For some time now, I've been working on a new storytelling experience. As I built it, I realized I couldn't find an existing term that truly described what I was creating. So I simply began calling it what it had become to me: a Conversational Drama Series.
Set against the familiar backdrop of a rideshare, Backseater is a conversation-driven drama where audiences step into the lives of a recurring cast of fictional characters living throughout Philadelphia.
The drivers are the cast. Each drives for Backseater, but each has a life beyond the ride—careers, families, friendships, relationships, dreams, disappointments, and stories that continue to unfold.
When you choose a driver, you're choosing whose life you want to step into. But Backseater isn't only about discovering the characters. Over time, they begin discovering you, too.
Between rides, their stories continue in Rearview, a series of short cinematic episodes that reveal moments from their lives outside the car.
What happens in Rearview doesn't simply disappear when the episode ends. You can ride with these characters again, talk with them, and continue getting to know them as their stories—and your relationship with them—develop.
The cinematic story and the conversation become part of the same unfolding experience.
Backseater is an evolving fictional Philadelphia filled with people whose lives intersect, change, and continue over time.
And instead of only watching their stories from a distance, you get to ride alongside them.
I'll soon be introducing the world of Backseater, its cast of characters, and some of the stories connecting them across Philadelphia. I'll also be inviting a small group of early riders to step inside before the official launch.
Coming this fall. Ride through Philly, one Backseater story at a time.
