I’m going to start off this post by taking back what I said in my previous post. Welcome to Night Vale follows no patterns. In episode 2, which is what the second post was about, I thought I had finally found a pattern in all the confusion of Welcome to Night Vale. However, this third episode made me realize that episode 2 was just a trap. Some of the topics in this episode were: news stands filled with 2% milk, litter that should not be picked up if it was marked with a red flag, books not working, and so on. The topics in this particular episode were a little more violent than usual. There are two cases of missing people, both presumed dead by the narrator. There is also a case where hooded figures wait at the elementary playground and kidnap kids. The narrator then emphasizes that people just stand and watch it happen. This may seem a little far fetched, but this podcast almost reminds me of the infamous show, Stranger Things. Both stories are based in a town where there are strange happenings. They are completely different in all other aspects, but the ominous happenings are very similar. For example, this episode had a couple parts where they used an animal growling sound effect, which reminded me of the shadow monster in Stranger Things. It actually made me feel a little queasy. But of course, they followed the animal sounds with the ‘weather forecast,’ which is a music break they put in about ⅔ of the way into the podcast. To contrast with the animal growling sounds, the weather for this episode was a bubbly and happy guitar tune. One thing that stood out to me in this episode was that the “monster” noises were playing when they narrator was talking about the management people. There is a part where they claim that they sent out an assistant to check out what was going on with management outside, and the assistant ends up dying. I don’t really know if this was meant to be satire, but I took it in as satire. I was surprised because I never saw much meaning to any other topics mentioned in the show so far. Maybe it was just another random part, but I’m beginning to realize that the randomness of the podcast leaves it very open for interpretation. Like I mentioned in the beginning, Welcome to Night Vale follows no noticeable patterns so far, but all I know is that strange things happen, things that are so impossible that it intrigues the listener with each episode.
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The podcast “Welcome to Nightvale” is unlike any other that I have ever heard. It is beyond unusual and I am still quite confused as to what the purpose of this podcast is. Coming into this podcast with no prior knowledge and having not listened to any other episode, it is very hard to understand what is happening and hard to establish patterns throughout the episode. I also tuned in to listen to episode three “Station Management” and wow it is weird. I agree with you about this strange town resembling the town from Stranger Things given that both towns have very strange occurrences that could be life or death.
As for the other aspects of the podcast, I specifically noticed their usage of music and sound effects incorporated throughout each chunk. You mentioned the growling animals and monster noises which were definitely odd uses of sounds. They also used suspenseful and dark music not only for the introduction, but to build suspense throughout the episode. It seemed to be at random times here and there, but they would use suspenseful sounds such as when they mentioned “red flag, run” suggesting that they should avoid red flags at all costs. Or when the narrator talked about how station management only communicated through envelopes and included a sound effect that matched what opening an envelope sounded like. I thought something weird and scary was going to happen, and they certainly make it feel that way, but it was just the weather report. The sound effects included help make the listener feel like they are there in the town and keeps them engaged, but sometimes the music seems unnecessary and distracts from the narration. Ultimately, the music does a good job of building up suspense but for what purpose?
My podcast “Bear Brook” also uses music to build suspense but I think it does a much better job because the suspense is actually warranted. The music helps to build up to big reveals in who did the crime and the identities of the victims. Suspense is a necessary aspect of a cold case podcast but I don’t see the purpose in this setting for Nightvale. If there was something to be scared about, then maybe it could be useful.
While the music does a good job at creating suspense, the narrator quickly changes the subject to something completely unrelated and often less eerie than the information presented before. Strangely enough, the suspense pulls the listener in and I found myself wanting to continue listening despite having no idea where this podcast would lead. The creation of suspense is advantageous because it helps keep the audience engaged and keeps them listening to find out what happens. However, I think it is also disadvantageous because there isn’t any scare or big event that follows the suspense, just weird unrelated things. It’s kind of a let down.
The suspense, strangeness, and overall confusion involved in this podcast made it more intriguing and I couldn’t help but wonder if I listened to more episodes, maybe everything would make more sense. You did a pretty good job at describing the aspects of this podcast despite this episode being so hard to follow. This podcast is definitely one for the books.
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