Sneak Preview: Dianna Agron in NARCISSA — A Grounded Futuristic Thriller

July 26, 2022·46 min·4 clips

Dianna Agron stars as a mind reader in 2036 Los Angeles, where her illegal power forces isolation in a murder mystery.

Tribeca Audio Premieres host Davey Gardner introduces this episode as a premiere for Q-Code's new podcast Narcissa, noting that science fiction in audio drama tends to be polarizing but that this show works beyond the genre. After brief technical difficulties, Gardner conducts a conversation with lead actress Diana Agron, who plays Sid, a woman with illegal mind-reading abilities living in 2036 Los Angeles. Agron explains that the sci-fi setting serves as backdrop rather than the central subject, and that the story is really about isolation, love, and the difficulty of connection when you cannot trust anyone. She notes that the government once discovered mind readers and lobotomized most of them, using the survivors' abilities for data collection, and that Sid must hide her remaining power at all costs. Agron describes Sid as someone who has chosen to abstain from using her ability, attempting to live a normal life in recovery, with only her sister Laura and best friend Kent as real allies. The interview turns to Sid's love interest Andy, with Agron describing the relationship as one that brings out an adolescent, stumbling version of Sid who is overwhelmed by genuine feeling. Gardner asks why the story matters now, and Agron points to themes of surveillance, big data, and the alienation of modern life, especially after periods of collective isolation. On performing for audio, Agron says this was her first audio drama and that she found body movement in the booth unexpectedly useful for conveying emotional truth through voice. She reveals that as a teenager she was bullied for her low voice, spending a decade speaking in an unnatural register before reclaiming her own. The premiere episode itself opens with Sid under arrest in a flash-forward, narrating that she has lost her mind and everything she had before falling in love. Three weeks earlier, Sid attends a support group silently, unable to share because her secret is too dangerous. She goes on a mediocre date using her ability to read the man's data trail before they even meet, finding him dull once he stops lying. Her detective sister Laura calls asking for help identifying a murderer through a police lineup read, which Sid initially refuses as a relapse risk. Laura reveals the murder is unusual: untraceable plates, no fingerprints, a removed eye taken to prevent biometric identification. Sid reluctantly performs the read at the station and hears only mundane thoughts, confirming none of the lineup suspects are the murderer. That evening at the bar where she works, she encounters a harassing regular and a woman named Andy who calls him out, leading to a first meeting that Sid internally marks as different and significant.

As heard by us

A future-set sci-fi story that works best once the character drama starts to take over.

Narcissa keeps its future setting in the background and lets the mind-reader premise do the work. Set in Los Angeles in 2036, it treats AI as part of the air around the story rather than the point of it.

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Why you'd press play

You want a sci-fi preview that feels like a scene, not a pitch.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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