Episodes 2 and 3 were not the best, but the last two episodes more than makeup for it. Generally, the second act of a story is the boring bit, because you’re in between an awesome beginning and the climax. You still have to get from point A to point C, but point B is where things can get tricky.

Episode 4 really brought the story back to its roots. The lives of the mafia. The meeting between Frank, Carmine, Mickey and Steve is one of great suspense and conflict because based on what you know about Frank and Mickey, you’re expecting one thing to happen. But what you get is both satisfying and inevitable.

Another plus of this episode was the “double doors” scam, implemented by Carmine and Joey. It may not be an actual mob practice, but it sure is simple and ingenious. The scene where Joey tells Carmine how to act is clever and a nice wink at the audience.

Since audio drama can be considered a “blind” medium, lines of dialogue that explain exactly what’s going on are difficult to pull off. The reason being is that when dialogue is badly written, it will often come in the form of “I found a…” The characters can see the object or whatever it is they see because they are part of the story. The audience, obviously, can’t and will sometimes groan when they hear dialogue like that.

Anyway, this is the second-best episode of Season 1.