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

Welp. My nano project gonna have to be Magnus-inspired at this point. Brain was full of murakami last year and black company/Malazan the year before. This year it's some epistolary anthology horror with a meta-plot for sure.

As far as the season finale goes:
I loved
doubling down on Lovecraft influence.
I loved
who was in the tunnels
. I loved the description of
the end of the library
.

Not surprised at that one reveal but not disappointed. I figured we had another season to go before
john would leave the archives

Yea, Jon pretty much projected Elias heel turn months ago with his suspicions.
 

Skittles

Member
That's how I feel about all their podcasts.
Tanis could have been a fantastic 2 season show, but they fucked that up by making it longer than it needed to be.

Man with The Magnus Archives and Alice isn't Dead both taking a break between seasons, I don't really have too much to look forward to in terms of weekly updates besides Sayer. Hopefully Uncanny County, The Earth Collective, and The Leviathan Chronicles start their next seasons soon. It'd also be nice if The Bridge came back from hiatus. Right now I'm just going through backlogged podcasts.

Started The Dark Tome, it's alright so far. Not particularly all that good, but not terrible to listen to. Hopefully the meta story picks up soon.

I feel like Mabel would be so much better if they got a better narrator and changed how she talked.
 
Sayer was finished for a while but just came back a few weeks ago with new episodes, so you have one full story to listen to with that

Darkest Night is kind of mediocre IMO; first few episodes were cool, but I liked it less with each episode

Sayer and Magnus Archives are my favorites. If you do check out Sayer, give it at least the first 6 episodes

I haven't listened much to Darkest Night season 2. I really dislike the narrator, takes me out of the story, pacing is weird and overall the stories were not that interesting. I'll have to check out some of the other ones being recommended in the thread.
 
Alright, I really only care about horror podcasts, but too many people have said Sayer, so I'm giving it a go. I'll give it 6 episodes as suggested. Will post back with impressions.

I'll give The Dark Tome a go as well.
 

Sulik2

Member
Wow that Magnus season finale was incredible. Some mysteries explained more revealed the overall plot coming into focus. This is going to get an incredible TV show adaptation in a few years I bet.

So each of Lightners assistants was consumed by one of entries. I bet those assistants are going to show up again. As the lead villain of each rep and now we k ow how to group the categories of paranormal.
 

aravuus

Member
I'm not a fan of The Magnus Archives' narrator who sounds like a young man trying too hard to come off as old and sophisticated and how the statements aren't very distinct at all, it's easy to tell they're all written by the same guy, but other than these complaints, I'm REALLY enjoying this. Intriguing mysteries, very excited to hear more about the overarching plot.
 
I'm not a fan of The Magnus Archives' narrator who sounds like a young man trying too hard to come off as old and sophisticated and how the statements aren't very distinct at all, it's easy to tell they're all written by the same guy, but other than these complaints, I'm REALLY enjoying this. Intriguing mysteries, very excited to hear more about the overarching plot.
The singular voice and tone is a huge plus for me. I don't have many positive impressions of audiodrama casts, and much prefer ones with a single solid voice. Magnus, Sayer, Twilight Histories, Levar Burton Reads

And what makes Magnus so good IMO, especially in the first season, is the sense of unknown, how these horrific things and situations just happen and the victims are just trying to react and comprehend rather than trying to solve the mystery. It gives the stories a pervasive sense of dread
 

aravuus

Member
26 episodes into The Magnus Archives already, goddamn I'm hooked. My complaints remain more or less the same, but I don't really pay any attention to them any more. There are still some moments where I'm having difficulty suspending my disbelief, but they're rare thankfully.

Kinda wishing I had a job in which I could easily concentrate on listening to podcasts while working lol.
 
26 episodes into The Magnus Archives already, goddamn I'm hooked. My complaints remain more or less the same, but I don't really pay any attention to them any more. There are still some moments where I'm having difficulty suspending my disbelief, but they're rare thankfully.

Kinda wishing I had a job in which I could easily concentrate on listening to podcasts while working lol.
Any favorites yet? Most here seem to have their own different lists of favorites, which I think is the mark of a good anthology series
 

aravuus

Member
Any favorites yet? Most here seem to have their own different lists of favorites, which I think is the mark of a good anthology series

The quality has been very consistent actually so it's a bit hard to pick clear favorites, but the ones with some of the strangest, most memorable imagery definitely stand out. So MAG 5: Thrown Away (
a fucking garbage bag full of teeth
, how awesome is that?!), MAG 7: The Piper (
with the three-headed piper
), MAG 12: First Aid (the whole thing, not as strange as the others, but definitely memorable), MAG 18: The Man Upstairs (
DUDE LOVES HIS MEAT
) are pretty high up there, I'd say.

Honorable mention goes to MAG 25: Growing Dark for getting me to physically react for the first time so far when
I afterwards realized just what the girlfriend had eaten in the dark kitchen with the crazy cult chick.
Genuinely made me shudder.

Also I gotta say I'm loving all the small connections that are starting to appear here and there. Thank god for the wikia episode summaries, makes keeping track of all the names and things much easier. Shame they stop at 60, but at this rate it'll take me at least 2 more days to get there lmao.
 

FunnyJay

Neo Member
Honorable mention goes to MAG 25: Growing Dark...

Did they actually reveal what it was or did you just draw your own conclusions?
I personally didn't really get a conclusive thought on what it might be... But it sounded really nasty...
 

Skittles

Member
The Man Upstairs seems to be universally loved. Fantastic story. You have so much good stuff to go.

Probably gonna start paying for the No Sleep season pass. $20 is really cheap and I get enough enjoyment out of it to justify it. Even though it can be quite the mixed bag sometimes. Can suffer from the problem of spending wayyyyyyyyy too much time of frivolous dialogue which has nothing to do with the story at hand. Some of the authors on the show just spend too much time trying to add characterization/relationships, even though we're barely with these characters. Meaning that they can spend 20-30 minutes building up a character, even though it's a short story and we won't ever see them again.

Did they actually reveal what it was or did you just draw your own conclusions?
I personally didn't really get a conclusive thought on what it might be... But it sounded really nasty...
Been awhile, but was it
a lightbulb?
 

aravuus

Member
Did they actually reveal what it was or did you just draw your own conclusions?
I personally didn't really get a conclusive thought on what it might be... But it sounded really nasty...

Oh no, just drawing my own conclusions, but it was heavily implied to be
human skin.
 

Skittles

Member
Has anyone else been listening to Wolf 359?
It's in my back log, is it good?

Within in the Wires just dropped the first episode of S2 and The Earth Collective dropped their last inter-season episode. Good stuff on the way.

I though I'd like Starship Iris a lot more than I do. Just failing it really grab me right now. Doesn't help that the audio quality is atrocious for most of the actors.

Are there any new shows worth picking up More_Badass?
 
Yes. It takes a while to get going though. The first season or so is a different show than what it becomes. It's one of my favourites right now (the other one being Magnus Archives)

I just read the TVTropes description of Wolf 359. Wasn't on my radar before, and I'm not as into sci-fi as other things, but it's definitely in my plan-to-listen list now.
 

aravuus

Member
Done with the first season of The Magnus Archives. Damn good stuff! Been listening to it a bit religiously over the past few days, so I think this is a good time to take a break for a couple of days.
 
Has anyone heard anything about Season 3 of Black Tapes? I know it just started, and is, I am told, only supposed to be six episodes?

My wife and I binged it in the last week as it was our first fictional podcast, and we've really liked it... but it also feels like it narratively escalated to such a ridiculous place that I feel like they've written themselves into a clumsy corner with Season 3.

Thanks to this thread we've queued up Magnus Archives as our next podcast!
 

Sulik2

Member
Has anyone heard anything about Season 3 of Black Tapes? I know it just started, and is, I am told, only supposed to be six episodes?

My wife and I binged it in the last week as it was our first fictional podcast, and we've really liked it... but it also feels like it narratively escalated to such a ridiculous place that I feel like they've written themselves into a clumsy corner with Season 3.

Thanks to this thread we've queued up Magnus Archives as our next podcast!

Magnus ruined black tapes for me. I never finished the first season of black tapes after Magnus revealed how good the format could be. You are going to love it.
 

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
Black Tapes didn't get why people liked it so much at the start.

Those early eps were spooky and anthology style, now it's just a boring mess of characters I don't care about.
 
Once we caught up on Black Tapes, the wife requested we try Tanis before starting Magnus Archives...

... man, you guys weren't freaking kidding about how repetitive it/Black Tapes are. They feel somehow identical despite telling, largely different stories. The writer clearly just has a style here, where I feel that they are creative, and talented world-builders, without the capacity for meaningful payoff. Its almost how X-files felt if you happened to be one of those who watched for the lore/macro-level narrative.
 

FunnyJay

Neo Member
Dear God this.

You do not care about Richard Strand and his entire extended family who are
the most important people in the entire world for some reason
?

Or that the main journalist has
sleep deprivation
? Spoooooooooooooookyyyy!

Seriously, those "middle-of-the-night" recordings she did as some kind of extra feature were utterly pointless. That's when I got tired of the show, even if I did finish season 2.


Magnus Archives is really a lot better! And not one in-universe sock-commercial in sight! ;)
 

TrutaS

Member
Black Tape went with the conspiracy society that always gets messy in these storylines. Keep it personal, keep it personal. I tried season 3 and the abundance of name dropping got me bored. Trying out Magnus right now, thanks for the recommendation!
 
i also really enjoyed BT and Tanis at first and then stopped listening completely. I really wish they had gone in different directions cuz they were great at first. I even stayed with it through Alex's sleep deprivation recordings.

Makes me appreciate MA even more though.
 
I believe I have 2 episodes left of both Black Tapes and Tanis season 1. If I'm being honest neither one has managed to really grab me at any point so I think I'll be dropping them after I finish S1 (sounds like it never really gets any better based on what I'm reading).
 
What killed my interest in Black Tapes was that they built up towards this big reveal finale in season 1 but was it so blatantly obvious what was happening over the entire season that it wasn't a grand reveal. It was an anticlimactic "wow, these characters are idiots. We've known all this for half the season already".

And on top of that, they clearly didn't realize what was interesting about the show because they treated the super obvious information as a big finale cliffhanger and put the actually interesting reveal in the penultimate episode.

I didn't have any interest in listening to Season 2 after that, especially because the show was already shifting from creepy stories to mountains of lore and focusing on their poorly-written characters by the end of S1.

I actually like the faux podcast style, but Limetown does it best IMO.
 
Or that the main journalist has
sleep deprivation
? Spoooooooooooooookyyyy!

So annoyed when they did that same shit in both Black Tapes and Tanis, just changing it from
sleep deprivation to hypnosis

I feel like both had amazing premises but let the story spiral out of control. I am not even bothering with Rabbits due to this pattern.
 
Is Tanis over? I only ask because I know Blade Tapes was their main/first program, and somehow its limping across the finish line with an abbreviated 3rd season, while Tanis has already had three full ones.
 
Is Tanis over? I only ask because I know Blade Tapes was their main/first program, and somehow its limping across the finish line with an abbreviated 3rd season, while Tanis has already had three full ones.

Tanis was able to be made more easily as they just keep making the same episode over and over again.
 

Skittles

Member
Tanis was able to be made more easily as they just keep making the same episode over and over again.
The constant cycle between hypnosis, duex ex machine super hacker, and forgetting what happened in tanis got real old real fast . shame because theres actually interesting stuff sprinkled in between that gets pushed aside to hear nick drone on. Shoulda ended with season 2. Doesnt help that they tied their hands narratively by tying their podcasts together. Makes it to where nothing significant can happen to their characters or the world.
 
The constant cycle between hypnosis, duex ex machine super hacker, and forgetting what happened in tanis got real old real fast . shame because theres actually interesting stuff sprinkled in between that gets pushed aside to hear nick drone on. Shoulda ended with season 2. Doesnt help that they tied their hands narratively by tying their podcasts together. Makes it to where nothing significant can happen to their characters or the world.

I thought outside of an off-the-cuff mention of Nick "believing in magical cabins", the podcasts had nothing in common, and might as well be separate continuities?

I am actually, ironically, enjoying Tanis much more than Black Tapes. BT started strong, and immediately petered out when you realized every plot point would just keep building on an endless layered onion... but nothing would ever happen.

At least in Tanis they, thus far, haven't spent two seasons even deciding if Tanis is a real thing.

My biggest problem is also suspending disbelief in terms of Nick throwing money around as if they have an infinite budget... while we're supposed to believe they're a small podcast organization... (BOMBA socks.... sigh)
 
Really looking forward to the next MAG season. The latest season of The NoSleep Podcast has been excellent, I just got the season pass so I'll be going back through the season but even on the free version I've liked 2-3 stories every week.

I've also been listening to Mr.CreepyPasta, it's just one narrator most of the time and he does a decent job at it and usually picks stories that I haven't heard of before. And I haven't seen it mentioned here before but there's The Horror! (Old Time Radio), which basically put up old original recordings of horror themed radio dramas. Small Town Horror is also another horror themed podcast that had a good first season, second season might be hard to get through and the current season has been decent so far.

And yea, I'm done with the BT, I tried listening to the season 3 opener, and completely lost interest which is a shame because they do know how to create a cool atmosphere, just feel like they got too far up their ass with their story. Also, I stopped listening to season 2 of Archive 81 and Darkest Night.

The constant cycle between hypnosis, duex ex machine super hacker, and forgetting what happened in tanis got real old real fast . shame because theres actually interesting stuff sprinkled in between that gets pushed aside to hear nick drone on. Shoulda ended with season 2. Doesnt help that they tied their hands narratively by tying their podcasts together. Makes it to where nothing significant can happen to their characters or the world.

Tanis really felt like old DBZ broadcasting where most of the episode was recapping and talking about what's coming up. Last I remember
there was some strange cult.
and I lost interest after that.
 

Mupod

Member
Since this weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada and that means 9-10 hours of late night October driving for me I definitely want to find some new horror-themed podcasts. I was recommended Magnus Archives exactly one year ago in this thread (for the same purpose) and loved it, was actually hard saving up even 6-7 episodes for my drive, even though this season wasn't quite as good as the first.

I've been poking at Sayer for a while now, I like it overall but it hasn't grabbed me like Magnus Archives. I've got lots of episodes of that left so I will use it as filler if I can't find something else.

Black Tapes didn't hold my interest all that long, wasn't really what I was looking for.

I'll look into NoSleep and Lore for now, maybe I'll throw them on during my drive home tonight.
 

Skittles

Member
I'm really surprised No Sleep hasnt given magnus archives any kind of props yet

Oh fuck yes, uncanny county returns next week
 

Sulik2

Member
Since this weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada and that means 9-10 hours of late night October driving for me I definitely want to find some new horror-themed podcasts. I was recommended Magnus Archives exactly one year ago in this thread (for the same purpose) and loved it, was actually hard saving up even 6-7 episodes for my drive, even though this season wasn't quite as good as the first.

I've been poking at Sayer for a while now, I like it overall but it hasn't grabbed me like Magnus Archives. I've got lots of episodes of that left so I will use it as filler if I can't find something else.

Black Tapes didn't hold my interest all that long, wasn't really what I was looking for.

I'll look into NoSleep and Lore for now, maybe I'll throw them on during my drive home tonight.

The first season of Archive 81 is worth a good listen and would fill that time. Just skip the awful second season.
 
Since this weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada and that means 9-10 hours of late night October driving for me I definitely want to find some new horror-themed podcasts. I was recommended Magnus Archives exactly one year ago in this thread (for the same purpose) and loved it, was actually hard saving up even 6-7 episodes for my drive, even though this season wasn't quite as good as the first.

I've been poking at Sayer for a while now, I like it overall but it hasn't grabbed me like Magnus Archives. I've got lots of episodes of that left so I will use it as filler if I can't find something else.

Black Tapes didn't hold my interest all that long, wasn't really what I was looking for.

I'll look into NoSleep and Lore for now, maybe I'll throw them on during my drive home tonight.

I've stopped listening to Lore after 8 or so episodes. The new season of NoSleep has been great, definitely check it out.
 
Tried checking out some new podcasts that were recommended on Nosleep. Deadly Manners and The Death of Dr. John Parker didn't grab me, but White Vault seems to be pretty good and it has some of my favorite VAs.
 

Maxios

Member
Do any of you guys know how to find the old Pendant Audio podcasts? I've been wanting to relisten to the DC stuff but I can't find a site that has the files
 

Malyse

Member
Do any of you guys know how to find the old Pendant Audio podcasts? I've been wanting to relisten to the DC stuff but I can't find a site that has the files

Far as I can tell, they nuked it outta existence. I wanted to listen to the Star Trek stuff because other ST fan work actually crossed over into it, but it's gone.
 
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