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My father used to tell me about listening to stories on the radio when he was younger. From the 30’s through the 60’s, radio dramas saw a golden age. Shows like The Lone Ranger, Dragnet, or The Shadow had immense popularity. With the advent of television, radio drama saw a decline, since broadcasters were unwilling to spend money to produce quality shows with a dwindling audience. Then came the internet. Podcasting has a low bar of entry. All you need is a microphone, a computer, and an internet connection. As a result, there has been a revival of audio drama in the last several years. The low cost makes it an especially fertile ground for science fiction and fantasy stories, since the most elaborate visuals can simply be described. What follows are some of our suggestions for serialized audio fiction, along with rankings of how popular they are in this thread. We come together here to recommend some of our favorites, get excited about new episodes, and share our thoughts on the state of the medium. I’m also happy to add anyone’s personal suggestions to the OP, provided you write up a brief, low-spoiler description. Welcome to Night Vale: The grand-daddy of them all. Night Vale is a town where all conspiracy theories are true. The narrator is Cecil Palmer, host of the Night Vale Community Radio Station. Fundamentally this is a comedy about how people are accepting and oblivious of things that they should really fight back against, but these things are eldritch Lovecraftian horrors. Over time, the characters develop real relationships and unexpected depths. If you’re interested in serial fiction podcasts you probably know all about this one (it has its own thread), but if you haven’t given it a try then it’s a good place to start. Total Rating: 26 (6 votes) Average Rating: 4.3/5 Within the Wires: Another from Night Vale Presents, this is presented in the format of a series of meditation tapes. The story takes a while to cohere, but it appears to be about a scientific organization performing unethical medical experiments and the narrator’s attempt to save one of the victims. This is one of the most unorthodox in terms of structure, but if you pay attention you find a very clear narrative. Total Score: 22 (5 votes) Average Rating: 4.4/5  The Bright Sessions: Just because you have superpowers doesn’t mean you have your poo poo together. When someone with atypical abilities needs therapy, they can talk to Dr. Joan Bright. A small cast of characters, including a time traveler, an empath, and a mind-reader, attend regular therapy sessions to learn how to deal with their unusual situations. They discuss how to face their fears, deal with romance, and fit in to a society that doesn’t know they exist, all while avoiding those who’d exploit their powers for nefarious means. Total Score: 21 (5 votes) Average Score: 4.2/5  Alice Isn’t Dead: From Night Vale Presents comes a Stephen King-style horror story about the wide open spaces in the United States of America. Alice mysteriously disappeared some time ago. The narrator is a truck driver who was married to Alice and is convinced that Alice is still alive. She searches the country looking for Alice while being stalked by hideous almost-human creatures known as the Thistle-Men. AiD is more of a novel released in chapters than an episodic series, and it’s mostly just one woman talking into the microphone, but the strong writing and engaging background music elevates it. Total Score: 21 (6 votes) Average Rating: 3.5/5 Wolf 359: Orbiting a star 7.5 light years from earth is the space station Hephaestus. The crew consists of slacker Doug Eiffel, straight-laced commander Minkowski, ethically dubious Dr. Hilbert, and sassy AI Hera. What starts as a sci-fi sitcom eventually turns into a survival drama when the characters learn they were sent there under false pretenses, and must figure out how to get back to Earth in one piece. Total Score: 20 (4 votes) Average Rating: 5/5 The Magnus Archives: A horror anthology series set in a stuffy British occult institution. At the top of the series the archivist has just taken over after the last one disappeared and he's trying to to get things in order. Each episode has a small segment at the beginning and end relating to the current goings on in the archives while the meat of the episode is a statement from someone who has encountered the paranormal. It's plotted to last five seasons and the non-statement parts do have a purpose and lead up to an ending that answers a lot of questions while also raising a few more. There's a Patreon that promises exclusive content expanding the world but so far most of it is stuff from their sister program Rusty Quill Gaming. Total Score: 17 (4 votes) Average Rating: 4.25/5  Ars Paradoxica: Brilliant physicist Sally Grissom is involved in an uncontrolled experiment and gets sent back to 1943. Having just invented time travel, but unable to return to her own time, she finds herself working for the U.S. government and helping them win WWII. The result is a ton of stories where temporal paradoxes are created and explored. But when the shadier side of the government starts using her technology to violate civil liberties and gain an advantage in the Cold War, she and her team of scientists must decide what it means to use their science ethically. Total Score: 16.5 (4 votes) Average Score: 4.125/5 Limetown: In 2004, a secret research facility in the Appalachians sent out a distress call. Something went wrong, and first responders rushed to help but were barred from entry. 72 hours later, the facility was opened and everyone was gone, with no signs of what happened to them. Lia Haddock is a reporter for not-NPR and is determined to find out what happened, slowly unearthing a science fiction conspiracy. The only downside to this podcast is that it’s only six episodes and ended on a cliffhanger over a year ago. There is the promise of a new season, but no dates yet. Most people agree it’s worth your time, but be prepared to be frustrated by the suspense. Total Rating: 16 (5 votes) Average Rating: 3.2/5 The Far Meridian: Peri is a young girl who lives in a lighthouse and hasn’t left for years. One day, her lighthouse appears in a new place, and every night it vanishes and reappears somewhere else the next day. Cut off from her comfort zone, Peri must learn how to live with her new situation and go outside to the world she’d been avoiding. Total Score: 12 (3 votes) Average Rating: 4/5  Archive 81: This starts as a found footage series about Daniel Powell working as an archivist and hearing records of a corporate plot involving eldritch abominations. In the second season it dramatically shifts genre as Dan is sucked into an alternate universe, where he and his team explore an unknown continent and try to survive the horrors of the new world. Total Score: 12 (4 votes) Average Rating: 3/5  The Black Tapes: Another in the genre of fake-NPR documentaries, this is basically a reworking of the X-Files. Richard Strand makes a living debunking paranormal occurrences. He joins the more open-minded reporter Alex Regan in traveling the country looking into reporters of unexplained phenomena. Meanwhile, Alex is investigating the mysterious disappearance of Strand’s wife and an obscure cult with beliefs about the imminent end of the world. Total Rating: 11 (5 votes) Average Rating: 2.2/5 Tanis: Another podcast in the same universe as The Black Tapes (known as the Pacific Northwest Stories shared universe), Nic Silver is looking into something called Tanis. Its nature is unclear, but it is tied into dozens of infamous conspiracy theories. Nic soon finds himself in danger and has to decide if he’s willing to risk his life and sanity to uncover the truth. Total Rating: 9 (4 votes) Average Rating: 2.25/5 Wooden Overcoats: A tightly scripted British sitcom in the tradition of Fawlty Towers. Rudyard Funn is a thoroughly unlikeable man, and for years he and his agoraphobic sister Antigone ran the only funeral home in the village of Piffling Vale. Unfortunately for them, the charming and skilled Eric Chapman has just opened a rival funeral home across the street, stealing all their business. Rudyard launches scheme after scheme to get their business back and destroy Chapman’s reputation, much to the chagrin of Antigone and their assistant Georgie. The schemes inevitably backfire, yet Rudyard continues with his mission to “put the body in the coffin in the ground on time.” Total Score: 8.5 (2 votes) Average Rating: 4.25/5 Terms: A demagogue with no strong political experience and disdain for the norms of governance runs for president of the United States and wins, despite losing the popular vote. This story was written at least in part before Trump ran for president. The meat of the series is the sitting president trying to use Constitutional chicanery to prevent the demagogue from assuming office. The first season ends on a pretty weird note, but it’s a well-produced political drama. Total Score: 8 (2 votes) Average Rating: 4/5 The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air): The last of the Night Vale Presents shows, this one is about a variety show that is recorded at the Eiffel Tower. We follow the janitor Julian as he tries to become part of the show without being thrown out altogether. Needless to say, there’s more going on, and the story takes some weird twists late in the first season. Total Score: 7 (3 votes) Average Rating: 2.3/5 Hello from the Magic Tavern: Arnie Niecamp fell through a magical portal behind a Burger King in Chicago, into the fantastical, magical land of Foon. Luckily he’s still getting a slight wifi signal from the Burger King, and he uses it to upload a weekly podcast. He interviews wizards, shape-shifters, goblins, elves, and other magical creatures in a high-fantasy Tolkienesque world. The show’s format is an improvisational comedy, and the actors frequently find themselves riffing on unexpected drop-ins and puns. Despite the loose structure, there is a strong continuity and things that are introduced early on remain part of the series canon indefinitely, no matter how ridiculous they might be. Total Score: 6.5 (2 votes) Average Rating: 3.25/5 Rabbits: Rabbits - When Carly Parker’s friend Yumiko goes missing under very mysterious circumstances, Carly’s search for her friend leads her headfirst into a ancient mysterious game known only as Rabbits. Soon Carly begins to suspect that Rabbits is much more than just a game, and that the key to understanding Rabbits, might be the key to the survival of our species, and the Universe, as we know it. Look, if you like Tanis, and you like the Blacktapes, and you don't mind that they almost never wrap anything up, you're probably going to find more of the same here. If you don't like my take, USA Today did an article on it. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...tanis/99357196/ Total Score: 6 (2 votes) Average Rating: 3/5 Secrets, Crimes, and Audiotape: This is an anthology series from Wondery, who have some of the highest production values of any podcast network. Some of the stories are one-shots, while others go for up to six episodes. The stories span all genres, from an Arrested Development style comedy about family dysfunction to a drama about child labor in sweatshops to a musical parody of Serial. Since these are shorter stories that require less commitment, they often get big name actors like Stacy Keach or Jane Kaczmyrek to play roles. Total Score: 5 (1 vote) Average Rating: 5/5 Sight Unseen: A spinoff from SCA, this is about a bratty teenage girl who gets into a near fatal car crash. The accident blinds her but also gives her psychic powers. The story is half about her restructuring her life and relationships around her knew disability, and half about her developing her powers and discovering a secret society of people with similar abilities. The show is on hiatus now, but they’re working on a second season. Total Score: 5 (1 vote) Average Rating: 5/5 Homecoming is a psychological thriller from Gimlet Media staring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, and David Schwimmer. It follows the actions of Heidi Bergman (Keener), documenting her past as a case worker helping veterans with PTSD at an experimental facility. Season 2 is about to start. Total Score: 5 (1 vote) Average Rating: 5/5 Qwerpline: Serialized improvisational (!) comedy series from LoadingReadyRun. Small town talk radio from the bizarre town of Nsburg. Like the bastard offspring of Welcome to Night Vale and UHF. Total Score: 5 (1 vote) Average Rating: 5/5 EOS10: This podcast tells the stories of two maladjusted doctors and their medical team aboard an intergalactic travel hub on the edges of deep space — along with a deposed prince who's claimed the foodcourt kitchen as his new throne. It's a story of acceptance, within a frame of utter ridiculousness. Good production style, great acting. It's been described as Scrubs in Space, and it's not far wrong. This is only two very short seasons. As it's been a couple of years it's unlikely to be resurrected. Total Score: 5 (1 vote) Average Rating: 5/5 Edict Zero – FIS: Follows the special agents of the Federal Investigative Service as they investigate the strange bombing of a club on New Year's Eve, 2415. What they uncover leads to more and stranger questions with possibly world-changing ramifications. Episode releases are really far apart but luckily there's a fairly large backlog and each ep is at least an hour long. The acting is great and the sound design on this is insane. Total Score: 4 (1 vote) Average Rating: 4/5 Alba Salix, Royal Physician: Farloria’s Royal Physician has her work cut out for her. As head witch and the only regular staff member at the new House of Healing, Alba’s got an endless lineup of patients and a bickering King and Queen to please. Fortunately, help is on the way. Unfortunately, that help is from Magnus, a troublesome young ex-monk and aspiring surgeon, and Holly, an accident-prone fairy herbalist. The blurb doesn't really do it justice, it's got characters you can believe in and a script that'll make you giggle at least once every episode. Hopefully they will get round to doing a Season 2 soon(TM)... Total Score: 4 (1 vote) Average Rating: 4/5 Earbud Theatre: This is a thriller/horror podcast where each episode is a standalone story, told by excellent actors. The style and production is some of the best, and because each episode is its own thing, there's no over-arching plot to get lost along the way. Total Score: 4 (1 vote) Average Rating: 4/5 The Thrilling Adventure Hour: This is actually several different serial stories in one package. A group of comedians, including Paul F. Tompkins, perform old-style radio dramas before a live audience. "Beyond Belief" is a comedy about paranormal investigators, "Sparks Nevada" is a sci-fi/Western hybrid set on Mars, and there are several others as well. Total Score: 3 (1 vote) Average Rating: 3/5 A New Winter: This is another novel presented in podcast form, though with much lower production values than Alice Isn't Dead. It's a story about a series of murders and disappearances that took place in a small English town in the year 2000. The main character is trying to discover what happened to his former friend-with-benefits and discovers a twisted cult that he may have personal ties to. The first season seems heavily inspired by Twin Peaks, down to finding a weird red room where a man speaks gibberish and dances compulsively. As the show goes on it gets weirder and more confusing, perhaps involving demons and time travel. Total Score: 2 Average Rating: 2/5 Epcult is a fictional walking tour of Walt Disney World focusing on the mystical secrets therein. It's a couple of episodes in at this point, starting in the Magic Kingdom.  Mabel Anna Limón is a caregiver for Sally Martin, an elderly woman with Parkinson's. The narrative is a series of voicemails that Anna leaves as she tries to locate Sally's missing granddaughter, Mabel. This is like Alice isn't Dead in that it's about atmosphere and language as much as plot. It's steeped in fairie folklore and greek mythology and has a great use of music.  Spines Wren wakes up in an attic, covered in blood from some sort of ritual, and with no memory of who she is. This is one of the more underrated podcasts. There’s a southwestern road trip feel to it combined with some unsettling body horror.  Greater Boston Interconnected lives along the Red Line in Boston. Riders decide to make the train line it's own city. Fortune telling, Atlantis, and maple syrup terrorist attacks.  Friends of the Void A man is trapped in a lighthouse with something waiting outside. He tries to get messages out and distracts himself with various tapes he finds. The tapes are different stories that don't really have anything to do with the main narration. There are also a couple of pissy Artificial Intelligences who snipe at each other and try to lead him around. He may also be posessed by a digital demon.  Slumberland Thomas Edward M, a sound archivist, is hired to record the people and events in the Northwest island community of Slumberland. It's a standard wacky-townsfolk narrative, almost like a cross between Night Vale and Greater Boston. It can be wildly uneven depending on the character the episode is focused on and your tolerance for their acting choices, but it can be interesting.  The Alexandria Archives A college radio program from the South's Answer to Miskatonic University. It's a combination of episodic and serial fiction; one half of an episode is the host giving a running commentary on the ins and outs of the Alexandria University, with recurring characters of the Kings Falls variety; the other half is one-shot stories (which can be user submitted) of a variety of types.  Rover Red In a post-Apocalyptic dystopia, Leah leaves her compound to search for her kidnapped brother. This is an interactive podcast where the listener can act as part of the ""Rover Council"" and help decide the direction of the story as well as send messages to Leah.  The Behemoth A giant emerges from the Atlantic Ocean and walks across America. 15 year old Madyson follows.  Passage A lifeboat from a passenger ship that disappeared 150 years ago is discovered in the Puget Sound with 4 skeletons on board. This is a six-episode, self-contained story in the vein of Limetown.  SAYER - similar to Wolf 359, SAYER starts off as mostly dark comedy (think very Portal) as it tells the stories that occur onboard the far future research station Typhon, ran by the amoral AI SAYER and his bosses at Aerolith Dynamics but it evolves into a pretty drat good story even if it only has a handful of important characters. Season 3 ended with what was very much a finale, but the creator got into a kick and wanted to revisit the setting, funding his effort through a very successful Kickstarter and, I have to say, he found a very clever way around how the podcast originally ended.  Our Fair City - Styled after an old timey radio drama, Our Fair City tells tales of an underground post apocalyptic civilisation in an often humorous, whimsical way. Each episode manages to set its own tone, but the whole thing still manages to be cohesive. It has an almost older French comic feel at times, with a big emphasis on worldbuilding. The Message takes the form of a cryptography podcast whose host gets involved with a cryptography consulting firm hired to decode an alien message received by a US military radio station at the end of World War II in 1945. However, as the message begins to be decoded, the effects of listening to it causes mental harm to certain people who hear it - which becomes a bigger problem as the message is broadcast around the world, leading to people beginning to succumb to its effects worldwide. Total Score: 4 (1 vote) Average Rating: 4/5 Life/After is about an FBI agent whose wife died, and he obsessively listens to recordings of her. One day, the recordings start talking back to him, and reveal that she is a detailed recreation of his dead wife made by a cult-like group, compiled from her social media, email accounts, and the like (think of the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back, but just as an AI, not a physical body). However, the cult begins to restrict his access to her until he agrees to start spying on the FBI's investigation of them from the inside, just as the FBI starts pressuring him to infiltrate the group. It was advertises as being similar to a cross between the movies Her and Ex Machina. King Falls AM- Its a podcast set in a small town. The two hosts are running a late night talk show where different members of the public call in about whatever subjects they happen to want to talk about. While its much more grounded in reality then welcome to nightvale, it is very much "odd stuff happens" in a small town. UnplacedA short series (though they’re gearing up for season 2) called Unplaced, which from the first episode, I admit I was ready to write off, but it somehow stuck with me. It’s the story of a woman who wakes up one day to find that no one can see or hear her, and everyone she knows is slowly forgetting about her. Good use of a single narrator. If I’m being fair, I’d give it a 3.5/5. [Always room to add more, just post a description in this thread and I'll edit the OP.] Jurgan fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Apr 7, 2018 |
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Jul 7, 2017 04:48
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I'd like to sort these podcasts by how popular they are in this thread, and keep a running tally. So if you've listened to any of them, please respond with a rating between 1 and 5. The total score will show the overall enjoyment, while the average score might help some lesser known shows to get noticed. I'll supply the format here. To avoid cluttering the thread with a bunch of low content posts, I'd prefer that you PM me your vote. If at any point you change your mind (say a show you liked starts sucking), then let me know. The Bright Sessions: /5 Ars Paradoxica: /5 The Far Meridian: /5 Wolf 359: /5 Hello from the Magic Tavern: /5 Wooden Overcoats: /5 Limetown: /5 The Black Tapes: /5 Tanis: /5 Rabbits: /5 Welcome to Night Vale: /5 Alice Isn’t Dead: /5 Within the Wires: /5 The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air): /5 The Magnus Archives: /5 Qwerpline: /5 Secrets, Crimes, and Audiotape: /5 Sight Unseen: /5 Terms: /5 Archive 81: /5 Edict Zero – FIS: /5 A New Winter: /5 etc. Jurgan fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jul 8, 2017 |
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Jul 7, 2017 04:53
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Magnus Archives is probably the one I look forward to most right now. It's a horror anthology series set in a stuffy British occult institution. At the top of the series the archivist has just taken over after the last one disappeared and he's trying to to get things in order. Each episode has a small segment at the beginning and end relating to the current goings on in the archives while the meat of each episode is a statement from someone who has encountered the paranormal. It's plotted to last five seasons and the non-statement parts do have a purpose and lead up to an ending that answers a lot of questions while also raising a few more. There's a Patreon that promises exclusive content expanding the world but so far most of it is stuff from their sister program Rusty Quill Gaming.
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Jul 7, 2017 05:24
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Qwerpline: Serialized improvisational (!) comedy series from LoadingReadyRun. Small town talk radio from the bizarre town of Nsburg. Like the bastard offspring of Welcome to Night Vale and UHF.
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Jul 7, 2017 05:28
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Edict Zero – FIS: Follows the special agents of the Federal Investigative Service as they investigate the strange bombing of a club on New Year's Eve, 2415. What they uncover leads to more and stranger questions with possibly world-changing ramifications. Episode releases are really far apart but luckily there's a fairly large backlog and each ep is at least an hour long. The acting is great and the sound design on this is insane.
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Jul 7, 2017 06:36
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Rabbits - When Carly Parker’s friend Yumiko goes missing under very mysterious circumstances, Carly’s search for her friend leads her headfirst into a ancient mysterious game known only as Rabbits. Soon Carly begins to suspect that Rabbits is much more than just a game, and that the key to understanding Rabbits, might be the key to the survival of our species, and the Universe, as we know it. Look, if you like Tanis, and you like the Blacktapes, and you don't mind that they almost never wrap anything up, you're probably going to find more of the same here. This one's about the same quality as the other 2 honestly, and it's a 3/5. There's better stuff to listen too, but if your backlog is empty, or you want to try something different, I'd throw one at Rabbits and see what you like. If you don't like my take, USA Today did an article on it. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2017/03/19/podcast-rabbits-tanis/99357196/ Also the Black Tapes, Tanis, and Rabbits all expect you to binge it in one go, or keep a journal, you will not get any reminders who anyone is, and it's up to you to care. I stopped with it pretty quickly. Turtlicious fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Jul 7, 2017 |
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Jul 7, 2017 08:48
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Len posted:Magnus Archives is probably the one I look forward to most right now. It's a horror anthology series set in a stuffy British occult institution. At the top of the series the archivist has just taken over after the last one disappeared and he's trying to to get things in order. Each episode has a small segment at the beginning and end relating to the current goings on in the archives while the meat of each episode is a statement from someone who has encountered the paranormal. It's plotted to last five seasons and the non-statement parts do have a purpose and lead up to an ending that answers a lot of questions while also raising a few more. There's a Patreon that promises exclusive content expanding the world but so far most of it is stuff from their sister program Rusty Quill Gaming. Seconding this. Magnus is loving amazing and everyone should be throwing them Patreon cash just to get them some spending money. They are more than $5 of entertainment every month.
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Jul 7, 2017 12:19
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If you want your vote factored into the total, please PM me. This seems arbitrary, but it's mainly for the sake of organization- if I start counting votes in both comments and PM's, then I'm sure I'll lose track and double-count some people. You don't have to vote for all of them- in fact, please don't vote for any you haven't heard- just fill in your vote for any you've listened to.
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Jul 7, 2017 15:21
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Homecoming is a psychological thriller from Gimlet Media staring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, and David Schwimmer. It follows the actions of Heidi Bergman (Keener), documenting her past as a case worker helping veterans with PTSD at an experimental facility. Season 2 is about to start.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:45
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Epcult is a fictional walking tour of Walt Disney World focusing on the mystical secrets therein. It's a couple of episodes in at this point, starting in the Magic Kingdom. It's done by a friend of mine so I'm biased but I think it's pretty solid and entertaining. https://www.epcult.com/podcast/
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Jul 7, 2017 16:58
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I liked the concept of Ars Paradoxica, but Sally was just such an annoying character whose personality is nothing but a collection of every stereotyped "internet geek girl" cliche and yet is completely fawned over and adored by these people from the 1940s who would care even less about her pop culture obsession bullshit than I do. Within the Wires is by far my favorite of the non-Welcome to Night Vale podcasts they put out. Alice Isn't Dead just didn't really do it for me, and again I like the concept of Orbiting Human Circus a lot and a lot of the characters in it, but the janitor is performed in such an annoying manner it's a turnoff. But I thought that Within the Wires was a combination of a really interesting and creepy setting with a poignant story that ramped up both aspects as the series progressed. I liked the GE Podcast Theater stuff (The Message and LifeAfter), much more than I thought I would like a podcast put out as an ad for a giant industrial megacompany. Both have interesting ideas and refreshingly are each a self-contained, one-and-done storyline, so it doesn't tread into Tanis/Black Tapes territory. I think I liked LifeAfter better, but both are worth a listen.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:04
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Mabel Anna Limón is a caregiver for Sally Martin, an elderly woman with Parkinson's. The narrative is a series of voicemails that Anna leaves as she tries to locate Sally's missing granddaughter, Mabel. This is like Alice isn't Dead in that it's about atmosphere and language as much as plot. It's steeped in fairie folklore and greek mythology and has a great use of music. Spines Wren wakes up in an attic, covered in blood from some sort of ritual, and with no memory of who she is. This is one of the more underrated podcasts. There’s a southwestern road trip feel to it combined with some unsettling body horror. Greater Boston Interconnected lives along the Red Line in Boston. Riders decide to make the train line it's own city. Fortune telling, Atlantis, and maple syrup terrorist attacks. Friends of the Void A man is trapped in a lighthouse with something waiting outside. He tries to get messages out and distracts himself with various tapes he finds. The tapes are different stories that don't really have anything to do with the main narration. There are also a couple of pissy Artificial Intelligences who snipe at each other and try to lead him around. He may also be posessed by a digital demon. Slumberland Thomas Edward M, a sound archivist, is hired to record the people and events in the Northwest island community of Slumberland. It's a standard wacky-townsfolk narrative, almost like a cross between Night Vale and Greater Boston. It can be wildly uneven depending on the character the episode is focused on and your tolerance for their acting choices, but it can be interesting. The Alexandria Archives A college radio program from the South's Answer to Miskatonic University. It's a combination of episodic and serial fiction; one half of an episode is the host giving a running commentary on the ins and outs of the Alexandria University, with recurring characters of the Kings Falls variety; the other half is one-shot stories (which can be user submitted) of a variety of types. Rover Red In a post-Apocalyptic dystopia, Leah leaves her compound to search for her kidnapped brother. This is an interactive podcast where the listener can act as part of the ""Rover Council"" and help decide the direction of the story as well as send messages to Leah. The Behemoth A giant emerges from the Atlantic Ocean and walks across America. 15 year old Madyson follows. Passage A lifeboat from a passenger ship that disappeared 150 years ago is discovered in the Puget Sound with 4 skeletons on board. This is a six-episode, self-contained story in the vein of Limetown.
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Jul 7, 2017 21:40
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Chairman Capone posted:I liked the concept of Ars Paradoxica, but Sally was just such an annoying character whose personality is nothing but a collection of every stereotyped "internet geek girl" cliche and yet is completely fawned over and adored by these people from the 1940s who would care even less about her pop culture obsession bullshit than I do. To me it's sort of the opposite, in that Sally is the only character I can remember. There are so many different people and they all kind of blur together, so I don't really attach to any of them. Not sure why you say Sally is "fawned over and adored," though- half the characters can't stand her, and only put up with her because of what she's done. Chairman Capone posted:Within the Wires is by far my favorite of the non-Welcome to Night Vale podcasts they put out. Alice Isn't Dead just didn't really do it for me, and again I like the concept of Orbiting Human Circus a lot and a lot of the characters in it, but the janitor is performed in such an annoying manner it's a turnoff. But I thought that Within the Wires was a combination of a really interesting and creepy setting with a poignant story that ramped up both aspects as the series progressed. WtW is good, and I need to go back and listen to it again. At first, I couldn't make sense of it, but by the end there was a lot of cool stuff going on. OHC was the opposite, in that I started out thinking I understood it, but it got so twisted by the end that I couldn't figure out what was going on anymore, so I stopped caring. Chairman Capone posted:I liked the GE Podcast Theater stuff (The Message and LifeAfter), much more than I thought I would like a podcast put out as an ad for a giant industrial megacompany. Both have interesting ideas and refreshingly are each a self-contained, one-and-done storyline, so it doesn't tread into Tanis/Black Tapes territory. I think I liked LifeAfter better, but both are worth a listen. I'd appreciate if you'd write up a little blurb about these, as what you wrote doesn't tell me about the content. I'd like to add them to the OP.
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Jul 8, 2017 04:08
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SAYER - similar to Wolf 359, SAYER starts off as mostly dark comedy (think very Portal) as it tells the stories that occur onboard the far future research station Typhon, ran by the amoral AI SAYER and his bosses at Aerolith Dynamics but it evolves into a pretty drat good story even if it only has a handful of important characters. Season 3 ended with what was very much a finale, but the creator got into a kick and wanted to revisit the setting, funding his effort through a very successful Kickstarter and, I have to say, he found a very clever way around how the podcast originally ended. Our Fair City - Styled after an old timey radio drama, Our Fair City tells tales of an underground post apocalyptic civilisation in an often humorous, whimsical way. Each episode manages to set its own tone, but the whole thing still manages to be cohesive. It has an almost older French comic feel at times, with a big emphasis on worldbuilding.
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Jul 8, 2017 04:51
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head58 posted:Epcult is a fictional walking tour of Walt Disney World focusing on the mystical secrets therein. It's a couple of episodes in at this point, starting in the Magic Kingdom. It's done by a friend of mine so I'm biased but I think it's pretty solid and entertaining. This is my kind of weird. It's really fun to listen to!
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Jul 10, 2017 15:42
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Jurgan posted:To me it's sort of the opposite, in that Sally is the only character I can remember. There are so many different people and they all kind of blur together, so I don't really attach to any of them. Not sure why you say Sally is "fawned over and adored," though- half the characters can't stand her, and only put up with her because of what she's done. I don't think characters in general are that podcast's strong point, and I think the creators of it even said that they're mainly interested in talking about the sort of time travel concepts that you don't usually see in time travel fiction, which I can respect. But she definitely does get fawned over, adored, admired by everyone except the villains. There are at least two episodes almost entirely devoted to people telling her how smart and important and valuable she is to all of them, and an episode about how she shouldn't feel bad for getting most of their friends fired from the base after she arrives. One other thing about it that irks me, for a show about time travel, they get a lot of fairly easy minor details about history wrong. The one that sticks to mind is that they mentioned Harry Truman being vice president in 1943. There were a few other ones that I don't remember now but were also stuff where even a cursory Wikipedia search would have been fine to correct it. None of them really affected the plot but if you're going to do any work of fiction set in the past, at least do basic research. (It also seems to be set in an alternate universe where racism and sexism don't exist but that's another issue entirely.) Jurgan posted:I'd appreciate if you'd write up a little blurb about these, as what you wrote doesn't tell me about the content. I'd like to add them to the OP. The Message takes the form of a cryptography podcast whose host gets involved with a cryptography consulting firm hired to decode an alien message received by a US military radio station at the end of World War II in 1945. However, as the message begins to be decoded, the effects of listening to it causes mental harm to certain people who hear it - which becomes a bigger problem as the message is broadcast around the world, leading to people beginning to succumb to its effects worldwide. Life/After is about an FBI agent whose wife died, and he obsessively listens to recordings of her. One day, the recordings start talking back to him, and reveal that she is a detailed recreation of his dead wife made by a cult-like group, compiled from her social media, email accounts, and the like (think of the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back, but just as an AI, not a physical body). However, the cult begins to restrict his access to her until he agrees to start spying on the FBI's investigation of them from the inside, just as the FBI starts pressuring him to infiltrate the group. It was advertises as being similar to a cross between the movies Her and Ex Machina.
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Jul 10, 2017 17:13
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Chairman Capone posted:The Message takes the form of a cryptography podcast whose host gets involved with a cryptography consulting firm hired to decode an alien message received by a US military radio station at the end of World War II in 1945. However, as the message begins to be decoded, the effects of listening to it causes mental harm to certain people who hear it - which becomes a bigger problem as the message is broadcast around the world, leading to people beginning to succumb to its effects worldwide. The thing I liked about these was they went into them with the theory of the "villain" had to be audio because too many podcasts rely on describing something evil and unnatural but the podcast format lets them focus on using sound itself as the bad guy. I thought that was a neat take
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Jul 10, 2017 17:23
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I think I'm going to drop Mabel now that I'm entirely caught up with it. I'm going to give it one more episode, but I just don't enjoy it as much as I did when I started. I don't feel like the story has progressed in like 10 episodes.
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Jul 10, 2017 17:28
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Surprised I have not found King Falls AM on here. King Falls AM- Its a podcast set in a small town. The two hosts are running a late night talk show where different members of the public call in about whatever subjects they happen to want to talk about. While its much more grounded in reality then welcome to nightvale, it is very much "odd stuff happens" in a small town. Alot of fun and I actually like it as much as early and recent nightvale, and much better then the weird pile in the middle that was Strex.
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Jul 10, 2017 17:56
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New Leaf posted:I think I'm going to drop Mabel now that I'm entirely caught up with it. I'm going to give it one more episode, but I just don't enjoy it as much as I did when I started. I don't feel like the story has progressed in like 10 episodes. Mabel started out strong but season 2 consists largely of relationship stuff and doesn't do anything with the larger mystery.
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Jul 12, 2017 04:19
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Spoilers for this week's Tanis: How old is this Eld Fen book supposed to be exactly? There's a letter from someone to HP Lovecraft about finding a copy that is seemingly in good shape despite its age, but it talks about a man driving a sedan on the highway. Lovecraft died in 1937, so how old could it possibly be? Like, 20 years?
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Jul 12, 2017 19:36
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New Leaf posted:Spoilers for this week's Tanis: How old is this Eld Fen book supposed to be exactly? There's a letter from someone to HP Lovecraft about finding a copy that is seemingly in good shape despite its age, but it talks about a man driving a sedan on the highway. Lovecraft died in 1937, so how old could it possibly be? Like, 20 years? I'm reasonably certain it's an out-of-place artifact, something unstuck in time. We already know time is very fluid where Tanis is concerned, what with Nic apparently living entire other lifetimes in "the other place."
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Jul 12, 2017 21:27
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Tanis and The Bright Sessions are being adapted for TV.quote:Based on the serialized, bi-weekly podcast, Tanis follows Nic Silver on his search to unravel what he thinks might be the last great mystery of the internet age. “Tanis” is what happens when the lines of science and fiction start to blur. Lee Shipman (The Son) is attached to adapt with podcast creator Terry Miles. Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) and Debbie Liebling (South Park) will produce through their POD 3 banner, along with Dark Horse.
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Jul 17, 2017 22:54
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They could go either way but I'm down.
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Jul 17, 2017 23:26
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We've already gotten more of a climactic fight scene from The Bright Sessions than the last show about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, so fingers crossed.
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Jul 17, 2017 23:56
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I'm a little confused about how the ambient vagueness of Tanis can be translated to TV, but if Sam Raimi is part of it the results should at least be interesting.
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Jul 18, 2017 01:09
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Inkspot posted:We've already gotten more of a climactic fight scene from The Bright Sessions than the last show about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, so fingers crossed. We got a linebacker beating up a goth kid (I picture Damien as a scrawny goth kid). What tv show have you been watching with superpowers where a nerd being beatup out actions it?
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Jul 18, 2017 01:13
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Homecoming season 2 started and there's an accompanying novella The Lost Coast. Also, Small Town Horror has been posting miniepisodes with tittles like "Do You Care?" and I'm like, buddy...
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Jul 19, 2017 21:01
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Slamhound posted:Also, Small Town Horror has been posting miniepisodes with tittles like "Do You Care?" and I'm like, buddy... Ha, I forgot that that podcast even existed. Montalvo fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jul 20, 2017 |
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Jul 20, 2017 00:57
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I could imagine these "Eld Fen" stories on Tanis as being read by Cecil from Night Vale.
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Jul 26, 2017 19:11
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Agentdark posted:Surprised I have not found King Falls AM on here. Oh Hey new thread! King Falls snatched mediocracy from the jaws of greatness. I thad such potential and the early ones that were in media res and then trailed off without a denouncement were so good. I honestly care nothing about the Emily story line and it just drags the show down. More things like Jack in the Box Jesus. (The Burger King of Kings)
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Jul 28, 2017 22:20
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The most recent Alice Isn't Dead was really good, and the next one promises to be even better. The show has meandered a bit in season two, but there was some genuinely scary stuff in this one.
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Jul 29, 2017 03:50
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Epcult fuckin rules y'all
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Jul 30, 2017 06:53
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Hughlander posted:Oh Hey new thread! Oh agreed. The Emily saga is dragging the whole show down. I'm not sure how you look at King Falls and think it needs a love triangle amnesia plot. There's a ton of other actually interesting plotlines they could follow instead. I'm trying to think of who they could cast to really capture Nick's chronic habits of stumbling into dangerous situations and being really slow on the uptake.
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Jul 31, 2017 13:48
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LordZoric posted:I'm trying to think of who they could cast to really capture Nick's chronic habits of stumbling into dangerous situations and being really slow on the uptake. Seth Green.
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Jul 31, 2017 13:55
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I wonder if they'll make the character really passionate about Blue Apron or Bombas Socks.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:40
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Turtlicious posted:Seth Green. Oh. Oh it's perfect. New Leaf posted:I wonder if they'll make the character really passionate about Blue Apron or Bombas Socks. I just hope the dramatic thud doesn't go away.
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Jul 31, 2017 19:29
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Aubrey Plaza for MK.
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Aug 1, 2017 00:16
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The manufactured Emily drama has really killed King Falls. It's just loving boring. Izzy is a sequel to The Behemoth. 14 years after Max disappeared, there's been a sighting in the Solomon Islands. The 10 episodes were released at once. It's a pretty decent follow-up. The Infinite follows an astronaut on a deep space mission. After his partner dies, he's only left with the computer to talk to. The first episode was engaging enough.
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Aug 1, 2017 18:27
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Does anyone know anything about "Darker Projects"? They're a weird group that seemed to have been really really active before Serialized Podcasts hit it off, (Most their stuff seems to be 2007 to 2009.) But they have this annoying rear end habit of releasing 2-3 episodes of something, on the same day if the RSS feed is to be believed and then dropping it. I only heard of them from people talking about The Byron Chronicles which was ok in the first few seasons but went to poo poo after that and apparently they're still making new ones. But for some of these older ones like 'Generation One' were there really just 2 episodes produced, released on the same day, then given up on? WTF? Or Far Horizon, 6 episodes and it just peters out...
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Aug 9, 2017 16:36
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