Misfits Audio

Misfits Audio Productions is another collective audio company headed up by Capt. John Tadrzak and includes a number of audio drama personalities who show up in other places like Imagination Lane and Broken Sea. Writers/Actors/Producers like Alexa Chipman, Michael Hudson, Stevie K. Farnaby, April Sadowski, Jim Smagata and Mike Murphy have their fingers in many other audio "pies."  Misfits showcases a number of serials, mini-series, and one shot shows and delves both into original drama as well as fan fiction. There are also some parodies, and more than a few seasonal shows. Misfits is careful to label their shows based on the new Audio Drama Rating System now, but had their own system in place for some time now.

Website

The Misfits website is simple and clean with a light color scheme that fits with their attitude they have established. According Captain Tadrzak's message in the About section the goal for Misfits is to "...to make people laugh", and there are enough light hearted shows listed,  but there are also a fair amount of serious adult fare too.
There is a section on "Visuals" which is an interesting take for an audio drama company. There have been some audio dramas turned into animation in the past, but it seems that Misfits is using the visuals as a main function and a selling point of their website.
The left hand side of the page is set for links, and Capt. Tadrzak seems to be a consumate promoter of their new releases.
Over all, the site gets you what you need, no more, no less.
Rating 4/5

Audio Drama Type-Theater/OTR/Modern Audio Book
Much like many of the collaborative audio drama websites, Misfits provides a variety of modern styles. The Audio Book format is left mostly for their seasonal episodes, while opting for a more Old Time Radio vibe with many of their shows. Misfits heart is family friendly fare but they branch outwards into a more modern format, sometimes with mixed results.

Acting Types: Amateur
Misfits acting is uneven and at times even painful. Newer productions have continued to improve. Actors over all feel stiff and wooden. Interaction between characters sounds artificial, and there's little investment into the moment. There are notable exceptions and I will leave that for specific reviews. But comedic series like Hogan's Heroes and George and Gracie are so badly acted as to wake the departed and have a zombie army race down to the copyright office demanding swift action be taken.
Better shows include many of their Christmas stories and there are some strong performances in Jim Nolan, P.I. Unlike many of his contemporaries who produce and direct shows, Capt. Tadrzak himself has a good voice, but is hamstrung with bad scripts and poor editing.
Rating: 1/5

Production Type: Varied
The productions go from minimal to detailed, but all suffer from the same basic problems- poor quality voice recordings, poor integration of sound effects, and the greatest sin of all- uninteresting editing of dialog.
Almost every show has places where you could drive a truck through the silence. A strong emphasis needs to be placed on intelapping of dialog. Screwball Comedies (of which Misfits has many) should always be fast paced with pulse pounding speed. I mentioned Hogan's Heroes because I just recently listened to this series. Bob Crane and Werner Klemperer and even John Banner and Richard Dawson had impecable timing. Anyone who wishes to take on that level of comedic ability needs to at least make an attempt. Weaving dialog, creating fast paced tension. All these things are sorely lacking in the comedies in Misfits.
The adventure shows like Nolan and Horatio Hornblower are much better paced. Perhaps John Bell and Cayenne Chris Conroy has set an impossible bar for good timing in modern audio drama, but it is a bar every other show needs to heed carefully.
Rating 1.5/5

Writing
The writing comes from so many different authors, I feel that I'd be doing a grave injustice making a general description here. I am also caught wondering if the scripts are poor and that drags the production and actors down, or if the acting and production has pulled down the level of the writing.
Either way, I'll attempt to listen through separate shows and series and provide better detailed notes on the writing in the future.

Additional Notes
Misfits takes its turn trying pop science fiction and fantasy fan fictions perhaps more than any other collective audio drama company. Currently they have a Firefly series Miranda, two Harry Potter series Snape's Diaries and Tom Riddle's Diary, as well as a Doctor Who series Leela, a fantasy Star Trek parody Star Rabbit Tracks and some Torchwood shows. There seems no rhyme or reason as to the choices made for Misfit Audio. This is not a criticism, but rather an amazement that such a varied group of stories can come from a single group. More often than not, each audio drama company takes on a kind of production identity through time that drives their shows and informs their listeners. For Misfit, absolutely anything could and  does arrive for listening.

Over All Rating
Misfit Audio has a lot of problems in its fundamentals that I would like to see get ironed out. I get the feeling that it has maybe taken on too much in trying to pump out works on nearly a weekly schedule, when they could focus on strong production, good tight acting, and better script revisions. A monthly production schedule of powerful audio drama is always more preferable to weekly releases of shows that don't quite hit the level that is expected by a listener in the 21st century.
Despite their vision, I would steer away from Misfits comedy if you're looking for choice. Their adventure stories are much stronger at this point. Hopefully, for the future though, we can see improvement across the board.
Rating 1.5/5