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codg 101
aka "Kates explains an audio canon that only a handful of people give a damn about"
RIGHT, CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY PRIMER: it is bonkers in the best way possible. CODG is an audio series, done by Big Finish (an audiobook company best known for SO MANY DOCTOR WHO AUDIOS like they are just bleeding Doctor Who audios.) If I had to peg a genre, I'd peg it as horror, but each episode ranges in tone. It's also horror all over the place. Some are supernatural horror, some are more fantasy horror, some are straight up Saw style body horror, so again, all over the place. It's got five seasons. Season 1 & 2 consist of stand-alone stories that are basically "Dorian narrates about something that happened in the past & we grab a guest actor from Big Finish's massive roster of actors they work with." Each of those episodes is a bit under half an hour, except the three bonus specials which are an hour to two hours. Season 3 was released as one big chunk and has a continuous story arc of "Dorian in the present, sans narration so you can see what a truly massive cock he is." Season 4 went back to stand-alone stories of s1 & s2, but the two-part Christmas special was more of Dorian & Toby in the present. Season 5 is four hour long stories, some set in the past, one set in the present, three with other people narrating about Dorian, one sans narration.
the range is pretty self-contained which is grand because some canons totally AREN'T (comics......). Dorian shows up in the Dark Shadows audios once (for five seconds) and actually got his start in the Benny Summerfield range (in the most BLATANT backdoor pilot ever), but both of those are skippable/only barely referenced in the main range. Worlds of Big Finish is a massive multirange crossover of some of Big Finish's properties and is very lovely, but also kind of skippable.
these are all pretty cheap. Individual episodes in seasons 1 & 2 are $3 USD each (cheaper than a Starbucks!). Season 3 and Season 4 were released as one big package consisting of eight thirty minute episodes and is $20 download (the cost of a really nice meal) and approx $40 on cd (which seems like a lot but it's like four hours worth of material so if you pace out and do the math, the math makes sense). The 2015 Christmas special is $13 download, $22 cd.
here are links:
- sound cloud link which includes trailers of everything plus the first ten minutes of each of the s1 episodes (which is about half an episode)
- link to the main range of Big Finish
- here are two Youtube videos about the recording of season three. Everybody involved is super precious and downright adorable.
- Big Finish released two free(!!!) small little seasonal 7minute Dorian Gray audios, one during December 2014 and one just last October. you do need an account to download these, but since they're free, I can totally upload them to mediafire and shoot you the links if you want in the hopes that you'll make an account and buy this yourself anyway.
- Big Finish also released one free episode The Enigma of Dorian Gray, which is one of the s4 stories. Again, shoot me a line.
- a lovely little interview with Alex Vlahos about Confessions. approx 45 minutes long, entirely adorable.
Big Finish is a very small company and they're all very lovely people (I met some of the company people when I was in the UK, they have a little one day convention, they're all so lovely and we talked about crisps) so unlike some of the bigass canons out there where I will conveniently point you towards a pirate link, I highly recommend buying the audios if you're interested. cause like, just buying one of the season 1 or 2 episodes costs less than a Starbucks and you've got around thirty minutes of wonderful narrative to listen to on the commute.
also, the series can get KIND OF VIOLENT at times and there is SEXY TIMES WITH SEXY NOISES, so don't listen around kids. if there's anything big that wigs you out or triggers you, just tell me and I'll say "yeah, you should skip this one" or "nah, that doesn't show up, you're good." off the top of my head there's a really gross bit involving eyes, one episode that highly features cocaine, body horror: the episode, and two episodes that are just chock full of dubious consent (one of which briefly features sexual assault). So yeah, some episodes are kind of triggery. on the other hand, it's got canonical bodyswapping, a band episode, vampires playing playstations, and literal demons in the wallpaper so yeah, check it out.
I HAVE RAMBLED ON TOO, TOO MUCH but if you want any recommendations/want me to tell you more about this, just tell me "yo, this episode looks chill, what do you think about it?".
RIGHT, CONFESSIONS OF DORIAN GRAY PRIMER: it is bonkers in the best way possible. CODG is an audio series, done by Big Finish (an audiobook company best known for SO MANY DOCTOR WHO AUDIOS like they are just bleeding Doctor Who audios.) If I had to peg a genre, I'd peg it as horror, but each episode ranges in tone. It's also horror all over the place. Some are supernatural horror, some are more fantasy horror, some are straight up Saw style body horror, so again, all over the place. It's got five seasons. Season 1 & 2 consist of stand-alone stories that are basically "Dorian narrates about something that happened in the past & we grab a guest actor from Big Finish's massive roster of actors they work with." Each of those episodes is a bit under half an hour, except the three bonus specials which are an hour to two hours. Season 3 was released as one big chunk and has a continuous story arc of "Dorian in the present, sans narration so you can see what a truly massive cock he is." Season 4 went back to stand-alone stories of s1 & s2, but the two-part Christmas special was more of Dorian & Toby in the present. Season 5 is four hour long stories, some set in the past, one set in the present, three with other people narrating about Dorian, one sans narration.
the range is pretty self-contained which is grand because some canons totally AREN'T (comics......). Dorian shows up in the Dark Shadows audios once (for five seconds) and actually got his start in the Benny Summerfield range (in the most BLATANT backdoor pilot ever), but both of those are skippable/only barely referenced in the main range. Worlds of Big Finish is a massive multirange crossover of some of Big Finish's properties and is very lovely, but also kind of skippable.
these are all pretty cheap. Individual episodes in seasons 1 & 2 are $3 USD each (cheaper than a Starbucks!). Season 3 and Season 4 were released as one big package consisting of eight thirty minute episodes and is $20 download (the cost of a really nice meal) and approx $40 on cd (which seems like a lot but it's like four hours worth of material so if you pace out and do the math, the math makes sense). The 2015 Christmas special is $13 download, $22 cd.
here are links:
- sound cloud link which includes trailers of everything plus the first ten minutes of each of the s1 episodes (which is about half an episode)
- link to the main range of Big Finish
- here are two Youtube videos about the recording of season three. Everybody involved is super precious and downright adorable.
- Big Finish released two free(!!!) small little seasonal 7minute Dorian Gray audios, one during December 2014 and one just last October. you do need an account to download these, but since they're free, I can totally upload them to mediafire and shoot you the links if you want in the hopes that you'll make an account and buy this yourself anyway.
- Big Finish also released one free episode The Enigma of Dorian Gray, which is one of the s4 stories. Again, shoot me a line.
- a lovely little interview with Alex Vlahos about Confessions. approx 45 minutes long, entirely adorable.
Big Finish is a very small company and they're all very lovely people (I met some of the company people when I was in the UK, they have a little one day convention, they're all so lovely and we talked about crisps) so unlike some of the bigass canons out there where I will conveniently point you towards a pirate link, I highly recommend buying the audios if you're interested. cause like, just buying one of the season 1 or 2 episodes costs less than a Starbucks and you've got around thirty minutes of wonderful narrative to listen to on the commute.
also, the series can get KIND OF VIOLENT at times and there is SEXY TIMES WITH SEXY NOISES, so don't listen around kids. if there's anything big that wigs you out or triggers you, just tell me and I'll say "yeah, you should skip this one" or "nah, that doesn't show up, you're good." off the top of my head there's a really gross bit involving eyes, one episode that highly features cocaine, body horror: the episode, and two episodes that are just chock full of dubious consent (one of which briefly features sexual assault). So yeah, some episodes are kind of triggery. on the other hand, it's got canonical bodyswapping, a band episode, vampires playing playstations, and literal demons in the wallpaper so yeah, check it out.
I HAVE RAMBLED ON TOO, TOO MUCH but if you want any recommendations/want me to tell you more about this, just tell me "yo, this episode looks chill, what do you think about it?".