“In Media Res” by the Good Story Guild is a story where you think you know the ending. Everything up until that last episode is more or less what you expect. Told in five acts — with some complimentary material in the form of original music (Plus a coda at the end) — for a total of 10 episodes), “In Media Res” is a tale of friendship, connections and the differences between the two in Hollywood.

Hollywood: Real Characters in Superficial Roles

As much as the story is about the influence of Hollywood, the writers of this audio drama treat it more like an indie screenplay with big ideas than a highly rated blockbuster with little in the way of innovation. It tries to be both a romance novel in the sense that the reader gets what the reader expects, but also a cross-country journey where the destination is more important than the journey. While this choice is thematically appropriate in this case, the plot can feel a bit directionless. Looking at the credits of each episode, the five main acts have a different writer for each one, and no one appears more than once in terms of writer credits.

All the characters have their own motivations, but the listener’s primary focus is one, maybe two of them. One is an unknown actor named Alex Eli who’s given the opportunity of a lifetime. He is chosen to play a star in the fictional Jack Stellar franchise as its lead, basically a James Bond clone. The other is his friend and adopted brother, Coen the indie film director with your typical hipster personality. Other roles include a producer, assistant and the former actor who played Jack Stellar. Out of those three, the assistant is the most empathetic, though the others set the bar low for likability.

Five writers, One Plot

The plot is simple enough to follow, but the writers seem to latch on to writing a character while neglecting the others. Ultimately, this gives the characters an inconsistency between episodes that you can feel even without looking or listening to the credits.

At first, this audio drama sets up a story about a friendship drifting apart due to the overreach of the movie industry. The entire middle is about the ins and outs of Hollywood using both real and made-up parts of the movie-making business. This decision to namedrop Warner Bros and other A-List actors works on a meta-contextual level, but does little in immersing the listener in this world. I won’t what happens to Xander “Alex” Eli and Coen at the end, but it feels more like a book end tacked on than a progression of the story.

The Good, The Great and the Greatest of Hollywood

Despite what the above words may imply, I enjoyed this story a lot. I just wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t address the issues I found. The last thing I’ll say about the story is that the pacing is a bit too slow at times. Though that could be the writers not having enough interest in certain characters that the listener can feel the effect. At least that’s my take.

Rating: Low Ground Breaking (8.5+/10 Stars)