Review: “Give Me Away” with Gideon Media
“Give Me Away” is a new audio play series written by Mac Rogers that follows Graham Sean Williams), a man who is struggling within his marriage and in his relationship with his kids, and so when an alien spaceship housing thousands of aliens in digital prison land on Earth, he jumps at the chance to rescue one of them and allow them to live within his mind and body with him. What follows is a story about relationships, loneliness, sacrifice, and why we do the good deeds we do.
The story is incredibly compelling and somehow doesn’t venture too far off from feeling like it could be a reality in five or ten years. The way the world is set up isn’t one that is consumed by the science fiction of it all. It’s not emphasizing the alien or the strange. It exists in a world very close, if not almost exactly, like our own. The alien spaceship is discussed and is a central part of the plot but it’s not the focus. The focus is on the human(and I guess also alien) rights complexities around allowing one of the alien prisoners to share your consciousness. All of the characters are going through things that we can identify with: divorce, gender identity, relationships with parents, loneliness and are experiencing them in a way that we experience them. All of this makes the actual science fiction feel much more real and much more interesting.
The questions asked about what we would do if we had to share our consciousness with aliens, or rather, would we give up a part of ourselves to save something, not from this planet from suffering, are compelling don’t provide easy answers. We can barely figure things out on one planet and now these characters are being asked to consider another. How do people react? How should they? Should aliens get the same rights as humans on Earth? We’ve never had to think about that, as giving the people of earth the rights they deserve has been something we are still arguing over. You leave “Give Me Away” with many questions and none of them have easy answers.
While all of the science fiction and moral dilemmas of hosting another alien with your own body are interesting here “Give Me Away” truly shines is in Graham’s relationships with both his family and himself. The various conversations with different members of his family regarding whether or not he should go through with this are very well done. Particularly the conversations with him and his ex-wife, Morgan (Hanna Cheek). It’s clear that the relationship between the two of them is complex and vast and both Williams and Cheek play the conversations so honestly. Their conversation towards the end of the first four episodes was one of the best parts of the series so far. In regards to himself, it’s currently unclear if he is fully ready for this massive commitment or if he just thinks he is. And judging by the end of episode four I think we are about to find out what this sharing process really means and I can’t wait.
My only real problem with the show is that at times it was hard to know who was talking. A few of the actors had very similar sounding voices and the moments where Graham was talking to his ex-wife it sounded an awful lot like when he talks to the Ghost House tour guide. Graham and Travis also sounded similar at times. There’s not that much that can be done about this but it was one of the things that pulled me out a few times. Some of the transitions from moment to moment were a little hard to follow as well. After a few episodes, I started to get the hang of how things were structured but some of the scene transitions that bounced from the past to the present were confusing at first. Though, this didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment it was something that I noticed from time to time.
“Give Me Away” is an incredibly interesting and well-done series that asks a lot of big questions and answers very few. With great performances and great writing, I’m looking forward to future episodes.
~~
“Give Me Away” was presented by Gideon Media and written by Mac Rogers.
It was directed by Jordana Williams
Sound designed by Bart Fasbender
Music composed by Adam Blau,
Assistant directed by Marty McGuire
Produced by Cara Ehlenfeldt.
Cover art by Kate Kosma
Featuring: Hanna Cheek, Sean Williams, Diana Oh, Dani Martineck, Jorge Cordova, Kevin R. Free, Nat Cassidy, Rebecca Comtois, Alba Ponce De Leon, Lori Elizabeth Parquet, Stephanie Willing, Ato Essandoh, Hennessy Winkler, Brian Silliman, Christopher Wilson, Neimah Djourabachi, Matthew Trumbull, and Maya Armstrong.