What’s it called?
Blackout
What’s it about?
That would be telling, though the premise of this gripping drama is easy enough to lay out: the setting is Berlin (no, not that one, the tiny one in northern New Hampshire, up where it borders Quebec) and on the day the action starts a military fighter crashes, a DJ on a local rock radio station is attacked by a mysterious black-clad man who’s shooting at a communication tower, and the power goes out. Like, everywhere. Like, just as the president is about to make a Very Important Announcement from the Oval Office. Yikes! Into the resulting mystery are thrown our (now slightly wounded) radio DJ, Simon Itani, and his family.
Who’s in it?
Itani is played by Rami Malek – yes, that Rami Malek – who signed on for the role just before he won an Oscar for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
What’s so good about it?
It’s just a wonderful What If? scenario, to which you can add excellent sound design, skilful pacing, a genuinely creepy mystery and a pleasing dose of satire: social media and our reliance on it are given a serious kicking. This is essentially a radio play in which old-fashioned radio is the star.
Fun fact …
In one scene a newsreader can be heard in the background talking about a fatality linked to a new social media fad: the maple syrup bath challenge. It isn’t real, though by the time you read this, it might be …
For fans of ...
Orson Welles’s War Of The Worlds; Led Zeppelin II; anything with the word “post-apocalyptic” stickered to the front.
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