This was a poor episode, I thought, but still sort of interesting in a variety of ways. The story is painfully obvious almost from the beginning, and yet it's not until the end of Act 2 that a character finally announces what every listener in the land must have realized a half an hour before--that they're all dead, and en route to hell. Act 3, then, becomes a bunch of heavy moralizing about each person's past --complete with Casey Kasem, the voice of America's Top 40, playing not one but two roles!--until the deus ex machina ending arrives, magically offering everyone a second chance. (By the way, there was a thread a while back about religiously-themed RMTs--I don't know if this one was listed, but it certainly should have been.)

Still, I did find this interesting. Structurally it's very unusual. There are no scene breaks at all; the entire tale takes place in real time (or "hell time," maybe). But what struck me most was the fact that, if I hadn't heard differently in the opening credits, I would have sworn we were listening to the writing not of Ian Martin but of Arch Oboler, the OTR giant behind LIGHTS OUT, ARCH OBOLER'S PLAYS and many other series. In fact, in general outline it's not unlike an Oboler play called "Special to Hollywood," in which a group of people are trapped in a plane suspended in midair (Bette Davis starred in the original production). Anyway, the style here is very much like his, and he must have been in the back of Ian Martin's mind as he wrote this play.

Naturally nowadays no one can listen to a play about people trapped in an airplane without thinking of 9/11 (especially if you've just seen the movie UNITED 93), but that doesn't make this utterly inert piece any more dramatically compelling. I've long been very interested in Arch Oboler, so this show managed to hold my attention; but in terms of drama it's dull, obvious, and wa-a-a-y too long. 