Amateur podcasts are always a gamble. It is truly "hit or miss" on what they will be, because all you have to go by is the subject matter. More often than not, they turn out to be flat, uninspired, and totally lacking in the qualities required to keep you listening.
Every once in a while, though, you stumble across a true gem... the kind of show that, once you get past the initial unfamiliarity, draws you in like a warm hug. The kind that is so well done as to seem professionally produced, and where you find that you grow to like the people involved so much, they start to feel almost like friends.
This is one of those podcasts. It is a gem (or a nugget of gold, if that is more appropriate in the context of a Deadwood podcast)
It is done in "IntroCast" format, where only the host has seen the show before, with the co-hosts experiencing it for the first time. If you are a Deadwood veteran, and you probably are, if you are searching for Deadwood content, listening to this style of podcast can be very enjoyable indeed... you know where the story is going, and all of the answers to the speculations brought up by the "newbies". You are in the Catbird seat, so to speak.
Let me be clear. This is a very, very well done podcast, with a perfectly balanced mix of personalities among the four regular cast members, consisting of two women and two men... there is Carol, a school teacher by profession, who brings smart and intellectual analysis to every episode, unintentionally funny at times in her seriousness... and Melanie, a ray of sunshine by profession, is bright and bubbly, sweet and adorable, funny and imaginative, with the kind of laugh that can make men fall in love... Matt H., an unassuming young man with a great "under the radar" sense of humor, comes across as just an all around nice guy... and Matt A., who serves as the host, lends a little bit of an acerbic edge with just the right amount of good-natured sarcasm and pithiness.
All of them are well accomplished podcasters in their own right, mostly in the arena of television, as are most of the "secondary cast" of loyal feedback providers and guest co-hosts.
As host, producer, and editor, Matt A. does an amazing job putting together every single episode. Not enough can be said about the effort and care he takes in crafting and creating the finished product. It is truly astounding, if you think about it... the in depth scene by scene recaps, the background information about the actors and the show, the historical research into the real Deadwood, the painstaking record keeping of every statistic generated by each episode of Hooplecast... all of it serves to make the structure and content of this podcast what it is-- Top Notch.
With the Deadwood coverage long since done, the show still marches on, watching and discussing the pilot episodes of other HBO dramatic series, and hopefully will continue to do so long after that particular well runs dry.
Lastly, let me say, to the people who felt the need to leave negative or "one star" reviews after sampling a single episode, or based on idealogical differences with the hosts and not on the content of the podcast:
...we get it. You have strong, important opinions. You have every right to express them. They're just not very well informed, and they say more about you than they do about the podcast... but, of course, that is what you intended, wasn't it.
