“The Wrong Station” and the Horrors of Home
The Wrong Station is a dark fiction anthology podcast modeled after classic 1940s radio broadcasts. Using the stir of piano keys and music with soft, light audio production, The Wrong Station aims to deliver an intimate storytelling experience for listeners. I’ve written a little about The Wrong Station in the past in my roundup review series Radio at the End of the World, but I wanted to give a deeper look and dive at an audio fiction podcast that I’ve enjoyed in the past.
The Wrong Station offers listeners a chance to be a part of the story—at least for the first few seasons. In the recent fifth season, the podcast seems to have abandoned, for the most part, the incredible introductions that made the first few seasons so engrossing.
But I’ll get into that later.
Diving into The Wrong Station
Aiming to keep each episode concise, The Wrong Station brings listeners horror and dark speculative fiction stories related to current events. Since 2016, the show has delivered on most of that. Taking ten episodes from their past five seasons, I’ll examine the show, its growth, and its storytelling.
To be honest, I was surprised by what I discovered once I dove into a deep listen. Now, it’s worth noting that I chose all the episodes randomly based on the short descriptions attached.
First off, I love the audio fiction mixed with audio drama storytelling. This structure provides a genre blend setup that’s dynamic and unique. It also makes each episode feel like its own audio drama and podcast. Listeners can also choose from a swath of stories without worrying about missing out on some critical detail.
And don’t expect surface-level stories, either.
The Wrong Station predominately leans toward telling emotionally heavy horror stories that depict a wide range of monsters, tropes, and settings. One of the things I did notice is that most of the stories revolved around home, family, and abuse of some sort. During the first few seasons, the openings started as though the listener was sitting with the storyteller sharing stories. That structure adds to the themes that are so intimate and personal it brings the listener into the telling. There are even moments in some of the early seasons where the storyteller engages the listener more intensely in the story through jarring and exciting questions or statements.
Read more: 17 Horror Audio Drama Podcasts (Beyond “The Black Tapes”)
Episode reviews for The Wrong Station
“Family Photos”
So, I went back to the beginning and picked the episode “Family Photos.” As a starter, it sorted set the tone and mood for the next few episodes I listened to. There is a content warning for child abuse and the death of a parent. The lack of readily available content warnings for the episodes was a huge surprise considering a majority of The Wrong Station dealt with, depicted, or referred to some form of abuse. Most of the stories, I believe, were written by Alexander Saxton, the producer, and this episode about a family haunting was no different. After a man’s father dies, he takes his wife and daughter back to his childhood home to pack it up and sell it with his mother. While there, he asks his mom about his angry father and what caused him to be that way.
The story leads the main character to realize a darkness haunts his family, and he has just put his daughter in its sights. The story itself was amazingly creepy and terrifying, that is, without a doubt. While the story’s main themes centered on generational trauma and an abusive spirit haunting a family, the tale dug beyond that. It was also about the fear and pain that exists across time and the horrors held hidden by our families to protect us from the past’s dangers, brutalities, and atrocities.
Definitely heavy stuff and a whopper of an episode to start with. I highly recommend listening to it!
“Outward Bound”
The next first season episode I listened to was ‘Outward Bound,’ which was a different pace from ‘Family Photos.’ Looking back on a troubled time in his life, a man tells the story of going to a camp for troubled youth where he had to spend a few nights alone in the woods. A city kid with too much on his mind and a lot of anger in his heart, the silence of the woods begins to close in on him. Then he starts waking up in odd places accompanied by the feeling of not being alone and a soft child’s giggle. While not as terrifying as ‘Family Photos,’ ‘Outward Bound’ was still a very creepy story that ends on an even more bizarre note, leaving the listener haunted now as well.
‘Outward Bound’ is one of The Wrong Station’s more engaging stories, with the storyteller reaching out, in a sense, to the listener. I did start picking up on a slight tendency to lean into trauma and abuse as an element of terror and horror. But I pressed on into the second season and listened to the episode ‘Cheveux de lin’.
At this point of my review listening sessions, I had listened to a handful of stories without finishing most because I couldn’t find an episode that didn’t center on family stories of trauma or abuse. I love emotional horror and deeply thematic stories, but the use of abuse and the number of episodes that feature it is a bit overbearing to the point of being expected.
‘Cheveux de lin’ didn’t center abuse, which was nice to find, and the tension and emotion of the show weren’t hurt. A person watches as their father ages and loses his partner, who seems to be only a keystroke away. Sticking to telling deep stories of personal hauntings, The Wrong Station constantly delivers beautiful storytelling and voice acting.
One of the episodes almost brought me to tears, and like ‘Family Photos,’ I recommend it as a stellar emotional horror story that is truly scary.
“War Comes Home”
That episode is “War Comes Home” from the second season. In the episode, a wife recounts her husband’s return from the war and the strange occurrences that take place with his arrival: their dog no longer trusting him, his fear of loud sounds, and his absolute change in demeanor. Her suspicion that the man living in her home is not her husband builds until the man who came home from the war reveals what’s hidden beneath his quiet exterior. There is a content warning for PTSD depictions.
Even though, once again, The Wrong Station uses trauma and abuse as the leading hook in “War Comes Home,” the use of engaging storytelling and original depictions of shapeshifting made it stand out and touch me. The themes of veteran and mental health treatment are strong, building to an unforgettable climax where the overarching metaphor for PTSD becomes very literal. The story had great emotional beats and pacing, allowing it to truly pack a punch.
I had to take a break after “War Comes Home” to give myself space to recover from all the stories of abuse and trauma. It was nice to return to my listening session of The Wrong Station to the third season episode, “Flynn’s,” which didn’t have mentions of triggering and dark themes.
There is a pretty gross and awesome hair scene that I won’t spoil.
“Flynn’s”
Focusing on themes of gentrification, “Flynn’s” follows a man who ends up getting a job at his college haunt as a bartender years after leaving college. In a neighborhood that’s being overrun and outpriced with new buildings catering to new tenants, Flynn’s bar is the last to give up the good fight—or is it.
Listen as an old college bar gives its new neighbors something to scream about. While not a terrifying episode, “Flynn’s” was enjoyable and satisfying to listen to.
“Aquarium”
By the third season, more episodes branch out of the trauma horror that fills many earlier episodes. My second pick from the third season was another refreshing, though a bit dull, episode called “Aquarium.” The episode was about a strange fish coming to an aquarium and wreaking havoc on not just the workers but the world. The story itself centers on that scary feeling of otherworldliness.
A part of me believes “Aquarium” was my least favorite episode since I don’t fear fish or water. For people who do, “Aquarium” might just be a terrifying story of fish horror.
“Pollo Rojo”
I went into the fourth season of The Wrong Station optimistic at the third season’s turn away from the repetitive themes of the first couple of seasons. But then I listened to “Pollo Rojo.” Though it breaks away from both family trauma and the engaging storyteller opening, it features a lot of child, animal, and workplace abuse. The episode is about a teenager who gets his first job as an inexperienced butcher at a new restaurant specializing in whole roasted chicken.
As you can imagine, there’s a lot of meat gore, almost to the point where the story suffers from all the gratuitous descriptions of rotting and butchered meat.
“The Door”
The next episode of the fourth season I listened to was “The Door.” The episode holds a content warning for suicide. After moving into an apartment with a mysterious door, a young woman becomes obsessed with figuring out what’s behind the door. The obsession drives her to madness but also to answers.
Answers that lead to her death.
Since so many episodes focus on abuse, when the stories break outside of that theme, it’s interesting to see what types of terrors and storylines The Wrong Station explores. “The Door” isn’t a scary episode, but it is an unsettling one that will make you curious to explore the hidden spaces in your home.
“The Inductor”
This year, The Wrong Station entered its fifth season. I didn’t like many of the stories as much as those from the earlier seasons. I do think the season shows the writer’s growth and willingness to experiment with story, themes, and new terrors.
The first episode I picked was “The Inductor.” They totally abandoned the storytelling aspect that I enjoyed from the first couple of seasons, which is unfortunate. It makes the audio drama seem like every other audio drama anthology podcast. This episode has a couple of content warnings for medical abuse and police brutality.
‘The Inductor’ was one of The Wrong Station’s more imaginative stories. In the episode, a teenage boy gets arrested in a police state dystopia where there is a sort of brainwashing process called the induction. While the story was pretty imaginative at times, it still relied on the hinges of abuse, which by this season it feels a bit much or redundant.
“Moderation”
And the final episode I listened to was “Moderation” from the fifth season as well. A story about a moderator who must flag or delete sensitive videos from the internet. Most of the videos they must watch are horrific, but they flow over the main character as everyday occurrences. Then a new video comes across their monitor, making them genuinely sick. Struggling with their will and wanting to keep their job, the moderator does all they can to limit the spread of the offensive video that just won’t die.
It was oddly meta by the time I got to it. Over the past couple of weeks, I’d listened to quite a few episodes of The Wrong Station. As I’ve pointed out many times, the episodes deal with a lot of sensitive topics to the point of saturating me in sometimes repulsive content, just like the main character. By the end, like the main character, I felt like even though I walked away from the podcast, many of the stories still stuck with me.
An overall review of The Wrong Station
I don’t rate because what kind of scale can weigh the might of story? What I will say is that The Wrong Station is worth a listen with the caveat of taking care of yourself. After so many stories of abuse and trauma, spend some time showing yourself love.
I also think the later seasons offer a wider selection of themes than the earlier seasons. The Wrong Station won’t be for every horror listener, but I think there is an episode for most horror fans.
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