Z-Machine Matter

The BBC has followed up their brilliant adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Case of Charles Dexter Ward with a new podcast The Whisperer in Darkness. They've combined a somewhat obscure novella, brought it to modern day and mashed it up with a 1980 UFO sighting in rural England. The story works very well, though I don't think it quite reaches the same heights as their first podcast, leaving quite a few unanswered questions.

The story brings forward the two main characters Kennedy Fisher and Matthew Heawood, investigators from a fictional true crime podcast called Mystery Machine, as well as a couple of threads from the first series. There's a good chemistry between the lead characters and that makes for a marked improvement over the typical Lovecraft loner.  There's also a few well executed surprises that will have you jumping out of your ear-buds. That said, I didn't understand the purpose of bonus episode 9 at all.  (Spoiler alert: it's a noise loop with a disguised message.) All of that is explained in bonus episode 10.

Nonetheless, the podcast is well worth listening to and I hope they will continue with a third series that brings the story to Innsmouth and ties everything together.  This is great show for anyone interested in paranormal investigation. Kudos to the production team and writers for bringing Lovecraft forward in a compelling modern tale.

• BBC: The Whisperer in Darkness, News
• The Guardian: The Whisperer in Darkness
• Wikipedia: The Whisperer in Darkness, Rendlesham UFO sighting
• Z-Machine Matter: Case of Charles Dexter Ward