The Black Tapes
Studio: Pacific Northwest Stories
Category: Drama
What Is It
A Serial-esque riff on the paranormal radio drama as a fictional podcast producer investigates the mysteries surrounding a paranormal investigator.
Technical Details
This show has had three proper seasons, starting with a twelve episode run back in 2015 and concluding with a six episode third season in 2017. Proper episodes of the show run forty to forty-five minutes usually, though the podcast feed is filled with bonus snippets that run anywhere from a couple of minutes to half-an-hour. All told, there are fifty “episodes,” ie. separate downloads. Sound quality is stellar. Find them all at iTunes.
What About It
This show is ostensibly the story of Alex Reagan, a podcast journalist, and her investigations into Dr. Richard Strand, a committed paranormal investigator/debunker and a series of case files, all housed in black VHS tape cases, that he hasn’t yet been able to definitively debunk. The show does a fantastic job mimicking the “investigative podcast” format, all the way down to Reagan’s narration, muffled interviews, occasionally discussions with the producer, etc. I also like that the show keeps things just this side of believable for the first few episodes. It’s a show that, for a while at least, lets you really buy in on it being real; none of the people behind the show, by the way, have yet admitted that it’s fictional.
So, the conceit of the show is great and so is the execution, at least for the first two seasons. For a while, the first season is kind of made up of “Monster of the Week” episodes, but by the end of the season, the show has started building an arcane and esoteric mythology that ties everything together and season two is where the show really comes together and it creates some episodes that I genuinely found frightening. On earbuds alone in my room after dark, I’d occasionally bump that up to “terrifying” actually. The show knows how to use sound design and the subtleties that you’re able to use when you’re right up in people’s ears. A conversation with a rare book dealer about demonic names is a standout sequence as is a recording of a nearly catatonic murderer who communicates only by knocking with his hand being interviewed. I would warn you about the third season. The show has, in my opinion, a really perfect second season finale and the final ending of that episode manages to be both satisfying and ambiguous. When the show came back for a third season, which was only half as long as the first two seasons, it struggled a bit and I found the finale to the third season to be just honestly really bad. So I’d recommend listening to the show, including all the small “bonus” episodes, up through the end of season two and then dropping out.
Last year, after a lengthy hiatus, the show posted a brief sound file that seemed to indicate a fourth season might be in the offing, but the show has now been optioned for a television series, so I’ll bet we never get a fourth podcast season. Honestly, that might be a good thing; some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved.
3 ½ stars.
Essential If
S-Town would have been improved if the twist was that the S stood for Satan.
Avoid Like the Plague If
You’re afraid you might really die within a year after you listen to the Un-Sound in the third episode.
Best Starting Place
There’s obviously just the one place to start. Season one, episode one. It’s a kind of middle of the road episode all things considered, but be patient; you need to hear this one from the beginning.