Ghostwriter

This is a bit of a change for me. Normally I want non-fiction whilst I'm working but today, with all my podcast subscriptions listened too, I decided to try something different. "Ghostwriter" is a feature length radio play style podcast, telling a complete story. It wasn't anything ground-breaking, indeed Radio plays go back for decades, and the story of this one isn't particularly original, but it was nicely performed and fun whilst it lasted.

Kate (Kate Mara) is a former journalist whose mental health has deteriorated over the months, since the death of her mother. She is a shut in, never leaving her apartment and maintaining all her relationships over the phone or video chat. Her agent secures her a job as a ghostwriter for a novel that a billionaire businessman (Adam Scott) wants to produce, regarding an incident in the neighbourhood he grew up in. Kate's gift was getting subjects to open up and their discussions reveal some details about James' childhood, which Kate works into the book. Then a real-life murder in Kate's neighbourhood rings dangerously close to specifics in the early draft of the novel. Is Kate making connections that aren't there or is there more to James' story than he's been willing to tell.

I mean, essentially, all the release has going for it is its story. The performances are good, Kate Mara carries most of the story and is natural and charming. Scott doesn't tip his hand too much in either direction and the pair do appear to have chemistry. The sound design is quite good, and I understood what was happening all the time. The story though is . . . Fine if a little cliché. I guessed most of its reveals prior to them being confirmed, I don't think this is because I'm really good at guessing plot, but more that it's much harder to hide foreshadowing details in an audio play, as you literally have to mention them for it to work.

I'll hunt out more fiction podcasts to pass the time, I think, but I doubt this one will live long in the memory.

This was a new experience for me and I really enjoyed it. I chucked it on during a hill-hike and it killed 80 minutes for me in no time. The voice work was the best thing it had going for it. Kate Mara has a particularly soothing voice (I don't think I had noticed this before) and Adam Scott contrastly has quite an interesting voice with a lot of mystery and depth behind it. It was a pleasure to listen to.

The story is good. It's reasonably basic as you would expect. Easy to follow, yet it has enough complexity and mystery to remain interesting. I think I would've liked the ending to go a little differently but other than that it was hard to fault.

I hope this does well because I would like to see more of them. They should be easy to make and not take up much time in actor's schedules. Fingers crossed. 8/10.