CYPTTW Review #8 - Welcome to Night Vale
Who the hell are you?! Hi! I’m Taylor and I recently dived headfirst into podcasts! I have since binged on several of them and decided to make reviews of the ones that really stood out. These are not going to be big, professional reviews (I’m lazy) but they should hopefully contain information to help you get into some great new listens!
Where do you listen to your podcasts? My personal recommendation for listening to podcasts is the Pocket Casts app, available for Android or iPhone. It costs $3.99 to buy, but I think it's super worth it, since it has a lot of great features and zero in-app ads, which to me is worth every penny. But if you like free apps or just don't have the scratch right now, my runner up is Podcast Addict. It's free and has some (but not all) of the features Pocket Casts has, plus you have to deal with the ads. But if you don't like either of those, do some searching! There's lots of options out there.
Name of Podcast: Welcome to Night Vale
Creators of Podcast: Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor, Night Vale Presents
Genre(s): Horror, Humor, NPR-style
Start and End Date of Podcast: June 15th, 2012 - Present
Number of Episodes: 134 (as of 9/15/2018)
Release Schedule: New episodes every 1st and 15th of the month!
Where Can I Find It: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/
Donation/Patreon?: Can be found on their official site!
Age Rating: This show is notorious for getting pretty violent and creepy at times. PG-13.
Where I Am Now: Caught Up
Official Summary: Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.
Representation?: AND HOW! This podcast has one of the best reputations for representation, and it’s well deserved. Whether it’s LGBT, Jewish, Muslim, POC, Non-Binary, People With Disabilities, any combination of those things and more, this show is extremely refreshing for those who love a diverse cast that is treated as the most normal thing in a strange town.
Transcripts?: There are two illustrated transcript books available for sale so far, but a diligent fan has been making up-to-date transcripts and they’re awesome, so go check them out! @cecilspeaks
Trigger Warnings?: Death, Body Horror, Gore, Unpleasant Sound Effects, Disturbing Content
How Long To Listen Before Giving Up?: I fell in love with this show instantly, but if you’re new, I would listen until at least episode 13-20.
Anything Else I Should Know?: They do tons of live shows and sell recordings on their Bandcamp page! They also have released two novels and the aforementioned transcript books. They have also confirmed that FX has picked them up for a TV series!
If You Like This, You Might Also Like: King Falls AM, Limetown, Alice Isn’t Dead
This show is known as “The Gateway Podcast”, and I feel that’s a very deserving title. This show was, like to many others, my first podcast, and it definitely deserves a lot of credit for opening our minds to what this medium could be. The show told a new story in a very creative way and I love how many people it’s inspired to make their own podcasts. While it eventually led us to find other series to sink our teeth into, I think we still definitely owe it praise for how much work got put into making this a very special series. It is still a wonderful podcast and if you’re new to the medium, this show is an excellent place to start and will probably be the first on people’s list of recommendations.
Changing Carlos’ voice actor was a great choice. For those who don’t know, Jeffrey Cranor, co-creator of the show, originally did Carlos’ voice, but stepped down from the role when he realized it wasn’t a good thing to have a straight white guy play a gay Latino character. Dylan Marron was brought in (and his voice is ADORABLE) and they even gave a believable canon reason for why the voice was different. It warms my heart to see people actually do the right thing as far as diverse casting is concerned.
Cecil and Carlos are CANON. It’s easy to take for granted, but still, it’s amazing. It’s a slow burn until their relationship really starts to take off, but I felt that was a very realistic view of them finding each other. The show is great at dropping little hints every now and then that they’re getting closer, then finally bringing it to the forefront when they become official. And you get to see their happy moments of domesticity, their adorable conversations over text and on the phone, hear why the two love each other more than anything, and even get to see realistic arguments and realizations of your partner’s flaws. I feel like their relationship is written very believably and Cecil Baldwin and Dylan Marron have excellent chemistry with each other. A lot of fans are divided about the Desert Otherworld arc, and while that arc did drag on for quite a while, I think it was a good way of showing conflict between the two of them without having them outright fight or go for cheap drama. Like Joseph Fink said on Twitter, (paraphrasing here as I can’t find the exact Tweet), “If you think being long-distance is the worst thing that could happen to a couple, you have a very dim view of relationships.” And as someone who was personally in an extended long-distance relationship until a few years ago (Hi Eileen~), that really hit home for me. It was nice to have that represented on the show.
If you’re one of those fans (like me) who missed the original piano riff that opened the show, it officially comes back in Episode 114. That was nice to hear again.
THE CONCEPT EPISODES, ESPECIALLY EPISODE 133. HOW DO THEY KEEP DOING THIS. THEY’RE SO GOOD.
The biggest complaints I can really think of with this show are arc fatigue and plot lull. While this show does have numerous plot threads (and the plot threads actually go somewhere, even if it takes a while) it can be a long time after you first hear about a plot before they ever mention it again, or, like with the Desert Otherworld arc, can take over a giant chunk of episodes where it seems like nothing is moving. This can also make things confusing, like in many cases where you can’t remember this person or thing the show is suddenly referencing if you haven’t listened to the show a second or more times.
Not really a complaint the show can do anything about, as I know he’s got his own projects going on and is technically a guest star….but I really wish Dylan Marron could do more episodes. As of Episode 133, there was a 33-episode gap between appearances.
MY RATING: 7/10 GLOW CLOUDS - This podcast will always have a special place in my heart. After a long break away, somehow I always keep getting drawn back to Night Vale. It’s a podcast that excels at taking you on a journey to a strange and mysterious place that seems frightening, but also comforting, where being who you are without questions or apologies seems like a fair trade for danger. I always recommend this show to people who are still confused about what a podcast is, and while many other shows have taken up my attention since, this will always hold the mantle of the first one to make me dive into the medium. So turn off the lights, turn on your radio, hide under the covers, pretend to sleep, and fall in love instantly.
