The final episode of “Supreme: The Battle for Roe” dropped its final episode this past Wednesday. Here are my thoughts on this historical drama with modern day socio-political rhetoric surrounding abortion. If this is your first time here, check out my first post on the show here to learn more about the audio drama inspired by the real life events of Roe v Wade.

As I said in that article, I see one of two scenarios playing out at the end. Those are:

1. The straight white male saves the day for women.
2. An unseen happy ending from out of nowhere.

Two Problems, One Show

The first should be self-explanatory. Throughout the first six episodes, the worry that Harry Blackmun would act as a white savior and downplay Sarah Weddington (voiced by Ethan Hawke’s daughter, Maya) role in the story. When the episodes dealing primarily with Blackmun (William H. Macy) began a few episodes before the final one, that worry became more troubling from a narrative perspective. Historically, it makes sense to go the route they did. There’s not a lot of room for deviation in a story everyone knows the ending to already.

Most Americans know the ruling that legalized abortion if only for the recent overturn in 2022 by Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health. What seemed an impossibility became a horrifying reality for women across the country. Rewind the clocks back to 1971 and the same thing applied then, just reversed. Two years passed since Weddington first argued and the opinion of the court decided the almost 50 years of the constitutional right to have an abortion. In the audio drama, the arguments for and against Roe takes less time than the decision. Afterward the story becomes Blackmun’s for the remainder save for a couple brief appearances by Hawke to see what she’s been doing since her argument.

Audio Drama and Investment: Roe Money, Less Problems

As hinted at above and in my original article, the legal court room side of the battle goes by too quickly and comes in moments when things can’t get any worse for Weddington. Most every time before getting good news about the case, Weddington is an anxious mess thinking the worst possible thing has happened or will happen. Those moments of good catastrophe—while perhaps done too many times—work to uplift an already dour story of the things women went through regarding abortions.

No where is this more apparent than in episode five, where we hear the side of the person most impacted by whether abortion is constitutionally protected. It’s scary that, for many people in states that outlaw abortion, the same problems are popping up once again. They’re just in a different context.

In terms of focus, the final three episodes are all over the place. Even when the story shifts to Blackmun’s point of view. This makes the finale lose some of the impact that the decision must’ve had for women around the country. It feels almost tagged on because if it wasn’t, the story would be incomplete. The anti-climactic moment could be a case of expectations being greater than the reality, but with a dramatization of a landmark case like this, that seems kind of ironic.

Ad Breaks and Tension Lost

The ad placements come at moments of closure. A scene ends and then 2-3 ads play before a new scene begins. Reading it, that doesn’t seem so bad. Listening however, is like watching a movie free with ads on Amazon or YouTube. All the tension is lost as soon as the ad hits. If the scenes before the ad break were cliffhangers, that would be different. As it stands, the placement of ads is the worst of both worlds.

This audio drama dramatization of the Roe v Wade case perhaps bites off more than it can chew. The story is there, but its construction and structure make the overall drama forgettable in some ways. Even bingeing the series on your podcast platform of choice wouldn’t help with the issue of the dreaded ad break. It’s not lost tension it’s lost interest by the time you get back.

Historical Audio Dramas and Impact of Roe

Despite the less than ideal attributes hindering it, I still would put this up there with shows like “1865” and “Harlem Queen.” All three podcasts take a period of history often overlooked or skipped over in history classrooms. People know John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in 1865, but what happened after is also important. K-12 social studies classes tend to skip right to Andrew Johnson and his impeachment. “Harlem Queen” does the same thing with 1920s Jazz Age by putting the spotlight on a lesser known figure in that period of United States history.

“Supreme: The Battle for Roe” tackles both the personable qualities of Harlem Queen and the historical event of “1865: and combines the two for a story of grand scope, but lackluster way in some regards—tragic and heartbreaking in others. Most of my complaints have more to do with the balance of legal drama vs period drama about real people. Still a definite listen for those wanting to know more.

8/10 Stars