If you want a reminder of my rules for this 2018 Resolution, here they are.
So I got excited about podcasts after Limetown, and sailed into The Bridge with cautious optimism. I loved the premise and thought why not? I loaded up several CDs worth of episodes (do not get me started on my iTunes shenanigans with the podcasts or I will rant, cry, do both at once) and started listening.
From The Bridge official website
First thoughts: this seems a little pretentious and the music is too loud.
Second thoughts: I will listen to this for as long as they make episodes.
The premise:
Welcome to the Transcontinental Bridge!
It’s an alternate 2016, and Watchtower 10 sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, keeping lonely watch over the Transcontinental Bridge. Each watchtower sits hundreds of feet away from the Bridge, broadcasting regular traffic reports to ensure that proper safety precautions are taken. These lighthouses (for cars) are filled with a carefully selected (and very capable) crew.
Watchtower 10’s necessary personnel happen to be: a generalist DJ who spends her free time relaying folklore from abandoned parts of the Bridge, her supervisor (who’s only there because he lost a bet), an unfailingly optimistic Bridge Travel Agent, and a groundskeeper who has a thing for romantic comedies.
Unbeknownst to the general public (but totally knownst to each watchtower’s crew), these stations also hold a secret that could potentially destroy the world…or save it.
The Bridge is a fictional serialized fantasy podcast about the monsters we fear, the monsters we can become, and the stories we leave behind.
Mild spoilers
It’s hard to say why The Bridge was so successful for me—so successful that I subscribed and followed them on Facebook—because there are a lot of things working against it.
The story is kind of scattered. The crew of Bridge Watchtower 10 are here to fight monsters, whoops, no, they’re there to protect the scattered Bridge tourists, wait, now it turns out they’re protecting the monsters (or at least Monster Bob), or they are pawns for various mysterious militias with designs on the bridge. There’s a lot going on, is what I’m saying.
The central mythos of the monsters feels shaky. There are a lot of striking images and stories, but some of these images make me tilt my head and say, but how would that even work? How would bleeding eyes be a useful biological function?
And if the monsters aren’t enough, we also get ghosts and spirits and stranger things still all muddying the waters. It’s a big wide world out on the Bridge, and apparently humans are the least of it.
It’s half-narration—a single character telling stories in the dark—and half-radio drama—the characters fighting various enemies and arguing with each other, complete with sound effects. The narration sections are my favorites; and each of the characters really springs to life while they’re telling their stories. But when it’s action-oriented radio drama, things can get muddled or over-the-top. Two of the villains who show up feel more like Snidely Whiplash than real people. Then there are threats like Persnickety Pete–the puppet that puppets its user to malign effect–that take up entire episodes and then just stop being a threat.
All of these things should work against it, yet…
Yet, yet, yet….
There are a lot of things that The Bridge does really right.
I love the crew of Watchtower 10.
I love idealistic Etta (played by Alex Brown), the youngest and newest of the watchtower workers, with her own agenda. Years ago, her mother vanished on the Bridge, and Etta hopes to find her.
I love Roger (Chris Martin), their leader, even when he’s being aggressively sullen. He has his own story, and it’s strongly implied to be a supernatural one. He’s been significantly changed by being on the Bridge, even if he hides it.
Bertie (David Picariello) is a sweetheart with a core of pain, technically responsible for one of the Bridge’s biggest tragedies, obsessively losing himself in horticulture.
And Kate (Liz Hull), their one-woman security team — oh, I’m sorry, “Travel Agent”… Kate is quietly terrifying. She’s cloaked in mystery, but the pieces she decides to unveil are rife with betrayal and murder. And is she even really working for the Watchtower, or against them?
I love that they all know more than they’re saying, but none of them really know what’s going on. I like that the voice actors narrate slowly and cleanly, without sounding artificial. I never had any trouble distinguishing one from the other.
I love the strange world of myth that’s accreted around the bridge. From the shoreside culture that sacrifices children to the waves to appease the ocean. From the odd poker game that takes place on the bridge and gives the winner/loser immortality. The ghost stories. The haunted house that was never actually haunted… until it was moved to the bridge. The repeated themes of loss and sacrifice and difficult connections with other people.
I like the way the setting includes random computer announcements that the characters seem powerless to adjust. They are often subjected to the original tourism ads called the Welcome Brigade, (the texts of which strain plausibility, unless you assume these ads were written by the Addams Family), and the cheery occasional announcement that there is unexpected blood on the floor.
While I had difficulties with the culture/biology of the monsters themselves, I like the complexity of the conflict that has risen up around them. There are multiple human factions, all of whom want to be in Watchtower 10 to rescue or kill or kidnap Bob the Monster. Oh, or kill and kidnap Etta as well. For some reason yet to be discovered, the monsters are rather drawn to Etta.
I like that the stakes are high: many of the Watchtowers were destroyed in mysterious ways.
I like that despite the seriousness of the issues, there’s a lot of verbal slapstick happening. The primary point of conflict in the first episode is that Etta has MacGyvered a chocolate fountain for the kitchen in an attempt to sweeten the crews’ tempers–who doesn’t love a chocolate fountain? Unfortunately, she’s left it unattended and now, “There is unexpected chocolate in the kitchen.”
I love the setting evoked by the build-up of narrative details.The Bridge itself feels like an entity. An enormous, half-deserted, fascinating entity, with people and monsters and ghosts crawling over it like parasites on a whale.
And I really like the score. The theme song by Sara Fairchild is great. There are musical motifs that come and go (Monster Bob, Etta, the Bridge itself), which all really help reflect the mood of the stories Etta tells. Episodes 6 & 7 are especially fun when they play the theme song backwards to reflect the time jumps in the narrative.
In the end, I’m less invested in the monsters and the open conflict than I am in the characters and in Etta’s stories. It’s a lot of fun to listen to. Also points to the writers for mentioning other podcasts that listeners might like. Armed with their suggestions, I picked up Mabel, Spirits, Tales from Thattown, and King Falls AM, as well as second votes for Archive 81 & Ars Paradoxica. I love artists who talk about other artists.
I will say that The Bridge is best listened to in multi-episode runs. There are a lot of cliffhangers and continuations and there is little-to-no recap for the listener. It’s easy to stop at a cliffhanger, then wait too long, and start up in the middle of chaos: four characters all yelling and random sound effects and repercussion from actions that I’ve already half-forgotten. My auditory processing just isn’t that good; it takes me some time to ramp back up to that level of auditory input. For me, it means I need to back up a few episodes to slip back into the narrative more easily.
Sadly, The Bridge has put itself on hiatus until October. But hey, that means all y’all have time to catch up! You can also check out their website, which gets an A double-plus for the information they provide. All the episodes, the cast, and even some transcripts! Plus links to merchandise and extras!
The Bridge is a deeply weird, yet enjoyable experience. I look forward to October and new episodes. It’s been a over a month and I can still hear Etta’s voice telling me stories.
Featured image from The Bridge’s official website. All other images from Pexels.
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