Neighbourly love

A change in tone for episode 3 of the Apple TV+ series, as the quality storytelling continues and we’re forced to ask ourselves how far we’d go for a friendly neighbour we’d only met once.

Alexis from Pasadena is grumpy. Right out of the starting block, our sympathies are firmly with her obviously long-suffering husband, Patrick. When their call is interrupted by ‘Pedro from across the street’, the nice response is not: “Don’t answer because he probably wants something from you.”

The graphics invoke the physical landscape the story unfolds in, and really helps you to visualise what you’re hearing, it’s very clever.

It starts getting weird, as we’d expect already from Calls, when Pedro, our friendly bilingual Chilean neighbour, starts predicting what Alexis says – how the heck is he managing that one? Well, he gives us an answer, but why should Patrick trust this near-stranger over his own wife? “Gracias a Dios” it turns out that there are a number of reasons, which Pedro elaborates on in colourful terms. Should I be laughing at this? “I don’t know, is it funny?” Yes, yes it is, in a jet-black humour kind of way.

I’m certainly laughing by the end, and applauding, as there’s a twist in the tale – keep listening through the credits. Well played, people.

Verdict: Unexpectedly funny, a lighter episode, still sprinkled with enough strange goings on of the time-travel variety to pique the listener’s interest. 9/10

Claire Smith