‘Mystery Show’ solves your podcast thirst
By Liz Reichart // A&E Editor
The solving of mysteries in the 21st century are left to cops, the CIA and if you’re anything like me, Benedict Cumberbatch on BBC’s “Sherlock Holmes.” There seems to be so many tools of modern technology at mankind’s disposal, from DNA testing to advancing autopsies, that surely there can be only a few, if any, unsolvable mysteries left. Every crime has a criminal, and every strange event, a logical causation.
Starlee Kine is not a detective. She’s not a member of the CIA or starring on some British remake unraveling misdeeds. Rather, she’s commonplace in every definition of the word, excepting her one insatiable craving: cracking the impossible.
She hosts the Gimlet Media podcast “Mystery Show,” in which she solves mysteries presented to her by either her friends or Twitter followers. The only stipulation: these mysteries can’t be solvable by a simple internet sweep. Kine has no formal training as a detective, but more than makes up for it in wits and smarts, constantly picking at the stray threads of the case until one pulls loose. On her quirkily self-narrated episodes, she reunites lost objects to their owners, finds out the meaning behind strange artwork, and, in a strange but delightful turn of events, gets to meet Britney Spears. The mysteries Kine solves are everyday mysteries- not life and death circumstances, but seemingly more urgent and thrilling in the way they persist, like an itch you can’t scratch.
“Mystery Show” has only completed one season of six episodes, but undoubtedly these six are rich in content and character. The show itself plays like the audio on a Wes Anderson film- idiosyncratic background audio to the brim of your taste for that which peculiar. The show’s ambiance becomes a place where Starlee’s quirky fantasy world meets a very unsolvable reality, and it is simply enchanting. The setup is cinematic in a way that is ideal for podcast newbies; Starlee leads you by the hand, step by step, with a nasally voice that frankly sounds like it comes from a child, but that too adds to the charm of it all. Just as in solving any mystery, there are bountiful false starts, dead ends and people who just don’t pick up their phone or answer their mail. Needless to say, Starlee Kine drives the show, in part due to her chops from being a frequent “This American Life” contributor, a widely-acclaimed podcast from NPR.
“Mystery Show” isn’t for mystery lovers, as odd as that sounds; the narration is about more than solving that which isn’t right in the world, a noble subject indeed. The stories Kine tells along the way to her discovery are both human and hilarious. Kine herself is an absolute riot and will often have you doubled over laughing in her encounters. But at the flip of a finger across your portable listening device, she’ll have you close to heartbreak when she takes a deep dive into a Ticketmaster customer service representative’s commitment issues. The code this host is deciphering is not the task at hand perhaps, not the one she set out to solve— but Kine is solving the mystery of the human condition.
Entangled in the oddest circumstances, Starlee Kine weasels her way in and there finds joy, delight and closure to tiny but very real mysteries. The case of the missing belt buckle, the case of the video store that suddenly disappeared, the case of how tall Jake Gyllenhall really is versus what he claims to be: these cases are delightful in their execution. But despite the eclecticism of her tales, you’ll walk away remembering the very genuine stories of the individuals Kine meets along the way. The theme that “everybody has a story” is earnest in its conception and brilliant in its execution, and for that, “Mystery Show” is a can’t miss.