As part of my ongoing ambition to somehow throw my views on the world of storytelling, the beloved has suggested that I should start a weekly review to give insight into the kind of things I enjoy.
Of course, this usually means that I have to interact with people, and given that my usual coffee shop had a river of vomit all across its seating area from some kind of revels the night before my only option was to get some reading time in at my local launderette.
As you can imagine, Witchy-Poo was thrilled at this course of events because it would require me to vacate the premises and let her get on with enjoying what little time she has left on the weekend without me and who am I to deny her such simple pleasures.
I'm something of a novice when it comes to Audible but very long in the tooth when it comes to Audio Books. As a lad my first true introduction to reading and storytelling was with Audio books given to me by my parents. Full cast productions of The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy etc, were a staple part of my intellectual diet as a preteen so I'm not that unfamiliar with the format.
As part of this weeks selection though I decided to begin The Laundry Files with a completely new story, something I had no prior knowledge of or insight to. I began with "High Strangeness" by Will Maclean.
We begin with our hero, a young woman named Cassie, an online vlogger who along with her best friend and partner in crime, Amanda, seek out the weird and the unknown as the content of their Vlog, the eponymous - High Strangeness, the UK's twelfth most popular vlog.
As a character Cassie is all to relatable to the average person. She's stuck in a dead end job serving coffee to mouth breathers while at the same time being chided by both her boss and her grandmother for not thinking about the future.
Th simple truth is that Cassie has been thinking about the future, all too much in fact. Her life is boring and she finds little to no real joy in her work. Even her vlog brings only a smidge of happiness as her desires to engage in bigger and grander paranormal investigations go unfulfilled. The closest to any kind of actual case the two besties can find is a haunted bus stop in Acton.
Having established a believable and endearing hero whose quest seems more than a little trivial its hard to imagine that such a character could hold a series together. The truth of it is that MacLean has written an all too familiar character that is brought wonderfully to life by Sophie MacShera's impeccable acting. she draws on the inner geek in us all and couples it with a childlike performance which gives Cassie an endearing edge which you can't help but smile and cheer on and that's before the story even properly starts.
After being chided by her boss for oversharing her thoughts on the paranormal with customers and being encouraged to reach for the stars by her grandmother, Cassie resolves to turn things around and do better for herself.
It's only after the "discovery" of an emergency dispatch call in a small village in Dorset when things really start to get bizarre.
The premise of the story is not original but it's one that's all too relatable among the world of geeks and nerds and lovers of the strange and paranormal and it is here that it truly excels.
It's an exceptionally strong first episode that establishes Cassie as believable hero while at the same time shows a certain amount of influence from 90's children's tv shows.
Thematically it shares shelf space with things like The Ink Master and The Demon Headmaster as well as titles such as The Tomorrow People while also giving a very Spaced/Garth Marenghi vibe with its small village/geekcentric setting and characters.
In spite of its clear 90's vibe it still manages to keep the audience rooted in modern day living. Issues such as zero hours contracts, North Korea, Hipsters, Coffee Shops and bad teenage bands are all there for the piss taking and its done with tongue planted firmly in cheek, winking at the audience all the while.
In conclusion, it would be fair to say that compared to other shows/series with a higher budget and more established cast/writers, High Strangeness has succeeded to do that which is harder to achieve nowadays than was ever thought possible before: Keep an audiences attention by using the most minimal of tools but doing it with with, panache and the use of deadly relaxation cd's.