Hell Gate City: A Post-Apocalypse Broadcast Audio Drama Review

The story of “Hell Gate City” is a mystery plot, but at least half episodes belong to an improv or variety show. The episodes dealing with the mystery, aside from the two-part season finale, on first listen were hard to distinguish from the radio variety show format.

Hell Gate City: Puns Galore in a Variety Show

Episode one of “Hell Gate City” is where the radio station aesthetic kicks in. If you aren’t listening carefully, it can take at least two playthroughs to grasp the humor. Each comedic bit is bouncing off the walls with puns and radio station jokes that often hit, but are so fast that there’s not enough time to appreciate them. The radio spots for fictional companies like Trappy’s hot sauce whose jingles stay the same, but the words leading up to “the favorite of your pappy’s and your great grandpappy’s. Trappy’s hot sauce” change in increasingly ridiculous scenarios. It’s definitely a great bit.

The rest of the radio spots the second time through were like eating a Hershey’s semi-sweet kiss. You can taste the difference between it and a regular chocolate morsel, but most of the nutritional value is gone.

Six Episodes of Plot, Two of Substance in Hell Gate City

It’s not until episode six that the second out of the six total episodes, dedicated to the main story, that the mystery begins to unravel. Once I finished the season finale, going back was a much better experience. It wasn’t without its faults, however.

Even focusing solely on the plot episodes and skipping/not listening as carefully to the radio ones proved harder than expected. The series almost requires the listener to stop and take breaks before starting or resuming the plot. With two episodes in between the middle of the plot episodes, you either forget the previous plot episode or are so engrossed with the variety format that the story portion feels like an afterthought. This is in spite of the fact that there are more episodes dedicated to it. For reference, the plot episodes are 0, 6, 8, 9, and 10. It’s like catching up with a story, getting your bearings only to start an entirely new story thread for a whole chapter. Whatever momentum was built is gone when you return.

“Hell Gate City” wants to have both a variety-style radio show and a dystopian plot with a character whose only saving grace is that he’s sometimes funny. Yes, his tragic backstory involving his dad is interesting, but it comes too little too late. To say the show has a bit of an identity crisis is putting it mildly. It wants to do it all and by doing so weakens the sum of its parts. On their own, the story elements of Hell Gate City are all there. They’re just combined in a way to detracted from my overall enjoyment of the series.

7.5/10- Stars