The Shadow: Black Rock Remake - Audio Drama Reviews

This reimagining of an episode of “The Shadow” from a company now focused on getting an unofficial “Uncharted” audio drama into your ears plays fast and loose with the word remake. Check out the previous review of the original Black Rock episode and a brief history of the Shadow as a literary character.

The Six Million Dollar Shadow

“We can rebuild him; we have the technology” is not only a line from the Six Million Dollar Man TV show’s opening but also a nice metaphor for why use an intellectual property so dated and bring him to modern-day society. Filmmakers tried it with Alec Baldwin in the lead role. I personally liked it for the small touches like the rings The Shadow gives his network of spies. An almost homage or easter egg for those old-time radio commercials about decoder rings. That said, the movie is a relic of the 90s and hasn’t aged that well. The whole mysticism angle and Shiwan Khan being not only a rival for “The Shadow” but also a recurring villain from the source material was a bit of a shock.

The more one dives into both the Wikipedia entry or the fandom.com site, The Living Shadow, the more of a rich history one gets from the character and its history as both a pulp hero and a broadcast superstar. Go check out the review of an original episode for more information on the history of the Shadow. Warning, It gets complicated quickly.

Differences and Upgrades

Onto the review of the remake, this feels like a previous generation remastered edition of a video game. Something like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on the Xbox 360. The developers overhauled the graphics to a degree but left the game world the same to appease traditionalists. Both the remastered Halo and The Shadow remake have the problem of staying too close to the source material.

This creates a disconnect with listeners when some of them expect modern sound effects with a more cinematic script, but get an old-time radio one with modern sound effects. It just doesn’t gel. The music goes too far in this direction. While catchy, it doesn’t fit the aesthetic of the remake. At least the soundtrack is available for free download. The musical stings acting as transitions are the most out of place. Some of them lasted far too long.

The interrogation scene in the original oddly enough sounds better in a way that fits the mythos of the character. The fidelity may be bad and the quality less than ideal for modern audiences, but the noise and artifacts add to the sense of mystery The Shadow is famous for. It’s obviously unintentional on the original’s part, but the remake goes too cinematic with its sound design. The script by comparison doesn’t lend itself well to that level of upgrade for the sound.

7/10 Stars