Home » Saffron and Peri: Humorous Urban Fantasy

Saffron and Peri: Humorous Urban Fantasy

History of Fantasy

Saffron and Peri is the first step in an evolutionary process to make audio drama fantasies a reality. What does this mean? Well, modern fantasy has its roots in fairy tales and Post-Victorian era children’s fiction. Put another way, before the Victorian era (when the term “genre” was first invented), the chances of reading about dragons and other fantastical creatures or elements in a story were limited to ones told before the common era. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Gilgamesh from ancient Greece and Mesopotamia respectively being three of the most well-known classics before the common era. But are they fantasy? Even in the common era before the high middle ages, tales like Beowulf were considered simply fiction. There were no classifications of different genres. It was all fiction or non-fiction.

Fantasy Tropes and Satire

Moving onto the actual story of Saffron and Peri, one of the more obvious elements right from the start is the narrative device found so often in today’s audio drama environment. Audio recordings from a telephone call are the primary way the story is told. There’s a mild annoyance at times with the ringtone being the default one for iPhones. There were numerous times where I checked my phone to see if someone was calling me and like a catchy jingle, the impulse stayed with me throughout the entire season.

Aside from that distracting quality of the show’s execution, Saffron and Peri does what it sets out to do and does it in a way that is charming and fun. The audio quality is hit or miss, but one could argue the entire show is taking place on a phone and quality depends on your location. In other words, it could be part of the story.

Playing devil’s advocate, Saffron and Peri lure you in with familiar tropes only to poke fun of the fantasy genre in a clever way. One of the primary settings is a magical support center for a college where, you guessed it, magic is taught. After the amusing twist on classic fairy tales, the story takes a more traditional comedic role and becomes almost sitcom-y in a way. As the series progresses, that meta-humor is replaced with funnier jokes, but don’t quite last as long as the earlier ones in terms of memorability. Without a doubt, its personal preference, but for those people looking for a smart audio drama fantasy with or without humor, Saffron and Peri comes close, but doesn’t quite stick the landing.

4/5 Stars

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