PODCAST REVIEW: CASE 63

4/5

The Time Traveller's Psychiatrist.

10 Episodes. Starring: Julianne Moore & Oscar Isaac. Created By: Julio Rojas.

Case in pod, great drama can be made in any arena. From Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, to big screens across the world's stage. But players, we all know dramatic theatrics can play out in just one room, across a table. On your phone and even in your headphones.

Podcasts have been replacing television and even YouTube as people's source of coverage across all entertainment platforms. From music to sports and so much more. Just like streaming provider Spotify has made purchasing CD's a thing of the past as the nostalgia of vinyl has had its retro revenge. It was only a matter of time before drama majorly played its way out over the podcast. I mean, we have had radio shows doing this for drive time decades. Many can recall the infamous story of the first radio broadcast of H.G Wells' classic 'The War Of The World's' in the 30s gaining infamy for having people in a panic, believing aliens were actually invading.

Now in the same year the comic-book caped crusader gets in on the act (with 'Batman Unburied' starring no other but 'Black Panther' star Winston Duke), another dark knight has its day with a science-fiction mystery miniseries that is close to the Spector spectre of Marvel's 'Moon Knight' show from earlier this year (there's even a character named Knight). Yep, that's the voice of Emmy nominated actor Oscar Isaac as the patient in question. 'Case 63' adapted to the English language from creator Julio Rojas' 'Caso 63'. This patients doctor? No other but 'Still Alice' Oscar winner Julianne Moore.

Gimlet productions offer us something we've never heard before, even if you aren't lost in translation with this original audio from Spotify, available free for all subscribers. Moore plays a psychiatrist who takes more than a few notes from her latest patient. An inspired Isaac who matches her mesmerizing performance in a new 10 part drama of episodes varying in length between 10 and 15 minutes that will accompany you on the train to and from work in perfect synchronicity as the story unfolds. That is, if you haven't resisted the temptation to binge this like the new series of the royal affairs of 'The Crown' on Netflix this week.

Oscar, looking for a podcast award (and this is worthy of a category) claims he is a time traveller from the year 2062. He is here to warn Moore (if only she could believe him) about the end of the world. That all sounds like pretty standard fare that wouldn't sell it to you (especially because it isn't visual), if it wasn't for the Academy of talent acting in this live, but with no action story adaptation. Leading woman and man with palpable chemistry in these chemical brain wave stems and stakes. And trust me, it's much more nuanced and gripping than all that in its thrilling twists and turns that will have you guessing and asking for more in the end. Especially when the critical conclusion delivers on all the promise percolate throughout its run, albeit with a little bit of a damaged package.

Coronavirus, cancel culture and so much of the modern world's woes are also brought to the fore, constructively and creatively in a convincing, real world way. How can this not be prophecy to our future if we don't heed its many warning sings like the work of Wells and these Orwellian dystopias that have made movies bust blocks for years. Yet, this is one of the most original tales and ways of telling it in years. Recorded in therapy sessions with a jarring beep of the recorder for epic, dramatic effect. This adaptation belongs on the big-screen. Even if some of the after-effects would be lost on the mind's eye of what we don't see. The real horrors that lie in the hearts in our mouths and under our beds. But even so, this is Hollywood, after all. And I know two actors who would be perfect for the part. Repeating on themselves in this move multi-verse. Get on the case. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Listening: 'Batman Unburied', 'Homecoming', 'Moon Knight' (you can watch that too).