Alternative title: "This is why we choose the bear".
Hallie (or "Monarch" to use her trail name) is solo hiking the Continental Divide Trail, a rather long distance effectively across most of the USA, and recording both her thoughts, as well as the spooky stories of those she meets.
This might be a reasonable setup for a classic of the podcast form - anthology/story of the week, with a slightly meta framing plot of her walking the trail. But instead the hike is more important, as it's both a literal and metaphorical journey through her issues. Though she's hiking, she's also running rather quickly away from a past that she doesn't really want to remember, but that slowly comes out in drips.
She's not necessarily an entirely reliable narrator, as the conversations with both people on the trail and her own family demonstrates, though the elements of recordings slowly reveal just where lines between fantasy and reality might lie.
But what I mostly got out of this is two feelings. The first is "bleeeeak". Walking, alone, for a distance, can be fun. You could, oh I don't know, maybe listen to a podcast. Hell, walk long enough, you can listen to two podcasts. What a delight that would be.
But walking alone, for about 3,000 miles? That is not something you do "for a bit of fun". This is a pilgrimage, and it feels miserable at points. That's the aim, and the story delivers it well. Smashed through this in one go, without interrupting listening to go on to something else. Like a long hike you just need to survive, I wanted to get to the end of this. See where it ended up. Not quite where I expected.
The other feeling was that uncertainty that kicks in every time a woman is at risk from a man. Solo hiking as a woman means sometimes a bloke either turns up behind you, might offer you a bed, or stalks you for a distressing distance. Having that just once would feel like it was hitting a trope. Having it multiple times feels both depressingly more realistic, but also compounds the impact of the scenario. There's a very strong tension that builds up each time, because of course this is a risk.
The one serious downside to the show is the frequent problem you see with indies, especially using an audio log or found footage framing device. About midway through the season, evidently a bit of money came to the show from a sponsor, and suddenly at the start of the episodes, you get a theoretically in-universe description of the hiking shorts Monarch is wearing, as well as an affiliate code. But it's obviously stuffed with the standard corporate speech these things always have. It's just an annoying blemish on the tone of the show in general.
That aside though, this would be an excellent one to listen to on a long hike.
Tagged: Audio fiction Drama Cast Dramatised Thriller Serial