Line #54 Podcast/OurFairCity


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/our_fair_city_smallicon_569.jpg]]
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5	->''"[=HartLife=]: All the Life You'll Ever Need"''
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9	''Our Fair City'' is an online AudioPlay/Podcast set in a future dystopian version of Hartford, CT. Following a climate-change-related disaster, humanity is now confined to subterranean cities. [=HartLife=], an insurance company, now runs the lives of all "policies" in the city. Lightning rigs high above the city gather energy from thunderstorms, mad scientists walk the earth, and adorably monstrous Molepeople dig tunnels deep underground to expand the city's habitable space.
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11	Framed as "[[OpeningNarration true dramatizations of our city's glorious history]]," Our Fair City is equal parts camp, sci-fi horror, and folk tale. So listen, and remember.
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13	The series can be heard for free online [[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-fair-city/id514748675 here]].
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15	See also ''[[Podcast/UnwellPodcast Unwell]]'', the [[ProductionPosse production team]]'s next podcast, with which ''Our Fair City'' shares a few voice actors.
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18	----
19	!!This podcast provides examples of:
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21	* AffablyEvil: Dr. West is fairly cheerful and helpful, but after [[spoiler:unleashing a zombie horde on [=HartLife=],]] he reminds Andrew that he is, after all, still a MadScientist.
22	* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Neal's search for Allison.
23	* AnyoneCanDie: The podcast has a high bodycount, that's for sure.
24	%%* ApocalypseHow: Somewhere between Class 1 and Class 2 due to GlobalWarming.
25	%%* ArtificialZombie
26	%%* BarBrawl: At least two at Al's Bar so far.
27	%%* BigBrotherIsWatching
28	* BlackComedy: The series would be a ''lot'' more horrifying if not for the Narrator's blase attitude and the humor. Considering that it's unleashed a ZombieApocalypse, the utter collapse of society in Hartford (twice!) and giant carnivorous ants, that's saying a lot.
29	%%* BlobMonster: The carnivorous mold
30	%%* BrainInAJar: Dr. Moro
31	* BumblingSidekick: Andrew Snidge, though he gets more competent as the series progresses.
32	%%* ButtMonkey: Poor Andrew Snidge...
33	%%* CityInABottle
34	* ComicBookAdaptation: ''The Department'', a webcomic published online between the fourth and fifth seasons. Three volumes of additional tie-in comics have been published in print.
35	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Averted with Vice-President Davenport. He may be a complete {{Jerkass}} employed by a completely immoral company, but he isn't corrupt.
36	* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Though Neal's main mission is to find Allison, he tries to help nearly everyone he encounters on his search.
37	%%* CrapsackWorld
38	%%* CrazyPrepared: Dr. West has ''fighting trousers''.
39	* DaddysLittleVillain: Erin, [[spoiler:Vice-President Davenport's]] daughter and TortureTechnician.
40	* DespairEventHorizon: Allison hits it ''hard'' by season 7. [[spoiler: Watching your lover die, watching several apocalyptic events threaten the Tower, nearly being a party to mass murder/terrorism, ''and'' being in the middle of one of said apocalyptic events which seems to be the one that finally ends it all will do this to you.]]
41	%%* {{Determinator}}: Neal. Freaking. ''Henderson''.
42	* DistractedByTheSexy: [[spoiler:Elizabeth Rourke]] when Neal takes off his shirt to make bandages. [[spoiler:Thankfully, it distracts her from giving in to her HorrorHunger]].
43	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Sandy and Clay's discussion of "tunnel collapses", complete with Clay's jealousy of [[ReallyGetsAround Sandy's previous experiences]] and Sandy's discovery that it's Clay's first time.
44	* EnemyWithin: [[spoiler:Elizabeth Rourke]] after her return, has to fight her HorrorHunger at several points. Becomes a SuperpoweredEvilSide when she discovers that it gives her super-strength.
45	%%* EvilutionaryBiologist: Dr. Moro, creator of the Molepeople. Dr. West is another example.
46	* FantasticRacism: It would probably be easier to count the human characters who ''aren't'' complete jerks to the Molepeople.
47	%%* ForScience
48	* FunWithAcronyms: Nearly every agency in [=HartLife=] has the acronym "M.U.R.D.E.R."
49	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: All food in Hartford seems to be made of algae. Unless you're rich or manage to find a cache of food outisde the city, that is.
50	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Allison, though [[spoiler:she turns out to be more of a BitchInSheepsClothing when Neal finds her on the Ghost Rig]].
51	%%* GardeningVarietyWeapon: Neal's shovel
52	* HatesEveryoneEqually: Dr. Emily Caligari never says please. Moleperson or not no one is safe from being yelled at.
53	* HeelRealization: Vice-President Davenport has one after seeing the consequences of his [[spoiler:forcing the Switcher to cut off power to a hospital.]]
54	* HoldYourHippogriffs: The majority of the show's FutureSlang is based on corporate jargon.
55	* HopeSpot: Occurs at the end of Season 7, episode 17. Alison, after [[TraumaCongaLine trying to make a life outside the company and failing]], along with losing [[spoiler: Neal]], and being stranded in the tundra... [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere leaves the grounds of Hartford]], going beyond the furthest listening post of [=HartLife=]. To go by [=HartLife=]'s own claims, there's nothing out there, and the Narrator solemnly declares that she is dead in all meaningful ways, beyond the reach of the company, beyond the edge of the world. [[spoiler: Except not really - there's a staticky radio message at the end, with Alison claiming that she found 'something' Outside.]]
56	%%* HugeGuyTinyGirl: When Neal and Loamy team up.
57	* ICallItVera: Neal's beloved shovel, Betsey.
58	* IHaveNoSon: Inverted with [[spoiler:Nathan, who, upon discovering that his mother is alive(ish) and acting as a ParentalSubstitute for Andrew, declares that he no longer has a mother... and then attacks her with a shovel.]]
59	%%* KillerCop: George Chamberlain.
60	%%* LocalHangout: Al's Bar
61	* LosingYourHead: [[spoiler:Elizabeth Rourke]]. [[spoiler:''TWICE'']].
62	* MadScientist: Appears to be a prerequisite for nearly every scientist on the show. Dr. West and Dr. Caligari are the two most noteworthy examples.
63	%%* MegaCorp: [=HartLife=]
64	%%* MoleMen: The Molepeople
65	* NotHyperbole: In one season 8 episode, Caligari derisively claims that the Managers do nothing but take laps in the company pool while others work on things of actual importance. By the end, it turns out she wasn't kidding.
66	* NotUsingTheZWord: Simon instead calls them "The Woken".
67	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: [=HartLife=] seems to run on this
68	* OlderThanTheyLook: To Neal's surprise, Loamy the Moleperson is old enough to have had children.
69	* ParodySue: Neal Henderson is basically a TallTale hero in a post-apocalyptic setting - inexplicably superhuman, able to shrug off anything, the worst you can say is that he's a bit oblivious. It might be insufferable if it wasn't so funny.
70	%%* ParentalSubstitute: Dr. West and [[spoiler:Elizabeth Rourke]] are this for Andrew.
71	%%* PeaceAndLoveIncorporated
72	* PintSizePowerhouse: [=MolePeople=] are no more than three feet in height, but they're strong enough to lift ten humans, or bring the tunnels crashing down on them if those humans do anything impolite.
73	* PlagueZombie: [[spoiler:Averted. Dr. West's reanimated corpses reproduce asexually.]]
74	%%* ProperlyParanoid: Simon's warnings about "The Woken" turn out to be rather precient.
75	%%* PunchClockVillain: VP Davenport
76	%%* RetiredBadass: Elizabeth Rourke, former [=StreetSafe=] agent.
77	* SanitySlippage: A slight yet noticeable case for the Narrator - he gets somewhat more unhinged with each update.
78	* ServantRace: The [=MolePeople=], to the point where saying "no" to a human is a serious taboo that apparently none of them have tried. Their creator Dr. Moro came to regret this decision, [[spoiler:and when Loamy becomes the first to say no, he expresses great pride.]]
79	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The narrator often verges on this.
80	* ShoutOut: The leading scientists all have public-domain names that line up with their fields of study: Dr. Emily [[Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari Caligari]], Dr. [[Literature/HerbertWestReanimator Herbert West]] (who once mentions having a friend named [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Victor]]), and Dr. Montgomery [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Moro]].
81	%%* SkyPirate: The Lightning Riggers
82	%%* ToiletHumour: Neal is a "[[UnusualEuphemism Putrescible Waste Collector]]", so this trope comes up on occasion.
83	%%* TookALevelInJerkass: Nathan Rourke in Season 3
84	%%* TortureTechnician: Erin
85	%%* UglyCute: The [=MolePeople=].
86	* UnreliableNarrator: As a representative of [=HartLife=], the narrator often goes to great lengths to point out how the typically admirable acts of the heroes are against corporate policy and should therefore be discouraged, if not outright ''condemned!'' [[spoiler: That, and going by the timeline, lots of his broadcasts were made during a violent uprising in Hartlife that he failed to mention.]]
87	* WhamEpisode: Three of them stand out
88	** Season 7, Episode 17 ends with Allison having hit the DespairEventHorizon ''hard'', and leaving Hartford for good. The narrator suggests that she's dead... [[spoiler: Except, as proven by the end of the episode, ''she's not''. She's found something outside the company, and the episode ends on an unexpectedly hopeful note that goes against what the narrator suggests.]]
89	** Season 7, Episode 19: After ''years'' of listeners getting used to the narrator's pro-company spin on events, with some of them even falling into TooBleakStoppedCaring and thinking that Hartlife wins and the various rebels are DoomedByCanon... [[spoiler: it turns out they're not. It ends with Andrew, Herbert, Elizabeth, and Caligari busting through the narrator's door and taking him hostage, suggesting that HartLife's been in a more dire situation than we realized.]]
90	** Season 8: [[spoiler: HartLife is gone, the Tower completely abandoned.]]
91	%%* WillTheyOrWontThey: Clay and
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Context Podcast / OurFairCity