The second season is way to drawn out with several episodes that barely move the plot forward.

I really enjoy this show so far, starting from season 1. I enjoy the comic relief and the whole premise. But I am REALLY struggling with the mouth sounds and swallows when one of the radio hosts. It makes it listening very difficult for someone with misophonia. Hope it improves with the seasons.

And also trivializes the extent that executives and others sexually harassed talent in the 90s and the 00s. At the end, one of the "hosts" explains why they named their detective agency "Arden". The explanation makes no sense, but their conclusion is that Everything is Connected. The writers apparently think this means that everything can be included in their hour long episodes. It is hard to be hateful because the acting and production are good. Perhaps the characterization of Brenda and Bea are is a little simplistic, and the fact that 75% of the humor is about the leads, one the hardened cop who needs an answer and the reporter looking for a big break (Podcast Style!), and the awfully Big Daddy sponsor of said podcast Andy Wheyface (white face!?!). That is tiresome and there is just too much including the dumb parody ads like (seriously) one for "Oral Emojis". It is amusing enough until the 11th episode when it is revealed there is True Crime that the show is about. Distantly but just enough the disappearance of Julia Capsom is ultimately related to a Harvey Weinstein-like director's attempted sexual assault of the teenage starlet. Trivializing because the daughter of an established star married to a rich and powerful lawyer was not the target of Weinstein and his like, but more ordinarily actresses who had climbed a rung or two up in Hollywood and had much more to lose. Their probably can be a silly even funny podcast about Me too, but we are meant to take Julia and Ralph's story as a tragedy and her reaction to her predicament as sad. At the mushy core, there is a meet cute and a story about what Ralph's dad said to his mom at their meet cute. (By the way Mrs Montgomery is a visa overstayer from the 1980s. This show cannot go an episode without including some talking point.) Instead getting annoyed about the lack of substance in the podcast, this illustrates the Arden point: everything is connected, so anything can be brought up. It is not just tonal shifts between episodes and within each episode (somehow the couple are both the most saintly teenagers ever and are thought so by friends) but how the whole podcast lives in am imaginary 50s style era of plot points, motivations and even slang and the jokey voices of the larger casts. Julia is called a "debutante" by her friend and Ralph (who has a doomed affair with a Ralph?) is called a "science whiz". I would not be surprised if the car with the torso was a Malibu. It seems the writers are a bit self-aware of this, but it reinforces what the podcast is really about. It is not a parody, not a mystery, but a cozy form of of true crime fanfic that happens to include Me-too as a plot point. To use a different line from the podcast, "It was made in 2006, so it was about 9-11." I think Arden is really about 9/11 and I hope this is addressed by the second season.

Really enjoy this parody of the usual crime podcast show. I like the banter between to Bea and Brenda it reminds me of old screwball comedies. While it is a parody the crime they are investigating does have me intrigued so it work on the mystery level as well as the comedy level.

great show, anxiously awaiting season 2 ep 12’s re-release… 😬

The show is funny to listen. The dynamic is great. Funny when the boss shows up with his quips. Good stuff

I read some of the other reviews and clearly there are many ppl who have no sense of humor. Great show ! Loved the silly banter between Bea and Brenda. Give new season 3 PLEASSSEEEE

I actually really like this show. The story is well written and clever, the wayface commercials are funny, and the premise is fresh. But the audio is terrible. The actors quietly mumble one line and then blow your ear drums out the very next one, and in some scenes one actor is way too loud and the other is so quiet you can hardly hear them. It’s been difficult to get through the first season because of this. I really hope they get someone capable of fixing this for future seasons episodes or I may have to find a different podcast.

This show has its heart in the right place. I appreciate the important and timely message it’s trying to send about media, celebrity, and misogyny; but, ultimately, Arden doesn’t have the writing chops to be a good vessel for these themes. I’d happily recommend Episode 11, where the story really does land; however, it lands largely because the two protagonists are almost entirely absent in it. The rest of Arden is a character-driven story about two podcasters, but I never felt a connection to either of them. The characterization never goes much deeper than the rational smart one and fun quirky one, and the dynamic between them amounts to little more than constant bickering and sexual tension–which, as you can imagine, grows tiresome quickly. All in all, Arden’s premise could have been truly powerful, but it doesn’t manage to live up to that ambition. And, well, I’m getting kind of tired of stories about women that just leave me feeling sick, and sad.

This did not work for me. There was way to much fluff and goofiness that was more annoying than entertaining. I would have loved to finish the podcast but I could only handle listening up to Season 1 episode 5. It was just to staged and weird.