Solar
The cast of 2022’s Solar is frankly astonishing. That’s even more the case when you learn it comes from a small podcast company, CurtCo. For this epic science fiction tale, the roster includes academy award winner Helen Hunt, the legendary Alan Cumming, Stephanie “Rosa” Beatriz, and newcomer Jonathan Bangs, in the four lead roles.
It’s a story—written by Chris Porter—about a manned mission to fly to the sun’s orbit, an endeavor shared between NASC (2045’s successor to NASA) and private company CimmTech, with a crew made up of members of each, complete with separate goals and many secrets.
Jumping about its timeline (with the cute excuse that the onboard ship AI, ALI, is so broken that she can no longer restore audio files in chronological order), we begin almost at the very end, after a vast solar flare has caused a terrible disaster on board the Aethon, leaving just two crew members alive—Beatriz’s Wren Guerrero (the actor fully in her deeper Rosa from Brooklyn 99 voice rather than in cheerful Mirabel from Encanto mode), and Bangs’ Jamal Davis—trapped in different sections of the ship, with very different fates awaiting them.
Their attempts to survive are interspersed with scenes set throughout the rest of the trip, from pre-launch all the way up to the disaster itself, where we encounter the conflicts on board, the peculiar actions of CimmTech’s employees, and the mysterious events that follow the launching of a number of satellites into the sun’s orbit.
Time-jumping tales can often become frustrating, more of an exercise in audience manipulation by all-knowing writers, but that absolutely doesn’t apply here. Solar has many mysteries, but they’re not the reason you’ll feel so compelled to listen to all 12 50-minute episodes—this is so much more about the characters. Wren and Jamal’s relationship is the very core, fractious and fraught as it is, but their ongoing engagement with computer ALI (Jenny Curtis) is completely gripping, for reasons I cannot even allude to.
Alan Cumming and Helen Hunt, despite being the real A-list names here, play significantly smaller roles. Not because of some cynical lack of recording time or similar—they’re ever-present in every episode—but simply because both were willing to take on those supporting parts. Cumming is the head of NASC’s team, Hunt in charge of CimmTech’s members. Hunt is also an executive producer on the show, and both shine because of how much they don’t stand out. There’s no grandstanding here, no BIG acting from the famous names, but rather each feels like a perfect character actor. And that goes for the whole cast, including Danielle Pinnock as Taaj Azi and Anne Yatco as Jessa Aquino who are both excellent as well.
The podcast sounds incredible, too. It’s a cliche to observe, but yes, the special effects are always best on the radio, and there’s no budget that could have satisfactorily built the Aethon that exists in my mind. So much of this is due to the incredible audio production and sound effects, with an outstanding team of sound designers and engineers who’ve worked on big-name TV shows and games like Starfield
This is from 2022, and while there were obviously plans to continue the story (not least that on Earth, where the solar flare is established early in the first episode to have knocked out almost all communications and power in North America), at this point we can probably give up hope. But what was created is a self-contained story that’s so enormously worth your time. And, via the magic of two of the most annoying adverts I’ve ever heard appearing in every episode, it’s all free to listen to on your favorite podcasting app.
