The premise of this seven-part audio drama may sound like the start of a bad joke, but its characters are well-rounded have enough personal drama to fill a small high school auditorium. “Moose on a Highway” is a modern road trip comedy where a grounded plane prevents seven people from reaching their destination. Each one has a different motive, but ultimately all want to get to Connecticut. So they decide to rent and share a car together. That’s basically everything you need to know in terms of the big picture plot. The characters (as one might expect) are another matter.

Premise and Characters of Moose on a Highway

Aside from the pilot and the following episode, each episode is named after an individual in the carpool on the way to Connecticut. The characters range from a Karen (coincidentally or conveniently named Karen), a pathological liar, an alcoholic Australian, and an hypersexual gay man with a french name. You can probably guess the names based on the episode titles where they’re the focus. For example, the character Pierre St. Pierre is the gay man whose double entendre radar is dialed up to a 12 out of 10. Even dialing it back to an 11 would help with the constant euphemisms surrounding sexual acts. It’s more or less Bowen Yang of “Saturday Night Live” and “White Hot Heist” from audible just to an extreme, and that’s saying something.

Surprisingly, the story didn’t start off strong for a comedy. Of course humor is subjective, but I personally didn’t laugh much in the first four episodes. It’s too on the nose. It wasn’t until the episode focusing on Alice that I started becoming more invested in the story, and the reason had little to do with the humor. Rather, Alice’s character became more interesting as one learns about her backstory. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say everything you think you know about her is more than skin deep.

Breaking a Knights Radiant’s Oath: Destination Before Journey?

Stormlight Archive humor aside, the theme of “Moose on a Highway” is don’t replace the destination with the journey. Both are equally important. You don’t really have the chance to grow as a person without the journey, but without a goal, you’ll wander longer than needed. By the end of this audio drama, you may think that the carpool journey was pointless. On one hand, you’d be right on a technical level. Stories, however, can be as technically sound and have great structure. Without emotion, though, the story becomes more a series of bullet points on a mathematical number line.

In total there are seven characters traveling by car. However, only six have an episode named and about them. The first episode is called “Pilot” and it’s basically introducing the cast, their personalities, and the issue at hand. That leaves one character in the car who is, for all intents and purposes, invisible. The character’s name is Rosie. Her mother, being a self-absorbed “Karen,” acts cartoonishly neglectful of her daughter. It’s an appropriate tone for this kind of story, full of humor of all shapes and sizes. It honestly reminds me of most “Rugrats” episodes involving the parents being ignorantly neglectful. What’s not forgettable or neglectful is the theme song by Judith Avers. The music plays at or near the beginning of each 10 to 15 minute episode. Even when you binge-listen to it, it never loses its charm.

Mooses Ex Machina

Wrapping up, “Moose on a Highway” is better on a second listen, though the first time through is good too. The ending is technically a deus ex machina. However the impact is not lessened because of it. The final moments where the strangers (now friends) drink together after reaching their destination is a wholesome, stand up and cheer moment for them and the audience.

Rating: High Internally Consistent (8.5/10 Stars)