I’m curious:
Hey, fellow horror-fiction-podcast-obsessed friends, I’ve got a baby theory rolling around in my head and I’m seeking proof. Bear with me - what’s your least favorite thing about your favorite podcast? Specifically not counting audio quality issues (for example, I struggled mightily with Jared Hopworth’s voice in TMA as well as with the volume balance in more action-y sequences at the end of s1 - but that’s sort of its own thing, and not applicable to the Theory)
Also I want to be clear that I have only tagged podcasts that I deeply love and I am not seeking negative feedback because of any kind of malice towards them. They have, collectively, eaten my brain
I was personally disappointed by the overall direction of TMA’s later seasons. It kind of felt like Jon was being used as a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in the podcast, all the way down to the apocalypse. I get that it’s supposed to be realistic portrayal of isolation/trauma or something, but it wasn’t narratively satisfying as a viewer of a piece of fictional media.
I loved each individual scene in S5 (I relisten to some of the death scenes even now, even though I hate major character death), but the overall vibe of it was kind of “Jon, why are you being such a bummer? You have so much power because you specifically chose to take it with no possible outside influences tainting your decision”. I chalk most of it up to me just really liking Jon, but at the same time Daisy gets way more leeway than he does, and she and Basira are straight up cops.
Malevolent is wonderful, I love it immensely, but the plot is all over the place. I watch it mostly for the soap-opera level relationship drama, but I wouldn’t necessarily even call that portion well written or well paced. I’m absolutely obsessed with it though, the character dynamic of “I love you but we’re just friends” is like crack to me. It’s a bit aimless overall.
I haven’t finished WTNV, but I do remember being kind of disappointed that the characters all talked like Cecil when they were introduced. Cecil has a very meandering, fantastical way of describing things that I thought was a part of his character, but when everyone talks like that it kind of takes away from his uniqueness. He has less of an interesting hook without his “Voice of Nightvale” schtick (it’s like, there’s a 5 headed dragon, and a secret police, and an old woman without a face, and a grandma who knows illegal angels. What is cecil compared to that? Some guy?). It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, so maybe this has a reason behind it I never got to/don’t remember.
I loved the first seasons following Dan Powell of Archive 81, but after the season 2(?) finale, they started introducing all new characters and I did not care at all. Never finished it because I wasn’t going to sit there wondering “When does this tie back into the main story? Is that it?” for more than 3 episodes.don’t mind me, reblogging for the excellent breakdown of several of the big issues with tma s5 here <3