My podcast resolution rules as they stand now:
- I will listen to twelve spec-fic oriented podcasts, one per month.
- For each podcast, I will listen to a minimum of five episodes per podcast before I either give up or add it to my entertainment cycle.
- Though originally I swore to give each podcast five episodes, I am not going to hold myself to that. In a month, I may listen to five first episodes of five different podcasts. Or I may listen to three from a new one. Or I may backtrack and listen to further episodes from a podcast I’d tried before.
Some notes on my own personality flaws:
- I am not good at listening or paying attention. Therefore, a podcast has to really work to catch my attention.
- I am not patient. Reading is faster and more efficient.
But when I asked for podcast recommendations, they came fast and furious, so podcasts are obviously something people enjoy. I want to be one of them. And now, thankfully, and excitingly, I am.
This next podcast is The Magnus Archives, which at first glance has such a similar premise to Archive 81 that I nearly passed: A man sits alone in a room and updates/archives old reports of strange happenings.
But The Magnus Archives sounded appealing so I decided to give it a try.
The premise:
“Make your statement, face your fear.”
The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organization dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.
Individually, they are unsettling. Together they begin to form a picture that is truly horrifying because as they look into the depths of the archives, something starts to look back…
Written and performed by Jonathan Sims (along with guest actors) and directed by Alexander J Newall.
No Spoilers
Because of the surface similarity to Archive 81, I wasn’t sure if I would like this podcast. Horror is a mixed bag for me, and as mentioned in Archive 81’s review, I’m not a huge fan of horrible screaming coming from my car/computer/earbuds. It’s not soothing in traffic, let’s just say.
It’s a very “classic” start: we’ve got the ominous stringed instrument, the stuffy British narrator. And oh yeah, the voice actor and the archivist have the same name, which is always weird for me, because it blends fiction and reality in an unpleasant way.
I was ready to give up and say, “yup, tried it, didn’t like it, moving on.” Which makes Sims all the better for not only snagging my attention but holding it for 80+ episodes. (As of this writing, there are over 100 episodes, so this is a podcast that can keep you entertained for a good long while.)
Sims turned out to be an awesome narrator, capable of creating a clear line between his character and the interviews he’s recording for the archive.
In Archive 81, Dan, the archivist, is recording Melody Pendras’s interviews, and so the listener gets to hear Melody interviewing people. Here, Jonathan Sims is archiving all the files by reading the paper reports into audible form himself. It starts off as only one voice and stays that way for quite a while. And even when other voices become more common, Sims is still the glue that holds them all together.
Photo by Muhammad Haikal Sjukri on Unsplash
So the show is either going to sink or swim on that voice. And Sims is delightful.
Sims makes each archival character feel distinct from the others through simple (not distracting!) voice shifts, and clever writing that really evokes the character he’s reading: for a female character, he might lighten his voice; characters of differing professions have different sorts of vocabularies and narrative styles. Plus, Sims is very clear-spoken. I rarely have to rewind.
The stories themselves run the gamut from very good to mostly familiar to really enjoyable to occasionally unfocused. I have skipped over a few episodes because I just didn’t like the description (Claustrophobia means I’m not listening to any horror story involving spelunkers! Or people being trapped in boxes. Or being crushed slowly on a subway train.), but that’s maybe three out of more than 80.
This is generally quiet horror, which is my favorite kind–the spooky stories around the campfire, not the gore-fest of a chainsaw massacre. And it’s not too bleak, even when matters are grim, because the format means there are always survivors. Someone, after all, has to give the statement to the archives. This is not to say this is horror-lite. The stories do get grim. And people do die in terrible, terrible ways. It’s just not the kind of horror that’s going to make you sweat and jerk awake in the middle of the night. Or at least, not more than once or twice.
Photo by Nicolas Picard on Unsplash.com
When I first began, I worried that the format would stay the same for the whole, long, long run. The opening episodes have the same format: Sims reads a case file into the archive, decides it might be a hoax, or impossible to prove, except that his interns find just enough supporting data to suggest this tale might be true…
If all the episodes had gone exactly the same way, I wouldn’t have lasted more than ten.
But by episode five, “Page Turner,” you get your first taste of a larger arc. We learn about the recurring problems of creepy occult books from the collection of one Jurgen Leitner, and the Keay family, who seems to be gathering them up for reasons unknown. We learn about recurring entities (The Beholding, who seem to enjoy ruining people’s lives. We learn about occult architecture and the tunnels that lurk beneath the Archives. And we learn that paranoia is a very useful trait for an archivist to cultivate, because it turns out that the Archives have powerful enemies, both on the outside, and sadly for Jonathan, on the inside. It’s satisfying to feel all the pieces start clicking into place, to recognize that “oh! the lightning-struck man from this episode is also the terrifying figure in that episode!”
Photo by Soroush Golpoor on Unsplash
Their website is efficient and so useful! And they win an entirely new prize for having a beautifully organized Magnus Archives Wiki, which is absolutely a boon when there are so many episodes and you keep thinking, “wait, why is that name familiar?” or “Haven’t I heard of this mystery before?” The idea of trying to zip back through hours and hours of digital entertainment is daunting.
I’m up to episode 80, and I’d probably be all the way through except 1) Though this is quiet horror, the unsettling quality does build up and I do need a break from it. And 2) there are so many podcasts waiting for me to explore! There’s The Black Tapes! And EOS10! And Wolf 359 and the Girl in Space and Bubble and and and– There are a lot of podcasts out there is what I’m saying.
What has happened to me, one-time hater of podcasts…. Now I’m mourning that I don’t have time to just sit and stuff my ears full.
So yeah, if you like low-key X-Files style horror that spans a vast range of years, The Magnus Archives might be to your taste. It is definitely to mine. Though I stopped listening to this podcast exclusively so I can explore others, I’m still subscribed. It’s become a pleasant standby, a nice way to wind down the day or to start a day off. Suddenly, 100+ episodes don’t seem like enough.
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