The 12-episode first season of “Desert Skies” starts out with a weak first episode (at least when viewed as a pilot), but picks up speed not with pacing, but with characterization. By episode three, you understand the premise and the characters of Tendy and Mac, but not the world which drips down to the audience as the season progresses. It’s Loki season one, but with the afterlife instead of multiverses and time travel.

Desert Skies and Loki Pilots: An Indie Audio Drama Formula

Being a listener of a lot of audio drama over the years, I began noticing a formula a few popular shows use to great effect. That being character humor and an easy to understand world or premise at the start. Such shows include “Wolf 359,” “Bright Sessions,” and now “Desert Skies.” In some ways the three attributes are like faders on a mixing board. Shows like “Wolf 359” use character humor more than a show like “The Bright Sessions,” whose first season’s premise is simpler than “Wolf 359”. At least when looking at the first seasons of both shows. “Desert Skies” has an even split right down the middle. Though it did take a few episodes to get to that point.

The characters of Tendy and Mac (the attendant and the mechanic, respectively), while they act differently in the first episode than later ones, you’re never questioning why a character makes decisions. By the halfway point, Mac isn’t at the level of being a caricature of blue collar workers anymore than the attendant (Tendy) is the skinny and smart scientist. Think the animated “Death Battle” hosts on YouTube, but with more nuance.

Premise and Worldbuilding in Desert Skies vs Loki

The premise of “Desert Skies” is easy enough to follow, and ties itself tight with the world and characters. It’s made difficult, however, through its first couple of episodes. Aside from an introduction to this new world in the same vein as “Loki” season one, there isn’t much outside of some unique world building elements like a gas station as a type of limbo between realms. It’s silly, but it screams audio drama. Both “Loki” and “Desert Skies contain corporate instructional content in the form of Ms. Minutes in “Loki” and an in-person meeting with a gas station attendant and mechanic as they both get the recently deceased person off to the next life. While both involve characters as mouth pieces for exposition, “Desert Skies” quickly outgrows the storytelling crutch.

The basic idea of “Desert Skies” is that Tendy and Mac run a gas station located between the afterlife and the living world. They get the recently deceased ready for the journey into the great beyond. Before the midpoint, the episode structure is more or less the same. What makes it differ from a monster of the week is that it affects the story going forward. The character from Chapter 5 is never heard again after the episode ends, except maybe during the final three episodes. He sounded like another character and considering one man voices everyone, having only one instance of confusion regarding voices is nothing short of impressive.

Pitch Shifted Emotion and One VA, Multiple Characters

There’s an episode towards the end of the season that got to my lip quivering. Never would I have thought a male voice actor pitching their character’s voice up to make them sound more feminine would have that kind of effect. The song the character sings has no right being that emotional. We met her in one episode. Jared Carter played her and her sibling with Minnesotan accents that was more comedic than serious.

That’s probably the biggest praise I can give this show. The sheer logistics of creating a show with only yourself in every single role is a daunting task. Some might see it as easier than casting each role to a different person. There’s the appearance of less potential for missed deadlines and re-recorded lines. As someone who’s done this with machinima projects back in the day, I can say doing anything that usually has multiple people working on it is not easy as it looks. There’s a lot of trial and error.

8.5+/10 Stars