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Fictional Podcasts |OT| - "You mean it isn't real?"

M

More_Badass

Member
Skittles said:
Looking for stuff like the Magnus Archives(that's close to it in quality too). Can't wait for season two to start on that series. Currently downloading Limetown and Sayer
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Haven't found anything quite as good. At least for me, it's the top horror series.

Sayer is my second favorite. Much like Magnus, it's mainly told through a single actor so it has a consistent acting quality throughout. Tone is sci-fi weirdness and mystery with dark dry humor akin to GlaDOS. Enough eerie implications to be creepy, while also being on the absurd sci-fi side

Mabel and The Bright Sessions are the other series I've been listening to recently
 
L

LuffyZoro

Member
I really like audio dramas/podcasts/ but it seems like almost all of them being produced are horror-based, which isn't really my thing most of the time. I want more shows like Cabin Pressure.

Malyse said:
Big Data is shockingly terrible. What a waste of talent.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I listened to half of the first episode and just couldn't take it anymore.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
LuffyZoro said:
I really like audio dramas/podcasts/ but it seems like almost all of them being produced are horror-based, which isn't really my thing most of the time. I want more shows like Cabin Pressure.
Click to expand...
Off the top of my head

- Marscorp
- Beef and Dairy Network
- The Bright Sessions
- Homecoming
- Twilight Histories
- The Deep Vault
- The Orbiting Human Circus
- Ars Paradoxica
- Uncanny County
 
D

DagsJT

Member
Listened to Darkest Night episode 1 yesterday. Not sure what I can say without spoilers but daaaamn! Really well created with superb sound effects and maybe the best acting I've heard in a podcast (albeit my sample size is small).

Really highly recommended.
 
M

Malyse

Member
Dropped A New Winter and The Search. I just couldn't give a damn about the mystery and the acting was too stilted to hold immersion. Help Me might be next.

I think I'm in on Hector vs. The Future. Episode 1 is pretty funny.

Also, really liked the first episode of The Box.

And yes. Darkest Night is your new favorite podcast.
 
S

Skittles

Member
More_Badass said:
Haven't found anything quite as good. At least for me, it's the top horror series.

Sayer is my second favorite. Much like Magnus, it's mainly told through a single actor so it has a consistent acting quality throughout. Tone is sci-fi weirdness and mystery with dark dry humor akin to GlaDOS. Enough eerie implications to be creepy, while also being on the absurd sci-fi side

Mabel and The Bright Sessions are the other series I've been listening to recently
Click to expand...
I thought as much. This is my first entry into podcasts and even I could tell it's ridiculously high quality.

Currently on deck I have Sayer, Limetown, Tanis, Archive 81, Pleasure Town, Knifepoint, Mabel. Then Bright Sessions, Magic Tavern, and Uncanny County for lighter stuff. Still not completely sure if I should go through with Nightvale yet. It seems very "A series of unfortunate events" but just a bit too silly at times. Plus impressions throughout the thread aren't selling me on anything past the first season. Anyway, it might be a few months before I even get through a few of those lmfao.
 
F

Fancolors

Member
I just listened to Darkest Night and, surprisingly, it was phenomenal.

I usually don't like horror in podcast format because I tend to find stuff like No Sleep to be yawn inducing, but the acting quality and the sound editing on this one are soooo good and Ep 5 was genuinely terrifying.
 
V

Voror

Member
Completed the first season of The Magnus Archives. Really love this series and very excited to see Season Two start. I admit that of the recurring plots the
Jane Prentiss
stuff was the less interesting I think compared to those involving
the Leitner books
. I did like how little connections kept popping up in weird ways with two instances (Freefall and Taken Ill) giving hints at people the Institute might be familiar with, but who we haven't really gotten anything on just yet.

By far the most disturbing part of the finale was
poor Sasha
. When I realized what was going to happen and then when it did I sort of got chills.
I can only imagine the stuff with Not-Sasha will be a recurring thing, but at the very least the real one is probably gone for good.
Creepiest thing is
how very wrong Not-Sasha's account is. It wasn't just the the change in actress but just the way she spoke with odd pause throughout and stating things like it only knew them second hand or was trying to get the memories together.
 
jediyoshi

jediyoshi

Member
LuffyZoro said:
I really like audio dramas/podcasts/ but it seems like almost all of them being produced are horror-based, which isn't really my thing most of the time. I want more shows like Cabin Pressure.
Click to expand...

For non-horror, I'd suggest I Love Bees. It was part of the radio drama produced for the Halo 2 ARG back in 2004, but it's amazingly written/acted and is almost completely removed from Halo fiction. The production is still better than every radio drama I've listened to since, big emphasis on characters/sound effects in stereo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FF4W75rYZc&list=PL97CF6BF5DF93C9E0
 
S

Skittles

Member
Wow, almost done with S1 of The Magnus Archives and just listened to my favorite story yet. Anatomy Class is some next level stuff. I did not expect to get hit with an uncanny valley feeling through audio. The whole thing got so weird it kind of freaked me out. the part where
they all hold up their hearts and start pumping them each in their own grotesque way, was such a holy shit moment.
. It's probably the archivist's best reading performance so far too(which helped to sell the whole thing)
 
S

Speely

Banned
Giving "The Once and Future Nerd" a try and am enjoying it more than I thought I would. Fun romp even if the meta-nerd humor sometimes misses.

After Sayer I feel spoiled for much else, sadly. It was SO good.
 
S

Skittles

Member
so it looks like the magnus archives is planned for 5 seasons. he's got pretty much everything planned out so thats good to hear.

finished the last ep of the magnus archives. god damn, so many questions.
so the tapes missing are A Distortion and Strange music. the common thread between them are that they both feature sasha at one point...
 
S

Skittles

Member
Well, Sayer already hooked me with its first episode. the black comedy in place here is top notch
episode 6 was made worse due to the fact that
i have the same last name
 
M

Malyse

Member
Holy shit.
Wolf 359 becomes an excellent series further in. The last few are some of the best hours of entertainment I've ever heard in my life.
 
N

Natiko

Banned
Went through all of We're Alive and the follow-up. I enjoyed it for trying some new stuff with zombies. Now to start something new.
 
S

Skittles

Member
So for episode 11 of Sayer, I thought
he would have to cut off his genitals. Didn't help that the episode was named "A Private Moment". Surprisingly this didn't end up happening.
 
P

parrotbeak

Member
I finally finished Magnus over the long weekend and have been relistening to past eps to put things together better. It really makes more sense the second time through and there hasn't been an ep yet where I was bored even on repeated listen. I need to relisten to the last two eps one more time before the new season.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
parrotbeak said:
I listened to them on the drive home and then listened to the new ep while making dinner.

Great way to start the season! Now the hard part when you started late on a series and marathoned it and are now caught up and have to wait for the next ep.
Click to expand...
I have so many podcasts to listen to in my queue that I never run out of things in between.

According to stats, I've listen to almost 1000 hours of podcasts since June

As for Magnus Archives S2, I like where things are going.
Having a variation on the tapes - one type for regular cases, one for the secret investigation - should make the format feel fresh. And the new paranoid and active Sims is already a more interesting character
 
V

Voror

Member
More_Badass said:
I have so many podcasts to listen to in my queue that I never run out of things in between.

According to stats, I've listen to almost 1000 hours of podcasts since June

As for Magnus Archives S2, I like where things are going.
Having a variation on the tapes - one type for regular cases, one for the secret investigation - should make the format feel fresh. And the new paranoid and active Sims is already a more interesting character
Click to expand...

I've got a few like that. I have many I do listen to weekly while others are more in reserve. Some have piled up quite a bit unfortunately.

It's definitely a direction that leads to some new territory.
It has been interesting to see Sims go from annoyed and a bit stuffy regarding the job to far more interested, emotional, and paranoid with everything. Very curious to see where it takes him. I'm unsure if he's right that it's someone he knows that he needs to watch for.

I admit it's hard to think of Tim or Martin being dangerous, especially the latter. I would have said the same for Sasha, but Not-Sasha represents a new, different danger that he doesn't even know of. Elias I don't think we know enough about yet. I think the Lucas family is definitely one he may want to watch out for. I do sort of think dismissing the tunnels isn't necessarily wise, but then there doesn't seem to be anything he can actually do about them.

I wonder if he'll be distracted a bit now when doing other cases or if he'll also start looking into connections that have popped up like the Kaey family or how Leitner books keep popping up.

Probably one of the most disturbing things this episode was the possible implication that Sims is already dead and we're just listening to all the tapes or the new Archivist is.
 
S

Skittles

Member
Voror said:
I've got a few like that. I have many I do listen to weekly while others are more in reserve. Some have piled up quite a bit unfortunately.

It's definitely a direction that leads to some new territory.
It has been interesting to see Sims go from annoyed and a bit stuffy regarding the job to far more interested, emotional, and paranoid with everything. Very curious to see where it takes him. I'm unsure if he's right that it's someone he knows that he needs to watch for.

I admit it's hard to think of Tim or Martin being dangerous, especially the latter. I would have said the same for Sasha, but Not-Sasha represents a new, different danger that he doesn't even know of. Elias I don't think we know enough about yet. I think the Lucas family is definitely one he may want to watch out for. I do sort of think dismissing the tunnels isn't necessarily wise, but then there doesn't seem to be anything he can actually do about them.

I wonder if he'll be distracted a bit now when doing other cases or if he'll also start looking into connections that have popped up like the Kaey family or how Leitner books keep popping up.

Probably one of the most disturbing things this episode was the possible implication that Sims is already dead and we're just listening to all the tapes or the new Archivist is.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's heavy implications that
Sims is dead/missing and has either been replaced, or someone like Martin is putting together the whole picture. Makes sense because of how last season's finale was structured. Someone put together the separate tapes into something coherent. They even found the 2 Sasha related tapes that were stolen and the tape Sasha was using when she got killed/replaced.

I look forward to this new structure of recordings. It'll be interesting to see Sim's descent into madness and paranoia. Plus we'll probably get to know more about the inner structure of the Magnus Institute. I'm still wondering what the hell made that voice in the very first recording he did. It's probably what has been watching him though
 
V

Voror

Member
Skittles said:
Yeah, there's heavy implications that
Sims is dead/missing and has either been replaced, or someone like Martin is putting together the whole picture. Makes sense because of how last season's finale was structured. Someone put together the separate tapes into something coherent. They even found the 2 Sasha related tapes that were stolen and the tape Sasha was using when she got killed/replaced.

I look forward to this new structure of recordings. It'll be interesting to see Sim's descent into madness and paranoia. Plus we'll probably get to know more about the inner structure of the Magnus Institute. I'm still wondering what the hell made that voice in the very first recording he did. It's probably what has been watching him though
Click to expand...

If that does end up being the case I'd imagine whoever is doing it is in just as much danger as Sims is now if not more. I'd be curious if we'll see a change in protagonist at some point or if Sims will carry on until the end. It was said in the Q&A that one of the first things he did was come up with the ending and I believe the current plan was 5 seasons. Given how things keep changing though I can't even imagine what the format would be like by Season 5.

That'd make me quite sad to see him get more and more nuts as time goes on. I'd imagine the others are going to start getting very worried about him, which in his paranoia he might take the wrong way rightfully or not. I'm definitely curious to learn more about the Institute especially if there is anything mysterious in its founding. I should listen to that again. I think it was repeating the words on the crest of the Institute, but definitely agree it may be the thing watching him.

Given all the eye symbols that have popped up throughout it may all be related.
 
D

DagsJT

Member
I listened to "A Story About You" today and .. it was fine. I wouldn't say it was as good as I've heard it is, I'm not even sure if was the best Night Vale episode.

It was told well and it was interesting enough but nothing special.

MB, you checked out Darkest Night yet?
 
M

More_Badass

Member
DagsJT said:
I listened to "A Story About You" today and .. it was fine. I wouldn't say it was as good as I've heard it is, I'm not even sure if was the best Night Vale episode.

It was told well and it was interesting enough but nothing special.

MB, you checked out Darkest Night yet?
Click to expand...
I'm getting there, got a bunch in my queue before it
 
G

Glass Shark

Banned
Anyone listening to LifeAfter? Surely I can't be the only one who finds this show infuriating. I find the main character so completely and utterly unlikeable and unrelatable that I don't know if I can continue listening. He's a bumbling sad sack addict who only three episodes in is constantly making horrible decisions... I literally screamed at my phone while listening to e3.
 
M

Malyse

Member
jrh2 said:
Anyone listening to LifeAfter? Surely I can't be the only one who finds this show infuriating. I find the main character so completely and utterly unlikeable and unrelatable that I don't know if I can continue listening. He's a bumbling sad sack addict who only three episodes in is constantly making horrible decisions... I literally screamed at my phone while listening to e3.
Click to expand...
That's what makes it compelling.
 
P

parrotbeak

Member
jrh2 said:
Anyone listening to LifeAfter? Surely I can't be the only one who finds this show infuriating. I find the main character so completely and utterly unlikeable and unrelatable that I don't know if I can continue listening. He's a bumbling sad sack addict who only three episodes in is constantly making horrible decisions... I literally screamed at my phone while listening to e3.
Click to expand...
I was getting pissed in e2 and haven't listened to e3 yet. Maybe I will drop it.

I get that hearing a loved one's voice is extremely emotionally comforting but I would have been so angry once I found out it was a con. It is difficult to relate to but I sorta buy that he may be so addicted to her voice that he can't let go even if he knows it's fake. But yes, this makes him such a pathetic character and he has little else going for him, so not sure I want to listen to him go down this terrible path.

jrh2 said:
I dunno... that kind of thing just doesn't appeal to me. I had to stop watching The Walking Dead because of the constant horrible decisions made by the characters.
Click to expand...
With TWD I'm fine with the bad decisions because they are in extremely stressful situations. I wouldn't find it realistic if they made good decisions all the time.
 
D

dr3upmushroom

Banned
Listening to Magnus Archives now thanks to the thread, really great so far. Narrotor is good and I like the knifepoint vibe.

Anyone else listening to Small Town Horror? I like it so far, season 2 really picks up.

I'm still deciding whether I like Darkest Night, I like the voice acting and the over arching narrative is interesting but the actual episodic stories are kinda lame and I feel like it might not "pay off".
 
N

Natiko

Banned
Started and now current on Darkest Night. It's pretty amazing. Finally started and am now current on Tanis too. The first season was alright, but I really didn't like large portions of the second season. That ending was a real stinker. Now to decide what to tackle next.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
I didn't realize that Darkest Night was an anthology, so I was expecting episode 2 to continue the And Then There Were None/Corporate Saw story
 
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