Quite humorous and unexpected. I enjoyed listening to the story and was pleased to find it was more than a domestic dispute between lovers. I actually had to pause the podcast after the eight men in black appeared just to register what was going on.
The voices were all very well done. The delivery by Aasif Mandvi gave a strong impression of a very indecisive man who was trying to keep tabs on every potential soulmate he met, as well as providing a sense of genuine clash with Allison Williams's character. Allison Williams did an excellent job with the amount of sarcasm she read the lines about forgiving David, and made the listener, and David, suspicious as to what she might be up to. She seemed so insistent on the kiss that I didn't expect much more than the closure she would get from ending their relationship with their last kiss at their first. Novak also did a good job of staying detached from the story as the narrator, saying humorous lines like the bit about them speaking coyly and the eight men in black descending from nowhere neutrally.
I really enjoyed this story for multiple reasons. As mentioned already, the story was very humorous and I was laughing throughout most of it. I really liked how there was the surprise ending, it made the story even more humorous and it was so unexpected that you couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.
I thought that both of the voices portrayed the characters very well and brought to life the entire story. As Adam said, Aasif Mandvi portrayed David’s indecisiveness very well. I thought he also showed how easily persuaded David was, which goes along with his indecisiveness. I also thought that Allison Williams added the perfect amount of sarcasm to Annette’s voice (as Adam said). I thought that her voice was slightly taunting and the small laugh at the end of some of her sentences led you to believe this wasn’t just an official end to their relationship. I also thought that B.J. Novak added a lot of humor to the end of the story by how casual he made this whole event seem. The way he read his lines, it appeared that it was nothing out of the ordinary for this to occur
As a fan of The Office I was delighted to hear BJ Novak's omniscient narration mixed in with Mandvi's and William's dialogue. While the start of the story was a little too cliché,very similar to Ted and Robin's relationship on HIMYM, I really enjoyed the ending. As Emilie said, the ridiculousness of having eight masked man kill Annette's ex-boyfriend left me in laughter and amusement at the drastic turn of events. I also really liked how accurate the story was at portraying a "21st century relationship". Anette chronicles her relationship with text messages and emails and finds closure via an app. This questions the role of technology in our lives and if overexposure provides us with easy ways to solve our problems or hinders our ability to deal with conflict maturely.
I think that Williams did a fantastic job of portraying Annette. Through altering her tempo and emphasizing certain words ad phrases she was able to capture the desperation and craziness of Annette. She beautifully captured the passive aggressiveness of Annette delivering one liners with passion (through pauses and increased volume). In between trying to arrange a time to meet she eludes to the misogynistic nature of her ex, seamlessly transitioning between the mundane and more serious problems. Her use of threes (listing words quickly in groups of three) was my favorite. It captured her desperation to meet Mandavi and her nervousness. This was particularly evident when she listed different times when they could meet. This moment truly showed her desire and foreshadowed that something more than a conversation would happen. Novak's narration was spot on subjectively capturing the actions of each character. As Adam said his ability to convey emotional lines neutrally added to the humor of the story. This juxtaposition emphasized the desperation and emotion Anette felt in contrast to the steadiness of Novak's narration. Overall all characters did a great job of portraying their characters.
I found the story to be quite funny and spontaneous. The title and beginning of the podcast were very misleading. I had toyed with the idea of listening to this one for a while, but I did not want to listen to a sad break up story. Then I finally sat down and listened to it and I thought it was perfect! The realistic nature of this story was truly amazing. Mainly, how after you break up with someone the only thing that can make you feel better is them leaving, forever. I do agree with Adam, though, I listened to the second half twice because I was lost, since the eight-men-in black-appearing-out-of-nowhere was so unexpected. But when I figured out what was happening, I laughed, and loved it.
I also agree that the voices portraying the characters were very well done. In the beginning of the story though, I did not think the narrator was necessary and did not like him that much. He just said "coyly" fifteen times and made the story sound abrupt and disjointed. But later on, he proved his importance by narrating the whole attack on David. I also agree with Adam and Emilie, in that Aasif Mandvi was able to connect and bring his character, David, to life. He had a egotistical and coy side to his voice and the way he delivered his lines, which is exactly how I pictured a cheating ex-boyfriend to sound. Lastly, Allison Williams did an equally amazing job getting into her character, Annette. She captured the ‘jealous ex-girlfriend’ mentality with grace, and put her own spin on it, by killing her ex-boyfriend.
As previously mentioned, I enjoyed parts of the story such as it's rather ludicrous ending, or the narrators repetition of the word coyly. However the dialogue seemed scripted and rather trite, something that was boring at times. Nevertheless the foreshadowing of the ending, such as annete wearing a red dress (red being the color of blood) was very well executed. I agree with Alec in that I enjoyed how the story portrayed an accurate modern day relationship, and to answer his question, I think that overexposure via technology doesn’t provide us with an easy way to solve problems. In fact, I think that is complicates relationship issues and is sometimes the root of the cause. This is because the effort required to send a text/email is very little and because of that, little thought and energy is put into it, making the text/email unemotional and displeasing to the person receiving the text. Also because there is no face to face contact, the context of the thought behind the text is taken out of perspective and the text can be over read, under read, underappreciated, over appreciated, or misinterpreted. All of this leads to complications.
All of the readers did excellent jobs bringing their characters to life, engaging the audience, and intriguing the listener. Their voices worked well together and the boyfriend and girlfriend had great dialogue. The narrator was also extremely witty but sometimes his narration became a little too involved in the dialogue such as when he kept interrupting the conversation, restricting the flow of it. This did little to bring the story to life and make it seem real. Overall, great job.
Quite humorous and unexpected. I enjoyed listening to the story and was pleased to find it was more than a domestic dispute between lovers. I actually had to pause the podcast after the eight men in black appeared just to register what was going on.
ReplyDeleteThe voices were all very well done. The delivery by Aasif Mandvi gave a strong impression of a very indecisive man who was trying to keep tabs on every potential soulmate he met, as well as providing a sense of genuine clash with Allison Williams's character. Allison Williams did an excellent job with the amount of sarcasm she read the lines about forgiving David, and made the listener, and David, suspicious as to what she might be up to. She seemed so insistent on the kiss that I didn't expect much more than the closure she would get from ending their relationship with their last kiss at their first. Novak also did a good job of staying detached from the story as the narrator, saying humorous lines like the bit about them speaking coyly and the eight men in black descending from nowhere neutrally.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this story for multiple reasons. As mentioned already, the story was very humorous and I was laughing throughout most of it. I really liked how there was the surprise ending, it made the story even more humorous and it was so unexpected that you couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.
ReplyDeleteI thought that both of the voices portrayed the characters very well and brought to life the entire story. As Adam said, Aasif Mandvi portrayed David’s indecisiveness very well. I thought he also showed how easily persuaded David was, which goes along with his indecisiveness. I also thought that Allison Williams added the perfect amount of sarcasm to Annette’s voice (as Adam said). I thought that her voice was slightly taunting and the small laugh at the end of some of her sentences led you to believe this wasn’t just an official end to their relationship. I also thought that B.J. Novak added a lot of humor to the end of the story by how casual he made this whole event seem. The way he read his lines, it appeared that it was nothing out of the ordinary for this to occur
As a fan of The Office I was delighted to hear BJ Novak's omniscient narration mixed in with Mandvi's and William's dialogue. While the start of the story was a little too cliché,very similar to Ted and Robin's relationship on HIMYM, I really enjoyed the ending. As Emilie said, the ridiculousness of having eight masked man kill Annette's ex-boyfriend left me in laughter and amusement at the drastic turn of events. I also really liked how accurate the story was at portraying a "21st century relationship". Anette chronicles her relationship with text messages and emails and finds closure via an app. This questions the role of technology in our lives and if overexposure provides us with easy ways to solve our problems or hinders our ability to deal with conflict maturely.
ReplyDeleteI think that Williams did a fantastic job of portraying Annette. Through altering her tempo and emphasizing certain words ad phrases she was able to capture the desperation and craziness of Annette. She beautifully captured the passive aggressiveness of Annette delivering one liners with passion (through pauses and increased volume). In between trying to arrange a time to meet she eludes to the misogynistic nature of her ex, seamlessly transitioning between the mundane and more serious problems. Her use of threes (listing words quickly in groups of three) was my favorite. It captured her desperation to meet Mandavi and her nervousness. This was particularly evident when she listed different times when they could meet. This moment truly showed her desire and foreshadowed that something more than a conversation would happen. Novak's narration was spot on subjectively capturing the actions of each character. As Adam said his ability to convey emotional lines neutrally added to the humor of the story. This juxtaposition emphasized the desperation and emotion Anette felt in contrast to the steadiness of Novak's narration. Overall all characters did a great job of portraying their characters.
I found the story to be quite funny and spontaneous. The title and beginning of the podcast were very misleading. I had toyed with the idea of listening to this one for a while, but I did not want to listen to a sad break up story. Then I finally sat down and listened to it and I thought it was perfect! The realistic nature of this story was truly amazing. Mainly, how after you break up with someone the only thing that can make you feel better is them leaving, forever. I do agree with Adam, though, I listened to the second half twice because I was lost, since the eight-men-in black-appearing-out-of-nowhere was so unexpected. But when I figured out what was happening, I laughed, and loved it.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the voices portraying the characters were very well done. In the beginning of the story though, I did not think the narrator was necessary and did not like him that much. He just said "coyly" fifteen times and made the story sound abrupt and disjointed. But later on, he proved his importance by narrating the whole attack on David. I also agree with Adam and Emilie, in that Aasif Mandvi was able to connect and bring his character, David, to life. He had a egotistical and coy side to his voice and the way he delivered his lines, which is exactly how I pictured a cheating ex-boyfriend to sound. Lastly, Allison Williams did an equally amazing job getting into her character, Annette. She captured the ‘jealous ex-girlfriend’ mentality with grace, and put her own spin on it, by killing her ex-boyfriend.
As previously mentioned, I enjoyed parts of the story such as it's rather ludicrous ending, or the narrators repetition of the word coyly. However the dialogue seemed scripted and rather trite, something that was boring at times. Nevertheless the foreshadowing of the ending, such as annete wearing a red dress (red being the color of blood) was very well executed. I agree with Alec in that I enjoyed how the story portrayed an accurate modern day relationship, and to answer his question, I think that overexposure via technology doesn’t provide us with an easy way to solve problems. In fact, I think that is complicates relationship issues and is sometimes the root of the cause. This is because the effort required to send a text/email is very little and because of that, little thought and energy is put into it, making the text/email unemotional and displeasing to the person receiving the text. Also because there is no face to face contact, the context of the thought behind the text is taken out of perspective and the text can be over read, under read, underappreciated, over appreciated, or misinterpreted. All of this leads to complications.
ReplyDeleteAll of the readers did excellent jobs bringing their characters to life, engaging the audience, and intriguing the listener. Their voices worked well together and the boyfriend and girlfriend had great dialogue. The narrator was also extremely witty but sometimes his narration became a little too involved in the dialogue such as when he kept interrupting the conversation, restricting the flow of it. This did little to bring the story to life and make it seem real. Overall, great job.