The 6-part podcast series HATCHET MAN examines the little-known but extraordinary television series that aired in the nation of Albania in 1996 and ushered in social chaos and civil war. Originally titled "Embelsia e Jetes" or “The Sweetness of Life,” the TV show quickly became known as “Hatchet Man,” a reference to the hatchet-wielding figure in a balaclava who entered the final scene of every episode and murdered all of the characters. Each podcast episode moves between the peculiar characters and plot points of the TV show, the shadowy history of its creators, the economic and political turmoil of post-dictatorial Albania, and the surging Hatchet Man cult that helped spark a civil war in 1997.