| | | The Listeners
I was drawn to watch this recent four part English drama for two reasons: because the lead actress Rebecca Hall generally takes on interesting roles; and because I personally have several things in common with her character (more on that later). She suddenly starts hearing sounds no one else can, disrupting her life as a teacher, wife, and mother. At first I was worried this might become a horror scenario, but fortunately not. Rather, the plot takes a number of unexpected turns, surprising me repeatedly, but still mostly keeping the through line intact. I don’t want to say too much, but it turns out she is not the only ones hearing the noises.
Given the subject matter, it will be no surprise that the sound track is excellent, expertly adding to the mood without distracting. Unfortunately, in the end I did not find The Listeners to be entirely successful, as its reach exceeded its grasp. There was definitely too much going on for a four part series, and for me ending just fizzled out in some respects. That said, I can still recommend The Listeners, particularly if you are someone with big ears.
So how did the series reflect my life? My siblings and I inherited hearing above the normal range from my mother, which I first discovered when I realized other people couldn’t hear dog whistles like I could. Family outings on the bus could become interesting if the bus was producing a painful high pitched whine only we could hear. And even when I was in my late twenties, I had to undergo a blindfold test to prove that a particular monitor in the lab where I was working was emitting an excruciating whine only I could hear. I passed the test easily, and the whining monitor was the next one replaced.
What this experience of hearing sounds no one else could did for our family was give us a sense of being a group of people separate from and outside a norm, a feeling that is shared by the Listeners, and that feeds into another personal experience of mine.
(Warning – spoilers ahead.)
Around the same time I had that experience in the lab, an old girlfriend called me up and asked me to please check out something she was thinking about getting involved in. I had a few days off, so I agreed, and J and I drove up to a few buildings and a bunch of cabins in the woods north of Victoria.
It turned out to be a project to help in the rehabilitation of street kids, led by a very charismatic fellow assisted by three couples. Everything seemed okay at first, but gradually I started picking up an unsettling feeling about the place, or rather, about the people. That night the leader gave a talk, expertly crafted to try to create transcendental feelings in the flock. The guy was good, even I got some chills as we ‘climbed the mountain’ together, but I am made of stern stuff so for me this was just an interesting experience rather than a moment of recruitment.
The next day I told J I didn’t like the place at all and counselled her to also leave, but she chose to stay, and I headed home and then out on a ling trip. At that point she had no fixed address and therefore had not left me a phone number – this was pre-cell phones – so when I returned I waited for her to contact me, but she never did.
Then a few years later I was reading the morning paper and came across a story about someone being convicted of a number of crimes involving that very camp in the woods. It turned out the leader had not only been screwing teenage girls in his care but also the three wives. Yes, I had escaped being recruited to a cult, something my natural skepticism and contrarian nature -- question everything! -- pretty well guarantees.
In case you haven’t guessed by now, during The Listeners, a similar cult leader manages to gain control of some of those who can hear the sounds everyone else can’t. In fact, the series would be a useful ‘how to’ watch if you aspire to leading a cult.
It has occurred to me since that maybe J was sent out to recruit someone and she picked me, but she knew me well enough to know it would never work. Or, because she was always more enamoured of me than I was of her, maybe she was trying to get me involved as way of ‘capturing’ me, but again she would have known it would never work.
I do from time to time wonder what happened to her. I hope she got away in time.
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