This seems like it's not entirely sure what it is. Mostly, it's a very short podcast (only four episodes) about a cataclysmic change in society, but it's also a delivery mechanism for a puzzle. Unfortunately, this mostly makes both elements a bit annoying, rather than greater than the sum of its parts. (At least to me.)
Morsectomy follows Eli, an investigative journalist who is trying to work out why a couple of soldiers have received very short sentences, completely out of step with their crimes. This involves chatting to the judge, trying to hunt down the soldiers themselves, and getting threatened by both his boss, and the spooky voice that interrupts his calls and his more general life.
That interruption, and the threatening nature of the forces acting against him, are the strongest features of this. They make the best use of the audio form, being both naturalistic but creepy, with instructions and warnings coming with a real feeling of massed institutional power. The main threat, "Natalie", feels a little young for the power they are meant to represent, but does a good job with the rather tight writing regardless.
These are "balanced" by occasional sections with heavily voices musing on a couple of philosophical points. While they might be interesting, especially on a re-listen, which recontextualises them, the effects make them a very difficult listen. I had to keep going back to listen repeatedly, and I'm still not really sure what this said.
It's difficult to share too much of the plot without spoiling, given the shortness, so I'll focus now on the other major element of the show. Which is that of the four episodes, only three are available on the RSS feed. The fourth is an unlisted YouTube video, which requires solving a number of puzzles to solve.
Now I will admit, I cheated entirely here. The Ep3 show notes contain a link to a Google doc with some very helpful hints, and eventually the answer. But having looked at that, I think I might have needed three apps to solve them, and that's not something I was prepared to dig through on a phone.
This is the difficulty with podcasts with puzzles, with an audience who are primarily listening on mobile. You need to convince people to bounce out of the show, to other places, and maybe a desktop, which is difficult if they're just hoping to listen on a phone.
It's an unfortunate friction, and I don't know what the best solution is. Preferentially, I think you would want something that can be done in a related browser without separate tools, but that would be a different puzzle. I don't know. Either way though, having cheated, it was a satisfying last episode. Pleasing end. It's just a shame this is a bit uneven.
Tagged: Audio fiction Drama Cast Dramatised Puzzle Serial