Podcast Reviews

Podcasts! It's like radio-on-demand. I listen to far too many of them - fiction podcasts, to be precise. Like many, I was introduced to the concept via Welcome to Night Vale and I've been hooked on the medium ever since. And I sure have opinions about them, and I thought, hey, it's my website! So here are my official Podcast Reviews. This isn't an exhaustive list of every podcast I've ever listened to - there's a few I excluded because I couldn't remember enough to form an opinion about them. But if I have an opinion, even just "meh", it's on here.

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Alice Isn't Dead ◆ ◉

Searching for her missing wife, a truck driver sets off on an extended version of the classic American road trip, complete with supernatural almost-human monsters. This one was made by the creators of Welcome to Night Vale, and it features a pattern of alternating between the actual plot and musings about American road culture, which can be mildly bothersome. Fairly relaxing, but also a horror podcast, so it can be unsettling at times.

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The AM Archives ◆ ◉

One of the sequels to The Bright Sessions, listen to that first. The new staff of the local branch of the AM attempt to dismantle a system that has caused considerable injustice...and, uh, it's not handled great. Some of the messages in this podcast contract those from the previous one, character and plot decisions are made that I personally dislike, and overall, the podcast doesn't sit right with me.

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Archive 81 ◆ ◉

I'm going to be so honest: I've heard people rave about this podcast, but I don't see the appeal. I could not for the life of me tell you what this podcast is supposed to be about. Each season is almost entirely disconnected from the previous, with very different themes in each. Choices are made that are jarring and confusing. This is also a podcast that sorely needs content warnings, but lacks them: it features some particularly disturbing body horror.

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ars PARADOXICA ◆ ◉

A scientist from the modern day accidentally invents time travel and is sucked back to the 1940s. The US government proceeds to exploit time travel for all it’s worth. This podcast ruined almost every other time travel story for me because it was so well executed. The plot is gripping and the characters and their relationships are compelling. However, the convoluted plot can be tricky to follow - nonetheless, I recommend this one.

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The Black Tapes ◆ ◉

A nosy reporter and a skeptic paranormal researcher investigate the few mysteries the latter hasn’t been able to disprove. They uncover a complex supernatural conspiracy, and...nothing. It turns out the only person who knew how to write a story left the show after the first season. This show was put on indefinite hiatus after pretty much the worst final episode of any podcast I have ever listened to. This podcast will forever trouble me. It had so much potential, all gone to waste. Still, if you like finishing stories in your head, I recommend listening to the first season of this series.

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The Bright Sessions ◆ ◉ ★

People with superpowers go to therapy. Also, the therapist has ulterior motives, and there’s a secret government organization getting up to all kinds of shady business. This is a very character-centric podcast, and it does some really interesting things with how it handles its antagonists. Your milage may vary, but I quite like this one.

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The Deep Vault ◆ ◉

A small group of people delve into a government bunker in order to shelter the oncoming apocalypse, but find danger inside. Made by the creators of Archive 81, which probably should have been a warning. There is some pretty excruciating body horror that is not labeled with a content warning, but absolutely needs one. This is just...not a good podcast. The writing feels amateurish, poorly adapted to an audio medium, the characters are flat and grating, and the story itself was boring and meaningless to me. Would not recommend.

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DERELICT ◆ ◉ ★

Currently, only a prequel season, FATHOM, is available to listen. FATHOM is a story about an underwater research base investigating a mysterious, enormous vault door found at the bottom of Earth’s ocean...and what happens when it opens. This is a tense, action-packed story about hard decisions, desperate situations, and lies and manipulation. I really enjoyed this one! FATHOM is a self-contained story, but I'm excited to see what the rest of DERELICT has to offer.

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Down ◆ ◉

Five people get in a very fancy submarine to explore a newly-discovered deep-sea trench aptly named “The Bottomless Pit”. Here there be monsters. This is a solidly mediocre podcast, which is a shame, because I love the premise. However, the characters are boring and the episodes and story are short and don't do anything new or interesting.

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I Am In Eskew ◆ ◉

A reporter tells stories about happenings in the eerie city of Eskew. This one’s made by the creators of The Magnus Archives, and it shows. It’s very similar in style and format, although I didn’t get far into it, so I don’t know if there’s a big metaplot or if it’s exclusively episodic. It seems to be of fairly good quality, but I wasn’t hooked, so I stopped listening. I might return to it if the mood strikes me.

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Janus Descending ◆ ◉

Two scientists investigate mysterious ruins on an alien planet. The logs of both characters are presented in alternating order, with one set of logs presented chronologically, the other, backwards. This didn’t do it for me (killed the tension) but someone else may enjoy it.

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King Falls AM ◆ ◉

This podcast takes the form of a radio talk show set in the small town of King Falls. Werewolves, UFOs, and secret cults are all present...but probably not quite in the way you’d think. The tone of this one was weird, a little crass, but ultimately heartwarming and surprisingly compelling. Unfortunately, the creators had a falling out and the show has been effectively canceled on a cliffhanger.

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The Lovecraft Investigations ◆ ◉

Hosts of a podcast-within-a-podcast investigate what they think is a normal true crime mystery, and stumble into something far stranger than they could even imagine. It's not a bad take on a modern retelling of some of Lovecraft's stories. However, it didn't make a very strong impression on me - it's just too professional, I think.

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The Magnus Archives ◆ ◉ ★

An archivist working for an organization dedicated to investigating the supernatural tries to organize and digitize hundreds of statements about all manner of paranormal encounters. Each episode tells a single well-crafted horror story, but in the background, a grand metaplot builds and builds until it eventually takes over. You could really use a corkboard and red string while listening to this one. It's quite good, but it is VERY long, and paced rather slowly.

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The Mantawauk Caves ◆ ◉

This short horror podcast follows an aspiring writer as he returns to his hometown in a last-ditch attempt to prevent an old friend from being executed for a murder he did not commit. To do so, he must find the killer, while fighting blackouts and a police force which would rather he not interfere in their plans. The plot takes some interesting, well-foreshadowed turns. It should be noted that this podcast contains some particularly disturbing and graphic content: heed the show's content warnings.

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Old Gods of Appalachia ◆ ◉ ★

This is a horror anthology series set in historical America, about dark forces in the forests and under the hills and the people whose lives are changed by them. The stories weave supernatural horror with the very real horrors of prejudice and exploitation into a fascinating, horrifying masterpiece.

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Station 151 ◆ ◉

The premise of this one seemed familiar, but compelling: an astronomer must spend a year alone in an Antarctic research station, owned by a mysterious corporation. The podcast bills itself as a work of horror fiction, and yet...it isn't? Events that would under normal circumstances be chilling and dreadful are made comical and absurd by the bizarre choices made in writing. Some characters have inconsistent motives, and the plot takes some truly incomprehensible turns, including the sudden appearance of an mutant alien frog person from the future named Spegg. The season finale cuts off abruptly on what I assume was meant to be a cliffhanger, but just feels like half the script went missing. I do not understand this podcast. I do not understand why the creators think they have written a horror podcast. I do not understand what the point of the story is. Why does this exist.

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TANIS ◆ ◉

So. You know how The Black Tapes declined because its later seasons were written by a man who doesn't know how to tell stories? What if that guy wrote an entire goddamn podcast? Welcome to TANIS, where everything might be connected, nothing is learned, and characters deliver excruciatingly bad dialogue in slow, flat voices. The one thing this podcast might be good for is putting you to sleep, were it not for all the goddamned advertisements. If you look up this podcast and think the concept seems interesting, just go read Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, which is actually good.

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Welcome To Night Vale ◆ ◉

Ah, the classic. A smooth-voiced reporter delivers the news in a town where the horrifying, eldritch, and surreal are perfectly normal. But that new scientist that came to town...well, he fell in love instantly. This one retains its episodic format through its entire run. As far as I know, the goal of the creators is to keep making it for as long as conceivably possible. They can do that - I tapped out after about 150 episodes.

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The White Vault ◆ ◉ ★

A repair team visits an outpost in the frigid Arctic and discovers ancient ruins deep beneath the ice. Something is hunting them. That’s the first two seasons, anyway. If you want a nice, terrifying, self-contained horror podcast, the first two seasons are all you need. If you want to know more about what’s happening and how it fits into the bigger picture, listen to the other three seasons as well. The last couple of seasons explore the horror of systems and how difficult it is to fight them. It’s fun!

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Wolf 359 ◆ ◉ ★★★

I'm capping this off with my favorite podcast of all time. Despite its rocky start (it doesn’t really hit its stride until episode 12), Wolf 359 continues to be one of the most compelling works of fiction I’ve ever consumed. The characters are fun and interesting, the story has a great balance of tension and comedy, and the writing fits seamlessly into an audio medium. A lot of other audio dramas struggle to depict action and other things without resorting to clumsy contrivances, but in this podcast, it’s so natural I almost never notice it. This is a science fiction podcast that asks interesting questions about the nature of consciousness and personhood (I get the feeling it inspired a lot of other podcasts to ask these questions), forgiveness, and humanity. There’s a plant monster! The aliens are genuinely alien in a really creative way! And remember: of all the horrors you will face in the void of space, nothing compares to the existential horror that is Funzo.

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