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Communication between two people who care about each other but dont share a language involves a kind of dance.
Such interactions are hopelessly imprecise, and because of that imprecision, trust is required.
Moonfacepresents a specific moment in the life of Paul, played by the actor-comedian Joel Kim Booster.
Though they share the same roof, the two couldnt be further apart.
She doesnt speak English very well; his Korean is paltry.
This distance informs, and is reflected throughout, other parts of Pauls life.
Pauls parallel journeys to find himself and his mother make up the arc of the storys concerns.
Its a rich ball of interior struggle to unspool.
Theres a lot being done in the silences between those two characters.
Its painful, and often quite beautiful.
The podcast leans hard into the linguistic context of its main character, presenting it as a given.
Assuming youre not fluent in Korean, his struggle is your struggle, his want is your want.
This emphatic enterprise linksMoonfaceto a thread originally spun byKaitlin PrestsThe Shadowsfrom last year.
In the case ofThe Shadows, its the turbulence of a rise-and-fall relationship between two bohemian artist types.
Moonfaceis quite effective in that portrayal.
All this comes together to create a fiction-podcast experience that feels distinctly modern and forward-looking.
For some, though, the biggest hitch could be the wayMoonfaceattends to its podcast influences.
Those sequences in particular feature a good deal of name-checking that comes off as a performative box-ticking of influences.
All things considered, though, those hitches are fairly minor.
They certainly dont undercutMoonfaces intense highs.
When it hits its stride, the show is capable of going to some genuinely striking emotional places.
