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Greater Boston: Tales of One City

Cover Art of Greater Boston

The podcast, Greater Boston reflects the closeness of people in Boston, despite it being a large city. People tend to think of big cities like New York and Chicago as nobody knows anyone or cares about them as they pass them on the street.

Greater Boston: Many Faces, Many Forms

The opening credits of each episode where local New Englanders say the names of suburbs of Boston—places like Worcester, Framingham, Porter Square, and Cambridge—all have the effect of a large homogenous city with diversity hidden in the tall skyscrapers of downtown.

The first couple of episodes have a genre and style that is hard to pin down. It is almost like NPR’s Serial or other investigative podcast show but fictionalized. While there are plenty of shows like this out there, Greater Boston tackles this blend of realistic vs. fictionalized storytelling so well that it takes until the third episode for one to realize the seemingly random vignettes are linked together through characters.

What makes this show great, after just five episodes is the giant middle finger it gives to the current cultural zeitgeist surrounding big named cities. When people think of New York City (NYC), they imagine a million other cities that movie studios filmed on since the dawn of modern filmmaking. One such example is the first Avengers film, which claims to have the big third act battle in NYC. In reality, it was filmed in Cleveland. Other, similar, examples include in-world goofs by writers or actors where they will write or say the name of a street that doesn’t exist. The more recent version of The Taking of Pelham 123 is a famous, or infamous, example of this kind of laziness in basic research. Greater Boston does its fair share of creative license, but it’s never at the expense of setting.

Characters and Genre

The characters are both eccentric and down to earth. The Mayor of the Redline is a de facto leader of the very real transit system that most tourists will have ridden at least once during their time in Boston. The Mayor treats the subway as if it were in a post-apocalyptic world or one on the brink of collapse. Other characters like Jemma are the traditional fish out of water story with a meta twist. ThirdSight Media is both a company in the world and the people who work on the podcast behind the scenes.

There are so many nuances and idiosyncrasies in the first season alone that re-listening is almost required. At the same time, listening once will satisfy you emotionally and make you want to consume more seasons to see where the story goes.

4.5/5 Stars

Next Time

The Witch Who Came in from the Cold

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