TV Obsessive
The Oyster
Katie: Those who know me know that I’m not really one for podcasts. Sure, I listen to the occasional one that may center around a certain lesbian trailblazer that is the focus of a HBO series (hello Shibden After Dark), but when it comes to picking a podcast versus listening to a Spotify playlist I’m usually going for the playlist. That said when it was announced that Carla Gugino and Giancarlo Esposito were going to be starring in a sci-fi audio play I counted down the days til it was released. I didn’t have that long to wait either.
The Oyster takes place in the future after our current atmosphere is destroyed and a virus has killed off a majority of the population. (I realize that sounds all too familiar.) In order to give humanity a chance the government develops a point system in order to weed out those nonessential to further humankind. Those who received high numbers were brought underground while the others were killed. Hannah (voiced by Logan Browning),one of those survivors, works for the upper government and becomes tasked with the challenge of collecting stories from the other survivors. When it is brought to her attention that one of the other sections of the ministry has developed a program that makes you forget about everything except pure pleasure (very much a cross between Angel’s Jasmine effect and V’s Bliss) she is forced into co-working with its creator, Christian, played by Carla Gugino, to make the program more ethical.
The Oyster explores the cracks that have begun to form among the people living underground. Very much in most dystopian pieces, there are secrets that are kept from people. It is done so to keep control, but that control does begin to waver. That isn’t what stands out though about this story. What makes The Oyster so different is how it explores processing trauma.
There are two types of people. Some bottle up everything they have had happen to them, and put on a face to show others that they are okay. Christian is one of these people and her program, The Oyster, is a way for others to do the same. It makes it so you are in a constant state of zen, where nothing can bother you in either the positive or negative way.
Then there are the people who dive into their trauma. These people talk about the events that have affected their lives and process it so it becomes something they can learn and grow from. Hannah achieves this by allowing people to tell her their story. She believes that by admitting and reliving what they had gone through they could learn to better themselves and grow.
Many of us are like Christian and like to conceal our emotions. It’s true that many of us would like to step up and try out The Oyster if that means we can forget the horrors that 2020 has presented us. The Oyster puts these two philosophies of processing trauma against one another by having these two women work together because there is a way to achieve both.
The podcast is three episodes in as of right now, and each week it feels as though we are learning more and more that constantly changes our perception on character motivations. It also makes us question as to which type of person we are. Are we a Christian, or are we a Hannah?
The Oyster can be listened to through Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
