A Descent Into The Maelstrom

9.19.24

In 2019 one of my kids asked me, “Would you ever consider writing a podcast?” 

I didn’t say no – I just spread my arms wide and asked, “Well – why?”

In 2020 the answer came around.  When an actor like Chris Conner asks to collaborate with you, it makes sense to say yes.

It was during the pandemic, we were all in quarantine, nobody knew how to film anything yet.  You remember the suspenseful quests for Clorox wipes, the crazy excitement at finding an interesting new crossword puzzle.  You’d take a walk in the streets and find neighbors you’d never met, who were strolling along with a gin and tonic in hand.

So maybe making a podcast – something that we could record online with only voices – suddenly made sense.  There were a few narrative scripted podcasts at that point, and a couple that had been translated into live action, but it was still a very new form.  We called a couple of agents looking for a sound designer for a scripted podcast, and they didn’t know what the hell we were talking about.

But before we could really assemble a team, the world had to be created.  We knew that we wanted it to be a cross between tech and noir, a thriller drawing equally from Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick.  Yet there was also always going to be a strong strain of the originator of detective fiction himself, Edgar Allan Poe.

Chris’ performance as Poe in ALTERED CARBON showed that he’s a past master at characters who have been through – A LOT.  Who might not know that they can get through much more.  Who are recognizable both for their vulnerabilities, and their willingness to press onward despite them.

Think of the narrators of The Black Cat, The Telltale Heart, and more.  Characters teetering a bit on the edge of madness.  Of course, our hero had to sustain a series without being carted off to the looney bin (although maybe that’ll happen in a future season?).  But Agent Stoker is defined largely by that special quality of someone who’s just barely hanging on, but realizes there’s no option other than to persevere.

There are hints that Agent Stoker has Irish lineage: maybe Beckett. 

Chris and I started a mood board where we imagined the world of Agent Stoker into life.  We gathered found art and photos that suggested the apocalypse but that also spoke to uncanny phenomena that defied explanation.  We assembled a tone deck, and the photo here was our leadoff hitter.

Which brings us to an aspect of AGENT STOKER that one doesn’t associate with the supernatural – baseball.  More on that next week.

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