Review: Two Thousand and Late

Audio Drama Autumn Is Still Here! 

I’m always really happy with my decision to prioritize audio drama during the autumn months. It’s gone by quickly, and I have to say the biggest thing this year is learning how to fit audio drama into my new life. It’s been quite successful and I am excited to be able to put some reviews “in the vault” over the coming months so that next year has more volume. In the meantime, enjoy my review for Two Thousand and Late.

This year was a hard year for me. I spent six months unemployed and questioning a lot of my life decisions. Financially, I’m still recovering. I constantly feel like there’s going to be another news story that I am powerless to do anything about. Things are getting better, but I’m constantly on the lookout for the next bad thing.

I’m angry. I’m tired. I feel powerless. It turns into apathy fast, as a way to self preserve. 

Which is exactly where Harper is when she turns thirty six. She’s apathetic, grieving a life that COVID took from her, and mostly just trying to make it through. That is, until a demon possesses her. 

From there, Harper’s life takes on the challenges headfirst, or demon-first. Having a little Havoc-voice in your head really spices things up. That, and so does demon powers of super strength and “clout”. In the small town of Plainville, Harper must decide if she’s going to use her demon for good, evil, or just plain havoc. 

I decided to listen to this one on a bit of a whim, as is most of my listening. It was a near-immediate hook line and sinker. There is something about this podcast that digs deeper than the wit of the working class. There is a truth humming through the soul of this podcast, from the writing to the casting it’s a window reflecting a reality we are all living. This isn’t escapism, this is a clap on the back and a well knowing nod.

There is the powerful contract of apathy and chaos in Lauren Shippen playing both Harper and Havoc. Balancing this mania is the casting and performance of her girlfriend Jemma, played by the warm, therapy-coded tones of Elena Victoria Feliz. This pushes and pulls with the anger and hope that are Anjali Kuanapeneni and Haden Ezekiel Felix as Kayla and Sweetie. Then we go a step further with the Gen X grit of wisdom and exhaustion of Carol and Mac, played by Nikki Kelleher and Marcus Rothenberg respectively. 

I bring out these six performances because there is something here. Usually if you’re thinking about this many voices, things may get confused and jumbled - especially because these aren’t the only characters in the piece. However, there is a texture in these voices that is a testament to casting and acting. They each shine, and make each other shine by giving us a piece of what we know and reminding us of someone in our own lives, or even parts of ourselves. We each have gone through it, are going through it, or are watching someone experience the unfairness of the world for the first time. 

That part of ourselves Two Thousand and Late is getting at, that is the reminder is that, we all have it. That “it” may just be the chaos that is just letting ourselves feel emotions, and at least trying to do something through it all.

This isn’t an emotion we’re told to use, or to enjoy. Anger is bad. I myself exist in a hyper-state of not being angry. Things that should make me angry I can rationalize down to the molecule to just not. I avoid the emotion, and shut down most of it to my detriment. And why? Is it that it’s ugly and bad, or is it because I’m a “young woman” and since I’m a millennial, I don’t know enough to be angry? 

Two Thousand and Late is reminding us that angry isn’t bad. Angry is good it means that you care about something. Emotions are hard. They are wily, they feel like you are possessed sometimes, and yes it can get to be too much - but we’re talking about too much in the other direction. Apathy is just as bad as being too angry. However, if we leverage our skills with care, and get together, maybe we can find a way to enact change. 

Even if we can’t create the change we want to see, the sweeping ones that would keep our friends and family safe, maybe what we need is the reminder that in our communities, and in our lives, we aren’t alone. Even if it feels like it, we’re all just trying to survive and fight through the joys, angers, and apathies of living in 2025. 

Two Thousand and Late was created by Lauren Shippen, executive produced by Patrick Ellis and designed by Jeffery Nils Gardner with script consultation from Octavia Bray. For full credits, and fun art by Ellis Carson Jones, head here.

Listen to Two Thousand and Late wherever you get your podcasts…

TLDR: 

Genre: Fiction

Length: 20-30 minutes

Episodes: Season One, Ten episodes

Vibes: Dark comedy, living in 2025, catharsis

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