Podcast Novel or Audio Drama: Audio Drama
Title: Black Jack Justice (as presented by The Decoder Ring Theater Podcast.)
Written by: Decoder Ring Theater is made up of a company of folks, but I believe that the episodes are written by the leader of sorts Gregg Taylor. The concept of Black Jack Justice was originally created as a stage play, but the author of that is unknown. (I couldn’t find it)
I found it at: I initially found the Podiobooks.com feeds for season 1 and season 2 (episodes 1- 18). After listening to them all and enjoying them quite a bit, I was amazed when my husband discovered that Decoder Ring Theater had their own feed in iTunes which not only continued the adventures of Black Jack, but also featured The Red Panda Adventures (coming in Part 2 of my review) as well as a “Summer Showcase” with extra shows, another mini-series, and much more.
Reading/Voice Acting Quality: 5/5 - The voice acting in this series is top notch. The characters are believable, brought to life by the amazing cast. Christopher Mott plays the title character while Andrea Lyons plays Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective. Most of the rest of the Decoder Ring Theater cast play various secondary characters and you can really tell that they adapt well to the various roles.
Overall Production Quality: 5/5 – This podcast audio drama is excellent. Between the wonderful voice acting and the brilliantly appropriate music and other sound effects, you really can bring to life in your mind the situations that Jack, Trixie and the rest of their gang of mystery misfits find themselves in.
Comments: Styled in the classic sort of film-noir, hard-boiled detective story, Black Jack Justice brings the listener back “to a time when men were men, women were dames and everyone wore hats.” (Quoted from my initial listening of the show off the Podiobooks feed.). I believe the series is set sometime after WWI. It features two licensed private detectives, the decidedly hard-boiled title character Black Jack Justice and his partner the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Trixie Dixon, Girl Detective. The banter between the two main characters is often fast-paced and witty as all hell. You cannot help but laugh as they go at it, again and again. While they have a partnership, often they purposely act as if they can’t stand the other. Though, it doesn’t take a genius to read between the banter and realize they care more for each other than they let on.
This is primarily shown in my current favorite episode, #9 – No Justice. In this episode, Jack and his “pal” Freddy “The Finger” Hawthorne have managed to get themselves into trouble and they both go missing. It’s up to Trixie and her new “partner” Lt. Vick Sabien (not sure on the spelling of that. Feel free to correct me in comments Gregg! *lol*) to find the pair before it’s too late. The reason that this episode is my favorite is because of the following exchange that takes place after Trixie punches the daylights out of someone with a “$4 special”
Lt. Sabien: “Speaking of sharks, where’d you learn to punch like that?”
Trixie: “At school.”
Lt. Sabien: “Public or Private?”
Trixie: “Reform. So I guess you could say a little of both.”
Lt. Sabien: “Lady Law-and-Order?! A juvie?!” *Chuckles*
Trixie: *sighs* “Save it.”
Lt. Sabien: “What’d ya do?”
Trixie: “I beat a police lieutenant to death for forgetting what he was supposed to be doing when my partner’s life was at stake! Oh sorry, that’s what I’m about to do.
Lt. Sabien: *dryly* Roger that, resuming search.
After that exchange, I had to pause my iPhone because I was laughing too hard. Moments like that are what make this series so entertaining.
The series is episodic, which means that theoretically, you could listen to episode 14 or whatever first and not feel like you missed much of anything. While that is certainly true, I do recommend getting all the episodes and listening to them in order as there are elements from early shows that carry over into later shows. (I won’t mention them, as I am trying to prevent too many spoilers.)
Because the Decoder Ring Theater podcast feed includes Black Jack Justice, The Red Panda Adventures and other stuff, they alternate the series and release them in groups. A group of Black Jack Justice, then a group of Red Panda, and back again. They’ve just announced that their release schedule is now the 1st and 15th of every month.
Overall Score: 5/5 – Definitely worth a listen, even if you aren’t sure that hard-boiled detectives are your thing. Go! Download it! Listen! Now! :D The episodes can also be found on their website linked below to listen to it on your computer if you have an Mp3 player that’s not in iPod/iPhone or don’t have one at all.
Author’s Website: http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/index.htm
Story Website: http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/blackjackjustice/
Search “Decoder Ring Theater” on iTunes.
Please Stay Tuned for Part 2 – A review of Decoder Ring Theater’s other big series, The Red Panda Adventures.
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