This week's episode is a fun surprise. :)

It's a big news week for the Shriekcast!

We've got a loooong discussion of the State of Play gameplay reveal for HP Skyrim (or, from the looks of things, HP Fable) this week to make up for the fact that we are now free agents when it comes to reading! We have a lot to discuss, from our gut reactions to the game in a vacuum and the precarious, exhausting position it has forced itself into as a AAA game based on... well, you know.

We mostly keep it fun, but there's no getting around discussing JKR's behavior and beliefs, the game's alarming presentation of things like the uhhhh goblins?? So be prepared for a more serious episode in spots. Is it stupidity? Is it malice? Does it really matter either way? As I'm sure you all know, nope, not really.

In the second half, however, we log back into our reddit account and sow the seeds of some mischief, so that we may return to them next recording to see what happens. Hey, sort of like a mechanic they showed off in that game demo...

(Oh also! Fun note: my "prediction" that there will be a quote unquote inclusive character creator is apparently real, according to a Bloomberg report from a year ago, so I might've been channeling that)

Cursed Child stage play.

We're in the big apple, baby! We took a plane/time machine into the past to see a performance of the Cursed Child in New York with the original London cast. We... had a surprising time! We dig into all of our detailed thoughts: what met our expectations, what surprised us, and what let us down. This 8th story has been a real roller coaster for us, and you might be surprised on where we end up on this one! What main character did we find ourselves hugely disappointed in? Did the effects and production dazzle us as much as the reviews said they would? Did Imogen Heap's jukebox musical score delight us as much as the Voldemort Day video did? Find out all this and more on this week's Shrieking Shack!

NOTE: This is the wackiest of warnings to give but I edited a car horn honking into the intro--so if you happen to drive while you listen to this show be aware that yes, that honk came from the podcast!!

We're taking a week off to plan our next moves, but we'll be back week after next with some Sloper Content and more!

Cursed Child reading wrap-up episode!

With our reading complete, we take some time to discuss our overall thoughts on the play before we embark on our Very Real journey to See It In Real Life! What worked? What didn't? What did other reviewers think at the time? We check in with a mix of coverage from our rogue's gallery, and then another article illuminating some of our questions about who worked on what during the writing process. This also leads us to, in real-time, stumble into a discovery that drives us mad.

(Also, if you don't want the end of The Good Place spoiled for you, we riff on that for about 3-4 minutes when it comes up at about the 45 minute mark if you want to skip ahead!)

Cursed Child act IV!

This act was a bit faster-paced than the rest, so we ended up covering it all in one long go. The boys are back in time and there seems to be no other special time turners... what could possibly get our heroes out of this jam?! The answer might surprise you. We've got Blanket Plans, Smoke Rings, Demiguise Lore (!), Voldemort Styles, and much, much, MUCH more in this extra long finale episode covering the 8th Harry Potter story! Will we end up liking the play as a whole, or has the final act of this gargantuan stage production turned us into haters?

Next week we'll be doing a post mortem on the play itself, as well as some fun third segment stuff!

Act 3 part two!

The second half of the act 3 roller coaster is aimed directly at our asses. We have a Cool Villain Reveal, flying, a comedy Cedric performance (that's the guess, at least) and a whole host of other moments so over the top it's hard not to be delighted. We discuss how strange this all feels coming off of Deathly Hallows, how different Thorne's work feels from JKR's, and how the fandom might have came to despise something so full of the kind of fan service you might expect people to hail as a victory lap.

Then we continue our descent into linguistic nightmares (play one act two part one of two etc etc) with a listicle from one of our favorite websites...

Cursed Child Part Two Part One (Act 3)

Wowza! This act is A Lot, but we are not immune to its charms. In the world of Evil Hogwarts, only the campiest survive... and even then some of them don't! We chat about the refreshing return to the tongue-in-cheek lower stakes presentation of the early novels that this play provides, as well as the few odd moments where it fumbles by reminding us that the series became Very Serious. We also have a blazing fast Evil Draco redemption arc, a Snape vs Umbridge title fight, and something called the Blood Ball... which we can only hope gets more time in the play itself. Finally, Liz takes us through an incredibly funny article from one of our favorite websites that is still Extremely Mad about this play all these years later.

Cursed Child Part One Act Two Part Two...?

The final segment of the first part of the play--really, the first play--has some rocky moments, but it ends in such an incredible fashion it more than makes up for it. It's quite a roller coaster either way--a weird ghost, a lot of Bagman, and a fight scene written just for the Drarryheads in the audience. Plus: A third segment so unbelievably radioactive it even makes ME mad. Me! The person who chose it!!

(side note: my audio is really hot this week so apologies for the crunchy quality in spots. I got a new audio interface recently and hadn't properly dialed things in before recording!)

Cursed Child Part One Act Two Part One (I think I got that right...)

We're back with more play talk! This week at the theatre, we read a segment of the stage show that has some high highs and low lows. The weird Dark Dursleys scene? Low. Seeing Ludo Bagman again? High. The play's treatment of Padma? Very low. The mere concept of something called "Voldemort Day?" High. All this and much more; plus, a third segment so (appropriately) cursed it could only be topped by what I found for next episode's third segment...

(content warning, if you'd rather not hear the discussion about the show's strangely dark take on book 1's Privet Drive stuff, skip from 29 mins in to 38 mins in)

Part two of part one of act one... the next bit of the play. The first play. Of the two plays that make up the one play, The Cursed Child.

We very nearly didn't finish this one thanks to some nasty Audacity file corruption, but thanks to some heroics you get to hear this nearly-lost episode! We discuss the second chunk of our first reading, which includes the Trolley Witch scene, lots of Boring Adults standing around and talking about newspapers, and further developments in the time-travel sex mystery.

After that, we travel back in time ourselves to read the comments on the subreddit that were being posted as leaks and reactions from the initial play previews were hitting the web. There's a mix of understandable disappointment from people who bought the marketing hook line and sinker, outright histrionics, and one theory about Voldemort and Draco's time situation that shakes us to our cores...