(talking to you about wtnv because none of my friends like it, cool? cool. cool!) So i'm a massive nightvale fan but I really hope it ends soon, right? like basically the whole thing of the show was the strange ineffability of the world, and as the show progresses, even without like the recent stuff, they've had to explore more and more of the world and de-mystify it, like there doesn't seem to be much more they can do with that world.
I see where you’re coming from. I’m definitely a big believer in leaving things alone once they’re done, but I’m not so sure Night Vale is there just yet. I think it entirely depends on what you want/get out of the show.
A lot of people got big into Night Vale because of the writing style. Horror and comedy have always been bedfellows, but that initial realization is like your first kiss. I mean, I think my entire sense of humor is based off of that scene in Scream where Matthew Lillard’s character is bleeding out on the phone, so I definitely get how mind-blowing Night Vale probably was for some kid out there who’d, like, never even heard of Twin Peaks. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And even for people like me who are obsessively familiar with the horror/comedy relationship, with eldritch abominations and surrealism and conspiracy theories, with everything Night Vale remixed and rebirthed, it’s still ASTONISHINGLY good comedy and arguably even better heartfelt prose and storytelling. Holy shit, the whole “faint, but pretty, smell of vanilla” thing is still so great to listen to. The whole show is so great to listen to.
But if you were only in it for that, only in it for jokes and pretty quotes, WHICH IS OKAY, LIKE, CHRIST, LET PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS SUPERFICIALLY, IT’S FINE, then I can see why maybe where the show’s going ain’t exactly your thing!
Discovering a tiny city under a bowling alley is a punchline. Maybe it makes you think about your insignificance, maybe it gives you hope that you can retaliate even in your hopelessness, maybe you just like weird shit. But for a lot of people, it was an odd, fun joke to set up a touching, more real moment. And now we have to care about that punchline, sympathise with that punchline, and while a ton of great stories are built on that very thing, it isn’t everyone’s thing. Which, again, is okay.
I can see why you’d think it’s over if you liked it because it was cryptic and strange, but they can’t tell the same jokes forever. To be blunt, they especially can’t keep telling those jokes and exclusively those jokes now that every other post is about Mothman sucking your dick behind an Arby’s and fistfighting your shadow self, even if a lot of the vaguely surreal comedy we see now came from people inspired by Night Vale initially.
I personally think there’s something to be said for taking this bizarre, impossible world and these bizarre, impossible people and making them ordinary. Showing them falling in love and dying and making friends and standing up against injustice and making tough decisions, even while black helicopters circle and forests whisper and angels ask for bus money and time breaks and Wednesdays get canceled. I don’t know if you saw the All Hail live show, but it was a prime example of what I’m talking about and why I’m still super into current Night Vale.
It does feel like they’re maybe setting up for a resolution with the whole Huntokar thing and all of the answers we’re getting, but who knows! I think it could end soon and be satisfying with maybe a book released every few years or something, but not because I’m bored of it or think it’s played out.
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