We're Alive, the First Season

Twelve episodes from the first year of podcasts have been remastered and enhanced. The result is a group of audio dramas with added sound effects, improved sound levels, and an absence of commercials. Made for zombie enthusiasts, they explore a postapocalyptic Los Angeles that is being overrun by zombies. The interactions between the players are intimate and intense, with glimpses of humor and plenty of tension as the characters confront the monsters on the loose. Sound effects are extensive and effective in creating the atmosphere of fear among the human survivors. Background music adds drama. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

January 2, 2012
This first season of the popular podcast written and created by Kc Wayland and Shane Salk tells the story of a great zombie apocalypse and a small group of humans fighting to survive. Michael Cross, a young Army reservist, is called back to duty when a strange outbreak of violent rioting erupts around Los Angeles. Arriving at his base, he meets two other reservists, Saul and Angel, and soon they realize that the rioters are in fact zombies intent on ripping and tearing their way through humanity. It isn’t long before the soldiers, along with a ragtag group of survivors, take refuge in an old apartment building and proceed to do whatever it takes to stay alive. This audio boasts first-class audio effects—machine guns chatter and bones crunch convincingly—but, this can’t make up for uninspired plotting and stereotypical characters. Some of the cast shines, but other performers fall short.