Sandra | The surprisingly wholesome side of Orwell.
"There's a reason why everyone is switching to Sandra, The world's Most responsive and intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator."
"Directed by Sebastian Silva; written by Kevin Moffett and Matthew Derby; executive produced by Mimi O'Donnell; produced by April Lamb, Katie Pastore and Matthew Boll; associate produced by MR Daniel; sound design and editing by Ryan Billia; mixed by Matthew Boll; score by Daniel Brunelle; Special thanks to Mary-Kim Arnold, Eli Horowitz, Corinna Vallianatos and Alex Blumberg. Sandra is a production of Gimlet Media." Gimlet Media
When Bradbury wrote "There will come soft rains" in the 1950's he envisioned a world that was completely automated by robots. Food was cooked, Drinks were poured, Any speck of dust was cleaned up immediately and cheery voices told the time, checked the weather, and reminded you of your engagements. Science Fiction is always a delicate and precarious matter of prediction but the one thing that persists from this vision of the future is the idea of the personal assistant. The robots of today are not built into the walls or are powerful A.Is watching us like a modern day Argos they are a pleasant voiced robotic woman that lives in your pocket. They are also not as powerful as we predicted whether its the roomba dragging dog crap over your white shag rug or Eric Cartman starting a home assistent circle jerk the idea of are modern day assistants being a little bit incompetent is the norm. What if it wasn't like that though? What if there was a Virtual Assistant out there actually worked that could answer your questions and knew what you wanted before you could even ask. This is Sandra.
Sandra starts with an introduction to are protagonist Helen starting her first day at Orbital Teledynamics, the creators of Sandra, everyone's favorite personal assistant. Helen does a fun little personality test and get put into the "birds" department and begins work at the worlds funnest call center as "Sandra". When Helen begins her job she is mild mannered and beaten down in her life but as she takes on her role of Sandra she gains confidence and becomes "Peak Helen" someone who's willing to be herself. Watching Helen grow throughout the series was heartwarming as she deals with the overall bullshit of her homelife. The other half of the coin Sandra, shows us a surprisingly wholesome side of the our perceived orwellian dystopia. As targeted marketing and data-mining is nothing new in this modern technological future Sandra shows how it can have a more positive, or at least less sinister use. For Sandra to help you she has to know who you are whether it's what you bought last week or what you did in middle school. For the most part Sandra's surveillance seems to bring along a net positive, (as seen in "red flag"), helping their customers as best as they can. While I enjoyed the end of the second act of the story I can't help but feel slightly unsatisfied with the ending. I enjoyed Sandras emotional journey but I felt that the events didn't properly wrap up the conflict especially how there is not second season.
Sandra sound design is technical skilled providing a sonic landscape that makes you feel like you are in the room. The Podcast is immersive providing a level of realistic sound design that I haven't heard since the binaural masterpiece Darkest Night. Besides the background foley work kudos can be given to the cast of fantastic voice actors that make this piece come to life. Shawkat's Helen is dynamic and emotional and Wiig, The voice of Sandra, manages to have an excellent range of emotion while still invoking the monotone robotic tone common of personal assistants. The supporting cast plays there parts well and overall Sandra's high level of production is one of the best in the audio drama scene.
Sandra is a fantastic Audio Drama centered around one woman's emotional growth sent against a relevant near future sci fi setting. Gimlets high production value and Kristen Wiig's and Alia Shawkat's performances bring to life a surprisingly wholesome and uplifting drama. I have enjoyed Sandra immensely and if you are on the look out for strong female leads, unique science fiction premises, or down-to-earth dramas, then Sandra is here to help.
"Directed by Sebastian Silva; written by Kevin Moffett and Matthew Derby; executive produced by Mimi O'Donnell; produced by April Lamb, Katie Pastore and Matthew Boll; associate produced by MR Daniel; sound design and editing by Ryan Billia; mixed by Matthew Boll; score by Daniel Brunelle; Special thanks to Mary-Kim Arnold, Eli Horowitz, Corinna Vallianatos and Alex Blumberg. Sandra is a production of Gimlet Media." Gimlet Media
When Bradbury wrote "There will come soft rains" in the 1950's he envisioned a world that was completely automated by robots. Food was cooked, Drinks were poured, Any speck of dust was cleaned up immediately and cheery voices told the time, checked the weather, and reminded you of your engagements. Science Fiction is always a delicate and precarious matter of prediction but the one thing that persists from this vision of the future is the idea of the personal assistant. The robots of today are not built into the walls or are powerful A.Is watching us like a modern day Argos they are a pleasant voiced robotic woman that lives in your pocket. They are also not as powerful as we predicted whether its the roomba dragging dog crap over your white shag rug or Eric Cartman starting a home assistent circle jerk the idea of are modern day assistants being a little bit incompetent is the norm. What if it wasn't like that though? What if there was a Virtual Assistant out there actually worked that could answer your questions and knew what you wanted before you could even ask. This is Sandra.
Sandra starts with an introduction to are protagonist Helen starting her first day at Orbital Teledynamics, the creators of Sandra, everyone's favorite personal assistant. Helen does a fun little personality test and get put into the "birds" department and begins work at the worlds funnest call center as "Sandra". When Helen begins her job she is mild mannered and beaten down in her life but as she takes on her role of Sandra she gains confidence and becomes "Peak Helen" someone who's willing to be herself. Watching Helen grow throughout the series was heartwarming as she deals with the overall bullshit of her homelife. The other half of the coin Sandra, shows us a surprisingly wholesome side of the our perceived orwellian dystopia. As targeted marketing and data-mining is nothing new in this modern technological future Sandra shows how it can have a more positive, or at least less sinister use. For Sandra to help you she has to know who you are whether it's what you bought last week or what you did in middle school. For the most part Sandra's surveillance seems to bring along a net positive, (as seen in "red flag"), helping their customers as best as they can. While I enjoyed the end of the second act of the story I can't help but feel slightly unsatisfied with the ending. I enjoyed Sandras emotional journey but I felt that the events didn't properly wrap up the conflict especially how there is not second season.
Sandra sound design is technical skilled providing a sonic landscape that makes you feel like you are in the room. The Podcast is immersive providing a level of realistic sound design that I haven't heard since the binaural masterpiece Darkest Night. Besides the background foley work kudos can be given to the cast of fantastic voice actors that make this piece come to life. Shawkat's Helen is dynamic and emotional and Wiig, The voice of Sandra, manages to have an excellent range of emotion while still invoking the monotone robotic tone common of personal assistants. The supporting cast plays there parts well and overall Sandra's high level of production is one of the best in the audio drama scene.
Sandra is a fantastic Audio Drama centered around one woman's emotional growth sent against a relevant near future sci fi setting. Gimlets high production value and Kristen Wiig's and Alia Shawkat's performances bring to life a surprisingly wholesome and uplifting drama. I have enjoyed Sandra immensely and if you are on the look out for strong female leads, unique science fiction premises, or down-to-earth dramas, then Sandra is here to help.
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