lean more towards the array of fiction crafted by a variety of independent artists making a year’s worth of audio entertainment. And Titankore is no exception to this. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when getting into Adventures of MechaBetty and I have to say I’m still fairly surprised by what I found. 

The story of MechaBetty is rather simple at first glance. When the earth gets attacked from an alien menace, it’s up to a normal human girl who willingly turns herself into a giant cyborg to fight them off. With the help of her friends, we’ll see if she has what it takes to save the world. From episode one alone we get a pretty broad idea of what direction the show will be going and things luckily kick off pretty quickly from the first joyful burst of jazz music. 

MechaBetty comes with some fairly smooth and nicely constructed audio-good use of music cues and some simple but effective sound tricks, all for the sake of servicing this vibe of old timey radio. It’s nothing especially elaborate as far as editing goes, but its functional enough to get its message across. It makes for an interesting overarching aesthetic-this combination of mech fights with an opening theme consisting of female scatting-that gives Adventures of MechaBetty quite the distinct identity in a community full of eclectic names already. 

As far as characters go, and we’re given quite a bit, they’re all generally likable. From the roster we have scientists, reporters, and doctors that make for some fun and colorful people and non-people to root for. Personally, I was particularly interested in whatever is going on with the evil aliens, even if we don’t get to spend too much time with them. I just personally found their scenes more intriguing and their all around plan interesting enough to see what else they had up their sleeve.

MechaBetty does take some great strides to portray a truly adventurous world that isn’t afraid to take things slow and occasionally explain itself. Aside from some neat little parts I can only properly describe as action scenes, there’s quite a bit of time spent focusing on dialogue and negotiating strategy between both the heroes and villains. I do appreciate a show that doesn’t reduce itself to the equivalent of audio clutter and MechaBetty’s all around presentation does service to keep its story easy to follow despite all that might be going on.

Despite how obtuse the idea, the whole concept is easy to digest, even if there are quite a few elements working against its favor. 

Voice acting can be very hit or miss, some characters, specifically General Helen who is voiced by Liz Madden, have smooth and controlled deliveries that are well in character while others vary from being painfully flat to being just a little too eccentric to be pleasant on the ears. There’s a very distinct difference between those in the cast who are acting more naturally and those who are just reading the lines with a little extra inflection. 

A lot of people also speak with accents varying from German to Russian to southern which makes each character easy to recognize from the second they speak but might just make the strange assortment of lines and the occasional bad take all the more obvious. Luckily our main star, MechaBetty herself, voiced by Jennifer Tiles, has a fitting pick for her voice. It’s expressive and perky and cute enough for you to grow to like her from the second she can properly process words in her robot form.

But the issues arise again for the writing that varies from realistic and weighty conversations (at least by audio drama standards) and being especially hammy and simple. Some jokes lean on the obvious and will clash with an upcoming curse word and technical jargon coming up a second later, for example. 

If this is intentionally meant to invoke the lighthearted feel of Saturday morning cartoons is debatable, though the show’s ability to just stick to one or the other seems to be based entirely off whatever mood the current scene we’re taking part in. So excuse me if I can’t really make heads or tails over what exact vibe Adventures of MechaBetty is going for as an entire show. If it is a deliberate parody of itself, then there aren’t enough jokes and subversions to service it, but if it’s being played straight, then we’re not given enough original material to make listening to MechaBetty the truly fun and memorable action comedy experience it wants to be.

It’s one part robot girl action show and another part government conspiracies and another part building/repairing things so it may be up to personal preference about which aspect you like the most. All of which are delivered with a sort of flare and fun energy that I found myself grinning at every once and while, but the effect only lingers for so long.

All around, MechaBetty is a comedy but even those looking for something genuinely hilarious may be let down due to the assortment of simple jokes that won’t make anyone whose watched preteen television in the past year all that impressed. 

Actually, MechaBetty would do itself a great service by going all out with its premise, truly reveling in its own strangeness. So it was a major letdown to see just how tame things turned out to be once I got through the current stretch of episodes. No twists or turns I couldn’t predict, no especially quirky scenarios to visualize with colorful vividness-just setup following setup with no real spark.

But once again, I find myself wondering if if this is supposed to invoke the Saturday morning superhero show thing and even that feels like an excuse to give the writing a pass.

MechaBetty certainly delivers eccentricity to the table, it easily being the only podcast I can describe with such terminologies I would normally reserve for cartoons, but I can’t say what I’ve seen of the series has left a big impression on me. The all around package still feels a little half baked and for a comedy show it’s a touch lacking in genuine humor. 

As I’ve experienced with shows like Jim Robbie and the Wanderers, good ideas colliding with average takes makes for a show that never quite reaches its peak performance level and could use a little more time being work shopped before becoming whole with its concept. What Adventures of MechaBetty truly lacks is a supremely extravagant, shotgun blast of a story that will give its inspiration the proper kudos it deserves. An utterly self indulgent take on the campiest of camp and the most flashy and shiny and obscenely geeky piece of entertainment it can possibly rise itself up to. If anything, MechaBetty could benefit from being just a little more insane. If your gonna go weird, then I say go completely nuts. 

The general premise and ideas may be just off-the-wall enough for those looking for that kind of variety in their day, and Adventures of MechaBetty is certainly there for people looking for a harmless try at action tropes in audio form, but its systems could use a reboot. 

[anglerfish]

I think you might like "The Adventures of MechaBetty" it's a scifi podcast that's really fun and silly. Also keep up the awesome inktober stuff!

that sounds interesting!  I’ll look into it, thanks for the recommendation!! 

[sol1loqu1st]

for my own personal reference, podcasts im caught up on include:

-ars paradoxica

-taz

-the far meridian

-wolf 359 (FINALLY)

-inkwyrm

-tpp (except i do still need to listen to a few non-juno steel eps, but for the most part im caught up)

-technically, LEARN, but that one doesnt actually start until a few days from now (fuc k yea im a podcast hipster now)

podcasts i actually need to catch up to instead of relistening to any of the above or starting new ones, for fucks sake:

-the bright sessions (started listening recently and then got distracted by literally everything else)

-adventures of mechabetty (like wolf 359, i have been trying to catch up to this one for a year. unlike wolf 359, theres not that many f u c k i n g episodes and i have 0 excuse esp. seeing as i have like 3 episodes to go)

-godsfall (this is another one that ive failed to catch up on despite starting it months ago)

-the strange case of starship iris (again. what the fuck @me theres like 5 episodes just sit down and l i s t e n)

-wtnv (lbr im literally never gonna be caught up on this)

im prioritizing mechabetty and starship iris bc those will take the least amt of time to catch up to

(i think by the time im caught up to the bright sessions (godsfall and wtnv will probably take a lot longer just because the amt of content in both of those is fucking huge) ill prob. start some new ones)

podcasts i have to get off my lazy ass and find some people to help me create:

-sunless

[bluefloret]

Okay like, adventures of MechaBetty is about 1950s style scifi but with themed superhero cyborg/robot like characters. Draw or describe an oc but fitting that general thing. Don't worry about being exact first thing that you think sort of fits.

i dont know anything specific about the 50s and i feel too awful to draw im sorry  

robots? i have one robot oc named cierre but they arent really superhero also their story is sad. i guess they could be in the 50s and just. wear a poodleskirt or smth? oh i guess i kind of have anothre robot but its a furry and i used it once so... theyre there in the background ig