this MIGHT be a hot take but i dont like the agents narration in season 2. it feels like a bit of a cop out… too much “tell” and not enough “show.” i think other podcasts are able to get away with a certain level of narration (i mean, look at malevolent), but it often feels more… relevant than the agent does. if you weren’t reading the descriptions for the episodes, it would be ABSOLUTELY out of nowhere. even though i was reading them the sudden narration felt a bit out of place/sudden. if it had been introduced in season one i might be a little less weirded out by it? but i wish this dude spoke a little less. it gets excessive at times.
Im currently relistening to file 39 (the first adam therapy episode) and the descriptions of the office being entirely done by the agent feels a bit… lazy? not to be rude? but i feel like a few lines of dialogue between sydney and adam could’ve done a lot more. a quick “I didn’t know you had so many certifications,” or “What’s with the lack of color?” could’ve told nearly the exact same things without blatantly explaining the entire room. sure, the agent could’ve chipped in, but still.
im sure this one gripe will be answered, but there’s also the question as to how the agent exactly knows all of these things. we know this isnt retrospective, and a lot of the descriptions are peoples actions, so how would the agent know this? im thinking there’s some sort of surveillance system, which would line up well with a lot of other things, but in certain places (like the middle of the woods, adams office, etc) it doesnt seem like there could exactly be a camera. that is to say, this agency doesnt seem to be exactly bound to the laws of reality, but yknow….
it kinda feels like the agents main role is to play explainer. which, lore wise, doesnt really make sense? in the descriptions, (im assuming its the same agent) he talks to someone that’s clearly in on it, so it doesnt seem like they would need the explanation. are these files also being shared so someone else? or am i assuming wrong and the provider of these files is doing the narration and the person in the description is receiving these? its a bit confusing and i hope we get an answer sometime soon. But it just makes it seem like there’s not a real lore explanation behind this narration? there HAS to be. i KNOW it. but i just… can’t find one. and it only makes me more irritated??
i just feel like there’s a lot of instances where a few short lines of dialogue could’ve been fudged around to not have mister man over here yammer about the setting/ give us eyes. It feels out of place in a format thats specifically meant to give us an audio experience. in season one, since there’s no narrator, there’s a lot more environmental storytelling. just the sound design showing the listener what’s happening, yknow…. im sure there’ll be more reasons as to why hes giving us these strange monologues in the middle of scenes…. i dunno…..
