Statement of Briony Rose Smith concerning her thoughts and feelings after completing the third season of The Magnus Archives podcast. The statement will try to avoid spoilers but as this is the third season it may be difficult to highlight changes and improvements without giving away something. You have been warned.
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Bharg! That season guys. This season!
What is it? The Magnus archives is a horror podcast where Johnthan Simms, head archivist of the Magnus Archives, London, attempts to catalogue statements taken from people about weird paranormal happenings. Or can he this season? He's wanted for murder and on the run and has an apocalypse to stop!
What are the episodes like? There much more variety in the episodes this time around. For the most part, it managed to keep it's overall structure of start, statement, end but invents different reasons and ways these statements come out to fit with the crazy that's happening in the background.
Any particularly cool? Uncanny Valley. I don't want to spoil but I am going to talk about this episode cause it was great. The main character wasn't great at noticing things. He wasn't dumb he just didn't notice things around him unless he needed to, so when he was called out on a job by a spook (he's a plumber) he didn't notice anything was wrong. It was dark and he had a job to do and the spook seemed so confused it was great! I have a bad feeling that's what I would be like when confronted by a spook too. Also Tucked In, damn I hate that episode. Not saying anything on that episode but it was very bad...in a good scary way I mean. I personally am bad with the dark and this episode haunts me every time I go to bed now...thanks Jonny. And I would mention more but I'm avoiding giving too much away.
What's the bad news? In the Q+A after season two, Jonny mention in writing that he found it hard to keep a balance between horror and mystery because mystery genre's need answers but the more you know the less scary something becomes and I can see where he struggled. There were times in this where I wasn't as afraid cause I was starting to understand. It wasn't often and as the series went it managed to fix itself but there was a bit of a weird patch of episodes where I wasn't sure how I felt.
Good news? Expanding on the point above I think what helped fix the horror is that so much happened to the characters we have come to know and love. No one had a good time of it this season. Tim was dead inside, John was wanted for murder, Martin was freaking out because no one was okay and he could do nothing about it and the Magnus Archives hired some fresh new faces that immediately regretted their decision or didn't have a choice. Bad, bad stuff. No one was having a good time, and things just got worse and the stakes just got higher and that finale, damn. The season had a rough patch but when it got going the anty just got uped and uped.
Would you recommend? Yes! This series goes from strength to strength and I'm both terrified and excited for what's to come!
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The Magnus Archives is available all over the place. Check out their website to find out where you can listen to it: The Rusty Quill