11-year-old Jesse Morgan and his friends were playing a harmless game of hide and seek at Bear Brook State Park in their trailer park community of Allenstown, New Hampshire. Jesse was “it”, and in the midst of searching for his friends, Keith, one of the friends, gave himself away when he discovered a barrel and called out. Trying to pry open the barrel, they presumed it to have contained rotting milk, thus leaving the area, unknown to them that inside the barrel was actually the remains of a woman and a little girl. Months later, the barrel was discovered once again, sparking an investigation. The murderer – unknown. The motive – unknown. The murderer’s whereabouts – unknown. The victims’ identities – unknown. Important clues went without answers; thus, the case went cold.
For a dark and grim story such as this, one would expect the narrator, Jason Moon, to introduce it in a grim tone as well. However, this was not the case, and instead, he introduces it in a light-hearted way, such as playing the song “Don’t You” by Simple Minds from the Breakfast Club in the background. He also brings us into a flashback to 1985 about a group of young boys playing hide and seek, giving the listeners a sense of nostalgia and sets the scene similar to an 80’s movie. Once the barrel had been found, the narrative takes a sharp twist with the music stopping, clearly trying to tell the listener that this is the point where it is no longer similar to an 80’s movie.
Moon provides us interviews with several citizens of Allenstown during the time that this story got out there. It is clearly obvious that one of the interviewees would be Jesse Morgan; he gives his testimony of that day when he and his friends came across the barrel. Morgan’s parents were also interviewed, in which they describe the kind of life the citizens of Allenstown led. We learn that the community is close with one another and “people helped each other out” often. Ron Montplaisir, the officer who found the barrel after the boys, was also one of the interviewees. With his interview, we learn that in Allenstown, there is only one cop for every 20 square miles, and Bear Brook State Park is probably the least patrolled area. This gives us a feel that perhaps Allenstown was not as safe as it seemed, even though the community was so close to each other. Oftentimes between the interviews, Moon provides the listener background information on who the interviewee is and tries to help the listener connect the dots based off of their statements. An interesting statement in this story was “in order to know who the victim knew, we have to know who the victim is”. This statement seems to be explaining the main idea of the first episode – it is to introduce the people who might have been associated with the victims or murderer, and letting the listeners learn about who they are. At the end of the episode, it is announced to us that a second barrel has been found. This keeps the listener interested to continue listening for the next episode. The pacing of the podcast is very easy to follow, and Moon’s narrations paired up with the interviews provide insight that will help the listeners try to put the clues together on their own along with Moon as he goes.
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Great blog post and review of Skeletons in the Close Stephanie! It’s a very well-structured podcast around music, narration and interview alteration, and hooks that you evaluated with expertise. Your post makes for an enticing read!
The pattern that you described that was used by our narrator Moon and various interview audio clips switching in and out was something I found intriguing. In my podcast review Serial S2E1: DUSTWUN I found the same pattern more or less, where my narrator, Sarah Koenig, would intervene in her comments and explanations between various interviews and phone calls that did most of the storytelling. I think this narrative choice gave our podcasts the advantage of keeping listeners of both podcasts up to date and compelled to continue listening.
Music was another key analysis of your blog post and it’s well-founded. The shift of music from cheery to suddenly cut off you described created suspense for the listener similar to the music used in breaks of Koenig’s narration in DUSTWUN. Though used in different ways by the two podcasts, it created the same effect of bringing tension to the ideal parts of the story and effectively engaging the listeners.
Amidst all the interviews, storytelling, and Moon-provided background information the Skeletons in the Close podcast set up a picture-perfect hook to conclude its first episode. The episode, before this, had been founded on the discovery of a barrel containing the remains of a mother and child which left a huge mystery on who, why, and how it happened for police and townspeople. The conclusion drops the bomb on us that second barrel and has been found but details surrounding it won’t be unveiled till episode two. This same narrative feature was used in DUSTWUN and left listeners hanging off a metaphorical cliff and wanting to hear more. The narrative choice was elected because it sparked curiosity in listeners and gave our podcasts the advantage of an engaged audience ready to hear more.
Great analysis of Skeletons in the Close Stephanie and I’m looking forward to reading more reviews!
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Hi Charles! My apologies, I forgot to put the podcast name in my title – the actual podcast title is Bear Brooks, but thank you so much for your response!