![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Podcasts I Have Loved: Archive 81
Mar. 3rd, 2019 07:51 pmI have been doing that thing lately where I think 'I should write a journal entry' and then don't think of anything I want to write about. So, a journal post about something I do a lot of these days: listening to podcasts! Hopefully the first in some kind of series. (Seriously, though, I wish I had realised sooner how much better my life would be if I only listened to Too Many Podcasts. They have helped me do so much housework, enlived so many boring train journeys and made dealing with my insomnia SO MUCH easier.)
First up, because why not start at the beginning of the alphabet: horror podcast Archive 81.
It starts out as the story of Daniel Powell, a temporary archivist for the Housing Historical Committee of New York State who is given the job of classifying some taped interviews about a mysterious apartment building. Things get steadily weirder and weirder as his employers insist on him taping everything he does and the interviewer on the tapes gets closer to uncovering what's really going on in the basement.
However, one of the best things about Archive 81 is that it's re-invented itself completely with each new season. The second season is about ... uh, well, things that are spoilery for the end of the first season but trust me when I say they are new things ... and the third is about a pair of siblings performing a magic ritual. While the third season has been my favourite so far, they've all got things to recommend them.
What I love most about Archive 81 is that it really embraces the advantages of the audio medium. A lot of podcasts (even ones I love for other reasons) feel like the writers really wanted to make a TV show instead but didn't have the resources, but Achive 81 is ABOUT sound, in all sorts of ways. Both the sound design and Daniel Powell's music are consistently fantastic. (Uh, that's Daniel Powell, the guy who plays Daniel Powell and does the sound, not Daniel Powell the character. Yeah, it's one of those podcasts where the writers named the characters are themselves/the actors and then lived to regret it.) It's also got fascinating world building (across more than one world) and never forgets to lighten up the horror with occasional moments of humour and grounding in the real world. The unspeakable eldritch entity from season three who loves Pop-Eye's chicken and wants to watch Over the Garden Wall is a particular favourite example of mine.
They do go heavy on the body horror, so if that is not your thing you may wanna skip this one. Otherwise, though, I strongly recommend it if you like scary podcasts that have too many bees in them.
First up, because why not start at the beginning of the alphabet: horror podcast Archive 81.
It starts out as the story of Daniel Powell, a temporary archivist for the Housing Historical Committee of New York State who is given the job of classifying some taped interviews about a mysterious apartment building. Things get steadily weirder and weirder as his employers insist on him taping everything he does and the interviewer on the tapes gets closer to uncovering what's really going on in the basement.
However, one of the best things about Archive 81 is that it's re-invented itself completely with each new season. The second season is about ... uh, well, things that are spoilery for the end of the first season but trust me when I say they are new things ... and the third is about a pair of siblings performing a magic ritual. While the third season has been my favourite so far, they've all got things to recommend them.
What I love most about Archive 81 is that it really embraces the advantages of the audio medium. A lot of podcasts (even ones I love for other reasons) feel like the writers really wanted to make a TV show instead but didn't have the resources, but Achive 81 is ABOUT sound, in all sorts of ways. Both the sound design and Daniel Powell's music are consistently fantastic. (Uh, that's Daniel Powell, the guy who plays Daniel Powell and does the sound, not Daniel Powell the character. Yeah, it's one of those podcasts where the writers named the characters are themselves/the actors and then lived to regret it.) It's also got fascinating world building (across more than one world) and never forgets to lighten up the horror with occasional moments of humour and grounding in the real world. The unspeakable eldritch entity from season three who loves Pop-Eye's chicken and wants to watch Over the Garden Wall is a particular favourite example of mine.
They do go heavy on the body horror, so if that is not your thing you may wanna skip this one. Otherwise, though, I strongly recommend it if you like scary podcasts that have too many bees in them.
