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[Malyse]

FICTIONAL PODCASTS (like these)

This is the voting thread for 2016's best fiction/audio drama podcasts. Since this is the first one, it's open to any fictional podcast you listened to in 2016, not just ones that debuted this year. This is a ranked list so order counts. I'm stealing from Gaming side for the rules:

In order not to complicate things, the guidelines are simple:

• You can list up to 10 podcasts
• The list must be numbered from 1 through 10
• Each podcast can only have one vote
• Please use a colon between the title of the podcast and your sentence
• Paid/exclusive podcasts can be chosen as well. (like things on Howl or Shudder)
• Audiobooks that aren't free
• Please attempt to comment and write a bit about the choices in your post to help spur discussion or show your level of interest. It makes for a more interesting thread.

FORMAT:

1. Podcast A : Insert info here
2. Podcast B : Insert info here
3. Podcast C : Insert info here
4. Podcast D : Insert info here
5. Podcast E : Insert info here
6. Podcast F : Insert info here
7. Podcast G : Insert info here
8. Podcast H : Insert info here
9. Podcast I : Insert info here
10. Podcast J : Insert info here

In this case, Podcast A would be worth 10 points, B worth 9 points, C worth 8 points, D worth 7 points, E worth 6 points, F worth 5 points, G worth 4 points, H worth 3 points, I worth 2 points, and J worth 1 point.

Ineligible choices:

• Podcasts that only have a teaser up
• Youtube shows with no rss feed
• Shows that aren't fiction. Sorry Serial fans.

**************VOTING WILL END ON JANUARY 31ST AT 12:00 AM EST****************

Please just post your lists. We have a Fictional Podcasts OT and a PodcastGAF OT for discussion.

 

[More_Badass]

1. The Magnus Archives; the best horror series by far. Nothing else comes close to its unsettling stories, excellent writing, and compelling balance of standalone tales and world-building overarching narrative/lore
2. Sayer; A sci-fi series that finds a careful balance between absurd/dark humor and creepy sci-fi horror, told by the certainly-not-insane AI of a research facility
3. Twilight Histories; Part history lessons, part second-person stories, this unique series drops you, time traveling tourist, into ancient eras and alternate histories. Fascinating and nothing else quite like it.
4. Darkest Night; Kind of creepy, kind of campy, this horror anthology series is off to a great start with top-notch talent and engrossing stories.
5. The Bright Sessions; X-Men meets therapy. This interesting series follows the taped therapy sessions of individuals struggling with abilities, and the therapist with enigmatic motives to help them
6. The Bridge; Another sci-fi setting, with one of the coolest concepts I've seen so far. On the Transcontinental Bridge crossing the Atlantic, the crew of Watchtower deliver the bridge's odd history, tells stories, and deal with otherworldly happenings.

 

[Natiko]

I'll have to come in and give my thoughts closer to the deadline. I may be able to squeeze in another series or two in that time.

 

[Skittles]

I'll have to come in and give my thoughts closer to the deadline. I may be able to squeeze in another series or two in that time.

Same here, I have 10 or so podcasts in queue i still haven't listened to

 

[Skittles]

1. The Magnus Archives: SCP mixed with lovecraft, what's not to love? Top tier horror podcast that won't be topped for awhile

2. Hello from the Magic Tavern: An amazing comedy podcast where a normal man has to live life in a magical land. Too bad it's not real

3. Limetown: A news reporter tries to find out what happened to all the residents of a science based town. Very thrilling due to the POV story telling.

4. The Bright Sessions: It's pretty much professor xavier giving therapy to the x-men. This one pretty much came out of nowhere and consistently surprises from week to week.

5. Uncanny County: It's the twilight zone with the right amount of campiness added. The wait for season 2 is painful.

6. Archive 81: The first season details the events at a certain apartment building. It has gotten quite dark recently and the lovecraftian influence is stronger than ever in it .

7. Sayer: A slow burn dark comedy sci-fi podcast with a lot of twists. Best sci-fi podcast I listened to this year

8. Darkest Night: A series with a lot of potential. The quality here is way high and the premise of seeing/hearing the moments before someone's death can be taken in a lot of direction. Excited to see what season 2 brings

9. The Deep Vault: A mystery series about a vault underground. It reminded me of Bioshock in a way with the sense of exploration. It's short so I recommend giving it a try.

10. Pleasure Town: A tale of a town focused on pleasure. This would probably be higher but I only just finished season one. It's the most "grounded" out of all the podcasts on my list.

Honorable Mentions:

The Bridge: Phenomenal music and a premise I've never seen before. It can hit it big with some adjustment. This one would be way higher up my list but the layout of some episodes is quite messy. Judging by the short stories they've been releasing in the build up to season 2, this seems to have been remedied to an extent.

 

[Malyse]

1. Limetown : Quite simply the reason that the Fictional Podcasts OT exists at all.
2. ars Paradoxica : Time travel cold war sci fi that goes hella dark
3. The Bright Sessions : Really incredible character driven storytelling.
4. Tale: A Knight Adrift : A fantasy that is quite incredible
5. Edict Zero FIS : Man. It's a long form slow burn mystery that you never can quite predict, but one hell of a ride. Great for fans of Leviathan Chronicles
6. Beef and Dairy Network : Too funny. I can't really say more than that.
7. Darkest Night : Unnerving horror with a all star cast.
8. Terms : A political thriller that became super relevant on November 8th
9. We're Alive : Quite simply, the greatest zombie fiction I've ever experienced in my life, bar none. Even if you hate zombies check this out.
10. Wooden Overcoats : an incredible British sitcom about dueling funeral home. They get the body in the coffin in the ground on time!

HM: Our Fair City, Metamor City, Pleasure Town, Wolf 359, MarsCorp

 

[OceanicAir]

Wow, this took longer to write than I thought, also harder to differentiate between my favorites too!

1. Within the Wires: A story told through a series of therapeutic meditative tapes, I loved how the world was built through them. At first I was skeptical about the story but as the season moved on I really enjoyed how the story turned out and I hope that there will be another season

2. Alice isn't Dead: About a lady on the road searching for her lost wife. Second podcast from the Nightvale company, first being WtW (which is funny since I don't even listen to Welcome to Nightvale lol) Really weird story/universe but the setup for the next season is really nice

3: Return Home: Comedy about a guy who *wait for it* returns home to the town of Melancholy Falls where he meets up with his old best friend, the town also has a lot of weird things going on there too. Has fantasy/urban legend element to it

4. Greater Boston: This is such a weird podcast to be on my list since it really isn't one about scifi/horror/fantasy. It takes place in an alternate Boston where you're basically seeing the fallout after a guy nopes out of life. It has probably the oddest cast of characters that you'll ever hear but there is a certain charm to it that I love so much.

5. Archive 81: Umm, hmm don't remember completely but i do remember i liked it! I believe it was about a guy who was going through the previous tapes of an archivist/recorder of people in this weird ol' building.

6. The Deep Vault: From the creators of Archive 81, a post-apocalyptic tale of people trapped in a vault with homocidal robots and humans, naturally.

7: Help Me: A really small low budget horror podcast that I really, really liked for some reason. The story was enjoyable too, not for everyone though if you can't get past certain issues though.

8. Hello from the Magic Tavern: Definitely the funniest podcast on the list, guy gets sent to the land of Foon where he makes a regular podcast with companions, a wizard and a talking badger. Most of the times they have guests too!

9. Kings Falls AM: Another funny podcast, taking place in the town of Kings Falls where you'll find the best radio hosts talking about the most important events in town... as long as the ghost of Abraham Lincoln stays out of the library and the rest of the weird things in the town don't get in the way!

10. Mabel: Another small scale horror podcast that I really liked dealing with a lady who's assisting with an old woman in a house with a mysterious past. The story is told by a series of voice messages left to the old woman's daughter.

Honorable Mentions (To be honest I'd put some of these in a tie with the above)

x. Ars Paradoxica: Monthly podcast involving a time traveling scientist, I know it sounds real simple but they really put a nice bit of effort in the mechanics again

x. Magnus Archive: A really well made horror podcast that has a lot of anthology roots that has started to coalesce into an overarching storyline
.
x.Once and Future Nerd: Wait, crap. This didn't air an episode this year Anyways, really big story about 3 kids who get sent to a fantasy realm and have to learn to survive and thrive and all that jazz. Really fun though, even if it does get surprisingly dark at times.

x. The Bright Sessions: Taped therapy sessions for regular people that happen to have superpowers! Also creepy organizations of course.

x. Tanis: My favorite PNWS podcast, dealing with a... phenomenon known as Tanis. While the plot does meander at times, I still thoroughly enjoy the podcast and am looking froward to S3

x. The Black Tapes: Another PNWS, very similar to Tanis (or vice versa since this came first) but it is more horror based than Tanis.

x. Uncanny County: An anthology that is probably one of the closest podcasts in my mind to a Twilight Zone episode. Unfortunately it is a monthly show.

Podcasts I'm still going through

y. Life/after

y. The Tunnels

y. Homecoming

y. A New Winter

y. Small Town Horror

Creators plssssssss

z. Limetown: Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy isn't there another season of this yet

 

[Phyranion]

1. Limetown - Quite simply the reason that the Fictional Podcasts OT exists at all.

1. 
   If they would actually finish the series, I'd be a happy man.

 

[LuffyZoro]

1. The Adventure Zone: A D&D podcast hosted by the McElroy family. Starts off goofy, but evolves into fantastic storytelling with touching moments. Always hilarious.
2. Wolf 359: Begins with three people (and an AI) in a spaceship orbiting the star Wolf 359, but it becomes clear that weird things are going on. It's relatively episodic at the beginning, but turns more story driven later on.
3. Ars Paradoxica: Time travel and weird science in World War 2. I can hardly believe there are less than 20 episodes so far, because it feels like so much has happened.
4. Mars Corp: I'm only halfway through, but fun antics
5. Limetown: Creepy NPR story about people going missing.
6. Wooden Overcoats: Good British humor about siblings running a cemetery.
7. Sayer: I'm actually very early on in this one, but I'm liking the tone so far, and it might go higher later on.
8. Beef and Dairy Network: Funny, but short episodes and a little light.
9. The Bright Sessions: Interesting therapy for people with superpowers. I think there is a twist in this one that I haven't gotten to yet, so again, this could rise later.
10. Hello from the Magic Tavern: Funny, but the brand of humor doesn't hit as well for me as some people.

 

[Rhaknar]

what is a fictional podcast?

like, a podcast but in character? Ive never heard of these.

 

[More_Badass]

what is a fictional podcast?

like, a podcast but in character? Ive never heard of these.

Audio dramas

 

[Raijin_Cain]

I only regurlarly listen to 2 so I will name them:

1. The History of Byzantium by Robyn Pearson - Picks up right from where Mike Duncan's History of Rome stops. It is phenomenal. He also does something that Mike didnt. Every 100 years he stops the narrative and does several episodes doing a whole birds eyes view of the empire: territory, army, politics, neighbours, religions. He even brings authors to discuss their books about Byzantium. He starts at 476 AD and now he just finished at year 900AD and is doing the "century" episodes. The podcast will go on for awhile since Byzantium ends only in 1453AD.

2. Revolutions by Mike Duncan - Great podcast covering the great revolutions of the world. He has done English Revolution, American, French and is currently in Haity I think (Im kinda of behind still listening to the French Revolution ones).

 

[Malyse]

I only regurlarly listen to 2 so I will name them:

1. The History of Byzantium by Robyn Pearson - Picks up right from where Mike Duncan's History of Rome stops. It is phenomenal. He also does something that Mike didnt. Every 100 years he stops the narrative and does several episodes doing a whole birds eyes view of the empire: territory, army, politics, neighbours, religions. He even brings authors to discuss their books about Byzantium. He starts at 476 AD and now he just finished at year 900AD and is doing the "century" episodes. The podcast will go on for awhile since Byzantium ends only in 1453AD.

2. Revolutions by Mike Duncan - Great podcast covering the great revolutions of the world. He has done English Revolution, American, French and is currently in Haity I think (Im kinda of behind still listening to the French Revolution ones).

Fictional?

 

[Skittles]

Updated my list since it's the last day to do so. Surprised more people didn't post in here, seems like podcasts are a popular media for consumption nowadays.

 

[Natiko]

1. Darkest Night - I really enjoyed the acting and stories in this one. Interested to see where a season 2 will go.
2. Sayer - Great concept and well executed. It drags a bit in certain spots but overall I loved it. Excited to see what they do next.
3. We're Alive - Really unique take on the genre. Good character building too.
4. The Magnus Archives - Great stories, good atmosphere. Hard to keep track of the finer points of the overall narrative though (like what episodes the recurring characters get mentioned and how they connect).
5. The Adventure Zone - Super funny at times but a lack of progression kills the momentum occasionally.
6. Hello from the Magic Tavern - Same as above.
7. Homecoming - Interesting concept and some good storytelling.
8. The Bright Sessions - I really like the acting from some characters. Plot drags at times.
9. King Falls AM - I like it but my interest wanes at times. How many times are we going to go round and round about the lights in the sky?
10. Limetown - No conclusion hurts this one a decent amount.

Got it in at the deadline lol Thanks for reminding me in the fiction podcast OT.