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I feel like Tanis got a little better recently, at least as far as Nic taking an active role and not responding to everything with mild confusion. My main hope for TBT is that Alex will do something with their findings, whether or not she believes in the supernatural stuff. Some complicated arcane sigil is carved under your child's bed? Why not deface it to screw up the 'sacred geometry'? Hmm, nah, just leave it there to show Dr. Strand that you don't believe in it.
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May 9, 2016 00:03
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psychopomp posted:If you're looking for something else to tide you over for a bit, I co-produce Synesthesia Theatre, an anthology of 8-12 episode serials. Our first serial, a steampunk western, is halfway finished airing, and we're in the process of casting the second, which will be a near future cyberpunk thriller. This show is pretty great so far! The sound effects are a little loud compared to the dialogue, but the writing and acting are well done.
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May 11, 2016 20:31
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The Erland posted:I'm really liking both Limetown and Alice isn't dead, but is there any good serialized fiction that's not sooooo... X-filesy? I think the only non-spooky serial fiction podcasts that I keep up with are RPG actual-plays like The Adventure Zone. I'm sure there are other things available if you're looking for a particular genre. It's just easier to make X-files-y stories in a medium without visual effects.
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May 20, 2016 13:06
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I listened to the first episode-series of Return Home, and it's... not great. Could be good if you like a tongue-in-cheek attempt at a spooky storytelling podcast. The narrator speaks really fast, preventing any kind of mysterious atmosphere. (I might try listening at half speed to see if that helps.) There's also no difference between the narration-voice and the in-character-voice of the main character, which is a little annoying. Those gripes aside, the audio is very clear and the plot seems like it has potential. If you're looking for something light-hearted it might be worth a shot.
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Jun 2, 2016 14:35
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ManMythLegend posted:Is this played as a straight mystery or is there a supernatural element to it? Hard to say at this point.. There's an air of something occult on the tapes being documented, but nothing explicitly supernatural as far as I remember.
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Jun 3, 2016 01:15
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Is anyone familiar with Wooden Overcoats? I've seen it recommended by other podcasters but haven't gotten into it yet.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:07
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At least I've gotten to the point where I can see the ads coming. Right when there's a tidbit of information that could be interesting if they would elaborate it, they stick in a long pause and start talking about socks. The characters' inability to connect more than two dots at a time is probably the worst part of The Black Tapes.
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Jun 22, 2016 18:09
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Yeah WTW seems like all the weirdly-poetic segments of Night Vale without the trouble of characters or a specific setting.psychopomp posted:Synesthesia Theatre just released the last episode of our first season, wrapping the steampunk western "Iron Horses Can't Be Broken." New season starts in about a month, after some cast Q&A interviews, with a 9-part cyberpunk thriller. Looking forward to the new season! The last ep was a little difficult to hear at the beginning, between the cave echoes and the whispering. It would be nice if there wasn't so much difference between the volume of dialogue and the sound effects.
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Jun 23, 2016 13:55
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Jurgan posted:I agree that Limetown is a better show than Tanis or Black Tapes, but I don't agree about it having a better protagonist, and I don't see why no one else seems to notice this. Nic Silver isn't very interesting, I'll grant that (I kind of like MK, though). But Lia Haddock is almost completely passive. She doesn't seek out clues and investigate Limetown; witnesses get dropped in her lap one by one and she interviews them. Her interview skills are better than the You know about X?" "What's X?" style of Alex Regan and Nic Silver, but she never actually does any investigation. I'm not even sure she is the protagonist- she's the main character in the sense that we see everything from her point of view, but in no way does she drive the plot. Some mysterious figure wants the truth revealed and sends witnesses to meet with Lia, and I was assuming that she was picked to tell the story because she had a reputation for being a good journalist. But in the last episode it's made even worse when it's revealed that her uncle was the mastermind and picked her because she was related to him. Thematically, it fits all the stuff about "roles to play," but it means she didn't achieve anything herself- she was chosen because of family connections rather than talent, resourcefulness, or any other positive characteristics. Limetown is a great story- I especially like how it's revealed piece by piece and leaves you guessing- but Lia Haddock is a complete cipher. Practically anyone could have been the main character. I disagree- Leah has done some investigation, it's just mostly revealed in the first episode. Yes, the interviews sort of fall into her lap, but she actually processes what she learns from them and applies it to figuring out the mystery, unlike TBT's protagonists. Leah also faces direct threats from the start and makes the active choice to keep up her investigation and deal with the subsequent paranoia. Also you're half right- her uncle is the mastermind behind Limetown, but he's not the one sending witnesses. He's on the run from whoever wanted the technology, and they lured Leah into a trap as a way to lure him out of hiding. I do agree that MK would be a better protagonist for Tanis.
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Jun 28, 2016 04:13
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TBT/Tanis and Archive 81 all have the benefit of a mysterious story that grows along the way. It's more fun to find out the next reveal even if the hosts are baffled by it. Limetown has the production value but their pacing is different. There's a huge exposition dump at the beginning, and then there aren't enough episodes to hook you with the progression of clues. I think the last episode would have been a lot stronger at the end of a 10-ep season or something.
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Jun 28, 2016 13:18
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Every time I hear a stamps.com ad I just imagine the Night Vale version in its place. I miss those weird fake-ad segments.
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Jun 30, 2016 18:50
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I checked out SABLE this week since I'd seen a few recommendations. The first few episodes seem to set up an interesting world and a couple of main characters. There's some skipping around to other characters, and more bits of world building... Then it sort of falls off into ultraviolence and erases all the established characters. I think the writer needs a beta reader or something, because it seems like his setting has potential if he could keep a protagonist alive/sane for more than a few episodes.
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Jul 8, 2016 13:27
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I think "trying hard not to tell the story" sums it up well. They keep saying it's an investigation of Strand, but every time Alex asks him an uncomfortable question it's "Please leave." "Okay." On a different note, I've been binge listening to King Falls AM and it's great. More lighthearted than Night Vale, like the other side of the Coast-to-Coast-AM-parody coin. Still has some decent drama, and the 2 main characters have good rapport to keep things interesting. I just wish episodes were longer! Also, Within the Wires is really picking up with the story and some world-building. Looking forward to finding out where it goes.
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Aug 4, 2016 13:30
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Slamhound posted:I recently binged through The Magnus Archives. I've started in on this one and it's good so far. I like the X-files ish theme of "We're the organization that needs to investigate these spooky reports" as well as the hints of bigger things (and cursing of the previous librarian's incompetence for not bringing them up sooner). It's also pretty cool that most of the reports are dated from the last 5-10 years so there's a modern context to them. It's nice to have short self-contained horror stories that I can listen to a few at a time.
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Aug 14, 2016 14:36
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Oh Black Tapes, how quickly you discard the culmination of a plot thread. The sheer deadpan response was absolutely baffling.ManMythLegend posted:I want to like Manus Archives, but the narrator sounds exactly like what I think "Pipe Smoking Goon" sounds like and I can't help but be irritated the entire time at how insufferable be sounds. I think insufferable character is intended. I'm just glad he can use enough inflection to add horror or suspense to the story (much better than the flat/mildly-concerned delivery in the PNWS podcasts.). They do a great job on the background music too.
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Aug 18, 2016 04:11
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ManMythLegend posted:Percival Black and Daeva Corporation are trying to bring about some sort of demon apocalypse with some weird noisecore symphony. The PWNS team is tricked into playing it on the air in order and kicking it off. Also, in the last ep Strand's wife shows up, steals Strand and Alex who were about to meet the Daeva Corp guy, whispers something to Strand and leaves immediately after Alex asks to interview her. Strand emotionlessly repeats her dialogue: she was an agent of a secret society sent to protect him, but after she fell in love and married him she tried to keep him from both "sides". She had to disappear for a while and is still working for the secret group, who think Strand's genes have a key to mystical powers or something. Bonus comedy spoiler: Strand never had the million dollars he promised for paranormal evidence, and he can't get research money for an "Institute" that's two people and a closet full of VHS tapes
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Aug 18, 2016 12:20
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Ornamented Death posted:This. The narrator never bothered me and his thoroughly British attitude towards everything really makes the show. I mean, the stories are great so far (just finished The Dreamer), but the narration really makes this a winner. The commentary at the end is always fun, but it's made even better by how in-character the narrator gets when telling the story. He goes from being totally in the story to "Ugh so much of this is unsubstantiated how do they expect us to investigate it" and the sheer contrast is great.
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Sep 9, 2016 16:20
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Bright Sessions and Ars Paradoxica released a crossover episode today that was pretty cool! I don't know if they'll keep doing them, but with all the time shenanigans in AP it's easy to hand-wave the differences in continuity.
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Sep 16, 2016 01:44
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Ruptured Yakety Sax posted:Anyone have any recommendations of decent podcasts that don't have any supernatural or scifi themes? Wooden Overcoats is a fun Brit-com podcast without any sci-fi stuff.
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Oct 4, 2016 11:51
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Hughlander posted:Does Sable ever start to make sense? I finished the first season and the 3 part interlude, and I can't say I have any clear idea on what happened. I couldn't really understand even how many sides there were to the conflict. I couldn't tell if it was alternate dimension shenanigans, time traveling shenanigans, or just hallucinations... Good question. I heard most of the first season, and the interlude teaser didn't really appeal, so I dropped it. I think there were dimensional shenanigans and maybe some possession in one or two of the story threads. I didn't really expect it to gel into anything cohesive by the end.
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Oct 18, 2016 18:50
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Jurgan posted:Does anyone else think Max Findlayson sounds like Norm MacDonald? I almost thought it was James Urbaniak since his mannerisms reminded me so much of Dr. Venture. Jurgan posted:I think my biggest problem with Tanis was that there never seemed to be any urgency in Nic's actions. He was drugged and almost raped once and completely shrugged it off. Every time I heard "We'll talk more about this next week, but first let me tell you about Bombas Socks," I rolled my eyes. If you're in the middle of a massive conspiracy and you're personally being targeted, you publish everything you've got as soon as possible before they can shut you up. You don't tease and hold stuff off until the next episode. Yeah I think that's an issue with the writing in PNWS podcasts. The situation may be tense, but they'll default to being the narrator over being in character. Then again that may just be Nic's character, given how all of MK's early findings were met with "ummm okay?".
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Nov 5, 2016 04:30
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Turtlicious posted:Do I have to listen to The Black Tapes to get into Tanis? Or can I jump right in? Uncanny County, Synesthesia theater, and Ars Paradoxica are all good. As for Tanis, you don't have to listen to Black Tapes for it. Despite the same characters being in both, there's really no crossover other than light references to "You're making a podcast about _____". (Which kinda ruins the immersion- within each story, is the other podcast treated as fiction? But that's easy to ignore if you don't listen to both.)
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Nov 5, 2016 21:19
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I liked the character development in the Wooden Overcoats S2 finale, but I wish the episodes hadn't been released so quickly for an 8-ep season. It feels like another couple of episodes could have gone somewhere really interesting.. I guess that means I'm hooked for season 3!
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Dec 17, 2016 01:39
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Tatum Girlparts posted:it feels like this is like the fifth time I've heard this Blood Bag story the Magnus Archives just did. Not really complaining because he did fine with it it's just the first time it feels like he's covering heavily trod area. Where else have you heard it? I was probably too amused to be spooked since I work in a mosquito lab similar to the one in the story. The writer must have done his research on the cages and whatnot, he described them pretty well.
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Dec 30, 2016 04:27
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effervescible posted:The new one is so bonkers it had my attention the whole time. Same here, I like how they went from building up "eldritch goings-on/conspiracy" in the background to maximum weird in the foreground. Makes things much more interesting than the usual "found-footage" type of horror podcast, and I'm really interested to see where they go with it.
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Jan 20, 2017 11:06
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SamuraiFoochs posted:Yeah it's really loving good and the writing quality is way above most creepypasta. Plus the different cases start to link up in different ways. I've been re-listening out of order to get a better idea of the Leitner Books plot and the Jane Prentiss plot, and they make more sense when concentrated than spread out with side stories in between.
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Jan 28, 2017 01:40
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S2 of Archive 81 is more like their other production The Deep Vault than it is like S1. Less building a mystery, more figuring out how to deal with indescribable horrors. They do use less of the crunchy gore sound effects after the first ep or two, if that helps.
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Apr 22, 2017 15:47
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Hughlander posted:Seconded. I also like the body horror of Spines which hasn't gotten enough love here. Listen to the 1 minute long teasers. I just finished Spines, and it's pretty rad. Good body horror, good foreshadowing, and a pretty cool concept. The narrator's detached tone is a little reminiscent of the PNWS podcasts, but she's got a more active role in the story so it stays interesting. Episodes are pretty short, so it's easy to listen to a couple and see if it's your thing.
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May 10, 2017 01:24
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Wooden Overcoats is a good comedy serial. It's about competing funeral homes in a small British village. (Well, I say small.. it's very nearly a town!) The neurotic siblings who have run Funn Funerals their whole lives try to keep afloat against the charming newcomer across the square, usually via some harebrained scheme that goes awry. There's 2 seasons released already, not sure if a third is in the works yet or not.
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May 11, 2017 13:39
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