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Has Night Vale Jumped the Hooded Figure?
Sep. 4th, 2014 08:26 pmI finally caught up with my backlog of Night Vale podcasts in the early summer, and since July, I've gotten to listen to them on or just after the 1st and 15th of each month when the new ones drop. I'm not certain, yet, but I am definitely feeling a change in direction that I'm not liking.
The early episodes had an endearing gee-whiz, Let's-Put-On-A-Show quality to them. It took months before The Buzz caught up with them, but the months since then have taken on increasing amounts of Brooklyn Hipster snobbery to them. No more invitations for story ideas or musical submissions; they're backlogged,they say, but you also sense a bit of a too-cool-for-school attitude going. The opening segments are getting longer and more predictable (intro by one Joseph Fink or other riffing on who he is or isn't; announcements of upcoming shows which are always sold out or almost so; stuff in the store that's about to be gone forever; and Teh Beg for donations).
Fortunately, the +15 button on the phone gets you past most of that, but several recent episodes have messed with the formula that made this concept work for so long. Podcasting a live show, split over two "air" dates, was an okay change, but splitting it where they did and then cliffhanging it for over two weeks? Not fun. And then there's this week's, breaking format to do "Monologues." I only got through the first so far, but if this is going to be the face of the series (which may actually be faceless and may or may not secretly live in my phone), I'm not sure I want to play on with it.
Has there been a significant new character introduced this year? Have the running gags (from the mortality rate of station interns to the utter annoyonality of retired Mayor Winchell) just run? Is there anything resembling the Strexcorp arc of the mostly second season to tie all the narration together?
Oh, screw it, readers. I'm frustrated, just because I. Miss. CARLOS! It's not fair, locking him into a plot conceit and keeping him from the love of his life (even if his phone always has bars and the batteries never run down). We may hear about him, but we get no descriptions of his perfect hair!
I should end these remarks with something truly profound. A play on the word "podcast," perhaps. A connection between podcasts and pod people. Has this series secretly replaced us? Are our smartphones truly smart enough to transmit their words, their thoughts, their very consciousness like spores on the solar wind and into our very beings? Does this explain any of Cecil's general stoicism despite facing so much death and destruction every 15 days? Be vigilant, dear readers, and watch for signs of Pod People t-shirts in the Commonplace store, or alien screams under the track of Meg the Proverb Lady pushing the merch at the end. Until we're sure that we all are who we appear to be- even to ourselves- stay aware,
and as always,
Good night, Live Journal.... good night.
The early episodes had an endearing gee-whiz, Let's-Put-On-A-Show quality to them. It took months before The Buzz caught up with them, but the months since then have taken on increasing amounts of Brooklyn Hipster snobbery to them. No more invitations for story ideas or musical submissions; they're backlogged,they say, but you also sense a bit of a too-cool-for-school attitude going. The opening segments are getting longer and more predictable (intro by one Joseph Fink or other riffing on who he is or isn't; announcements of upcoming shows which are always sold out or almost so; stuff in the store that's about to be gone forever; and Teh Beg for donations).
Fortunately, the +15 button on the phone gets you past most of that, but several recent episodes have messed with the formula that made this concept work for so long. Podcasting a live show, split over two "air" dates, was an okay change, but splitting it where they did and then cliffhanging it for over two weeks? Not fun. And then there's this week's, breaking format to do "Monologues." I only got through the first so far, but if this is going to be the face of the series (which may actually be faceless and may or may not secretly live in my phone), I'm not sure I want to play on with it.
Has there been a significant new character introduced this year? Have the running gags (from the mortality rate of station interns to the utter annoyonality of retired Mayor Winchell) just run? Is there anything resembling the Strexcorp arc of the mostly second season to tie all the narration together?
Oh, screw it, readers. I'm frustrated, just because I. Miss. CARLOS! It's not fair, locking him into a plot conceit and keeping him from the love of his life (even if his phone always has bars and the batteries never run down). We may hear about him, but we get no descriptions of his perfect hair!
I should end these remarks with something truly profound. A play on the word "podcast," perhaps. A connection between podcasts and pod people. Has this series secretly replaced us? Are our smartphones truly smart enough to transmit their words, their thoughts, their very consciousness like spores on the solar wind and into our very beings? Does this explain any of Cecil's general stoicism despite facing so much death and destruction every 15 days? Be vigilant, dear readers, and watch for signs of Pod People t-shirts in the Commonplace store, or alien screams under the track of Meg the Proverb Lady pushing the merch at the end. Until we're sure that we all are who we appear to be- even to ourselves- stay aware,
and as always,
Good night, Live Journal.... good night.