A devised podcast thriller just in time for Halloween, SUPERHOST unfolds as a series of voicemails left for Adrian, the owner of an AirBnB in rural Maine where mysterious things keep happening.
“The devised voicemail monologues allude to people who need an escape from quarantine—hungry for nature, a change of scene, or a friendly ear. And the guests’ attempts to remedy their creepy Airbnb experience may hit a note familiar to anyone who’s riding out our political and public health crises.
At what point is something merely irritating or unnerving, versus just plain dangerous? What is a fair and realistic expectation, and what do we do when we suspect or know someone isn’t meeting it? Life in a pandemic asks us to decide this a hundred times a day, and listening to the characters on this recording touches the same nerve.
“I’ll be faced with no choice but to report this to Airbnb and seek some kind of reimbursement,” one traveler huffs. That angry, impotent feeling is a familiar one. Who do you call when things go improbably wrong? What can you do if they don’t answer? Who else is listening?“ - Alaina Johns, The Broad St. Review