Popular Reviews of Archive 81

Archive 81 kept surprising me yet continued its own narrative, and I think those two things are hard to find within the same creation. I ate the three seasons in hardly 2 weeks, and I would give my life for Static Man, to be honest. You have music, you have immersive audiodrama, you have great acting, great worldbuilding AND that 3rd season? Mindblowing. Just listen to it.

You listen to a podcast about a man listening to old tapes. This surreal podcast has a strong feel of Lovecraft, and any cosmic horror fan would be right at home

One of the most unique stories I have heard. This podcast has cemented itself as one of my all time favorites. Great if you like to binge listen, or weekly, one episode at a time. The voice acting is top notch and the production is superb.

The first season is an excellent "found footage" horror podcast. As it continues into new seasons, it focuses on building a narrative that never loses the horror feel but puts a lot of emphasis on character.

Brilliantly original, creepy and FANTASTIC sound design, with an ever expanding world that just keeps getting more interesting... from otherworldly beings to magic rituals are mysterious and disturbing... and an ever expanding roster of characters and concepts that have blown out into my favorite fiction in ten years. There are currently 2 full seasons and the third is being released every few weeks... highly recommended

If David Lynch made an audio drama it would sound like Archive 81. Just a bit weirder. Yes, that is possible. Now go and binge it and then tell all your friends that they should do the same.

I thought i didn’t like radio dramas, but this show finally won me over. I love the story, the characters, the way they integrate music, everything.

I loved the first season of this show, I wasn't sure about season 2, but the world it takes place in slowly oozed it's way into my heart.

LESBIANS

A wonderfully creepy drama that makes fantastic use of the audio medium as part of the plot itself. It goes from strength to strength, with eash season building on the previous ones. Well worth a listen for any fan of creepy audio drama.

Easily one of my favorite horror audiodramas - my serial horror audiodrama I listened to! While the first season is my favorite, each season feels completely different even if there is a common factor between them. Love this show!

I enjoyed season 1 a lot, but then it got more sci-fi and less horror (why does this always happen with audiodramas?).

I love this podcast so much! Season 2 is my favourite but every season is so unique and special and amazing. The settings are Great and the acting is really really well done and the soundscaping is phenomenal!

The production is great. The story is well-written and well-paced, full of beautiful and terrifying sounds and symbols that are so artfully interwoven. The characters are dynamic and well-rounded, and voiced by talented actors who really bring them to life. Daniel Powell is a super relatable, intelligent, maybe-hipster (who also likes Death Grips?? Win.). And I enjoyed hearing John Maher as the voices of Jacob and Rat after listening to his great performance in The Deep Vault, another Dead Signals podcast. (At first I thought Maher was also Bertie from The Bridge podcast, but after looking up the cast it looks like him and David Picariello just have remarkably similar voices.)As a lover of stories, music, and mysticism, this podcast is super high on my list of favorites. It’s thrilling and weird and funny and beautiful, and makes literary references that give me an English nerd hard-on every time. And it’s got queer-friendly representation. Can’t wait to see where the story takes me next.

Fantastic production. Season one got me hooked then thought I had got the wrong show for season 2, started to make sense after few episodes. Moves into a multi dimensions adventure with some great characters. We'll worth your time.

I love audio drama and listen to it a lot. But this podcast is by far the best. I know, there are many bigger productions, a lot of great stories out there, but none drains the possibilities of the audio story so well as this one. Simply divine. (Or demonic?)

One of the best audio horror fiction podcasts of all time. Focus on "audio." Mysterious, scary, and compelling all at once.

Fun fact: I'm an archivist and I love spooky shit, so it's probably no surprise that I binge-listened to the first season over the course of one work day. I LOVED all of the archival theory jargon that was peppered in, I got that Derrida reference ;) Anyway, the story is super interesting, the short stories were actually creepy (my faves were the faceless, and the gallery tour). I love "fiction as presented as believable fact" and they delivered. I also love the little details that contributed to the atmosphere, like the years being different and nonsensical with each of Melody's recordings. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Maybe I shouldn't review it if I'm just in the middle of S2, but I would enjoy the storyline so much more if Daniel wasn't a part of it. I'm probably being unfair here: he was fine as an archivist listening to tapes, he only started standing out to me once he got surrounded by much better voice actors and forced to interact with them.

Quite intriguing, a little hard to follow.