Popular Reviews of Fireside Mystery Theatre

So I had another review on here, one which I wrote on the fly, and I am not the greatest at writing on the fly. Now that I can actually sit down and put some thought and heart into it I wrote a completely new review. I am quite sure if there is anything in there that PodChaser doesn't allow, they will let me know.First of all let me tell you I am in no way affiliated with Fireside Mystery Theatre and/or getting paid for this, as I’m not that important online, and secondly this is to no one in particular, and yet everyone out there, I’m going to let you in a little secret. There’s this podcast out there called Fireside Mystery Theatre, henceforth known as FMT. Heard of it? Yes? If you have, then I have to say if you enjoy them like I do, then show them your support by telling everyone you know about them. Tell everyone you know to give them a listen. Tell them to give FMT several listens, and then tell them to spread the word. Now read on, even if you already enjoy them as I do, to learn why I enjoy them, and maybe, just maybe, a couple other things as well.To those who already enjoy FMT, why do you enjoy them? Let me tell you why I enjoy them. I discovered them because I enjoy “old-time” radio, or stories I can get lost in and just forget the world for a little bit. I literally searched “old-time radio style podcast” on Google (About 133,000,000 results per Google) and looking over several of the search results, I noticed one podcast that constantly appeared on several of these results, and that was FMT. I pulled them up on Podcast Republic, my podcast player of choice, and gave them a listen. I generally use the give it 3 to decide rule, where I will give most things (not all, but most things) 3 tries before I make the final decision as to whether I enjoy something or not, and FMT didn’t need those 3 tries. I was instantly hooked. Almost all of their podcast, up until the last year (think there might be a reason behind this? Sarcasm in case it didn’t come across), were recorded, “taken,” during their live shows and not in some stuffy studio. If that information right there doesn’t help get you into the spirit of old-time radio then nothing will. If you’re not into old-time radio like me, well, let me tell you something else. The stories they tell are fantastic. Mystery is their forte with a healthy twinge of shiver inducing spookiness on the side. I can’t count the number of times I’ll get that little twinge of a shiver from a random certain spot in the story, but when I get it, boy do I get it. Personally, I would say they’re forte is shiver inducing spookiness with a large dose of mystery, but come on, Fireside Spookiness with a Dose of Mystery Theatre just isn’t that catchy?What does this mean to you? Maybe it means nothing, or maybe it will mean everything. I say give FMT a try. Heck, give them 3 tries. Anything you listen to done by them is going to be fantastic, but I do have some favorites that I go back to time and time again and I will tell you about my current favorite, and my all-time favorite.At the time of writing this, my current favorite is a series called “1918/2020,” and it is fantastic. While many will know how these two years are connected, for those that may not here is a quick lesson in history. In 1918 there was a pandemic that was caused by the H1N1 Influenza, in four different waves, and an estimated 17 – 100 million people died from it, obviously record keeping back then not so great. In 2020, COVID-19, etcetera, etcetera, enough said. In the series 1918/2020, two episodes in so far, they intercut between the two years with amazingly similar, and yet so different, stories of these two years. You can see these stories in your head, and you can easily imagine these things actually happening. It is as if you are right there eavesdropping and watching these “real people” going through these things. You can “feel” the heartbreak, the sadness, and the pain that these characters are going through or have gone through. I think it is more impactful right now because many of us have personally gone through these things, or know of someone who has gone through these things. Oh, and for full disclosure I am name checked at the end of one of the 1918/2020 episodes for becoming a Patreon.I have my all-time favorite series though and that is the “Sunken Harbor” series. Sunken Harbor is a town in New York as much as Castle Rock (Stephen King) is a town in Maine. Or, is it? I could picture the residents of Sunken Harbor going out of their way to keep their sleepy little town under wraps. The series takes place over many an episode, over many years of performances, the oldest dating back to 2015, and the most recent dating 2019. In listening to these stories you get involved in the lives of these characters. Some of these townsfolks include the very British, and to me sounding very much like Tim Curry, (a compliment in my book as he is one of my all-time favorite performers) Mr. Sheldon as played by James Rieser. The self-important Robbie “Cobra” Kleinman as played by Michael Pate. The mysterious Mayor Belfair as played by Ali Silva, Queen of them all, and the man who puts up with all of them, Sheriff Ulster as played by Eirik Davey-Gislason. By the way, as an aside, the performers I listed are just four of the members of FMT. Pulling an episode of Sunken Harbor I can see there were 9 performers listed, playing 11 different roles. These 9 performers make it feel as though you are in a town full of people, although a town full of very, very “strange” people. Sunken Harbor is hard to describe as it can bounce from mystery to spooky (but never horror) and back again as easily as can be. You will want to hug some characters, and others you want to join the line of people who want to give them a good slap. What I can say is take a visit, or several visits, to Sunken Harbor and you may never leave, even if you want to.You can count on many things from a FMT episode. You are going to get a fantastic story that is going to pull you deep into it. You are going to get a wonderful song by a wonderful singer, with some songs you may know, but have never heard them performed this way, and some songs may be new to you. You are going to hear a top notch cast who make you forget it is just a story. You are going to let go of your worries and troubles, even if it is just for a very short time.You may have noticed I called one particular person, a couple paragraphs back, Queen of them all. That is in no way a joke. This lady host and performs in the episodes. This lady co-produces the episodes. This lady does much of post-production. She does it all. That lady is Ms. Ali Silva. I call her out in particular because quite honestly if it were not for her, and her co-creator Gustavo Rodriguez, and writer of many a story Silbin Sandovar, there would be no FMT. So thank you Ms. Ali Silva.Alright, you have managed to stick around this long, and for that I congratulate you. I have just a little more to say, and if this is where you stop reading, as long as you remember, above all, to spread the word about FMT if you are a current listener, that is fantastic! If you have made it this far and haven’t listened to FMT as of yet, well, what are you waiting on? Go enjoy them as much as we do.If I can take a little more of your time I want to ask one more thing of you. While in particular what follows pertains directly to FMT, minus some of the details I talk about, this honestly pertains to almost any podcast you enjoy. Also, remember this is in no way solicited, as I get nothing, nada, nil, zero, zilch, from the following. The people of FMT don’t know me personally at all.If you can join in and help out financially then hit up their Patreon. You can get that link, and so much from their website at firesidemysterytheatre.com. I’m luckily at a place right now where I was able to double my yearly support of them, which prompted me to write this, at the tier I joined. Will I still be in that same place next year? Who knows, because I surely do not? I found it personally worth it as they have made this pandemic so much more bearable for me.If it is helping out at the $1 tier, then that is awesome, and if you pay the entire year at once it cost you only $10.80 as you get a 10% discount. If you’re able to support them at their highest tier, $10 whole dollars a month, or only $108 a year with that 10% discount, less than grabbing lunch out in most places, they’re going to send you a couple goodies. For that $10, or less paying yearly, a month you get a postcard, which you also get with the $7 tier, from Sunken Harbor, the town you’d only want to visit if you were crazy, as well as an awesome limited to the $10 tier pin.Oh yeah, I also can’t forget that no matter what tier, I’ve never used the word tier this many times in my life, you get a discount code to use toward the purchase of FMT products such as stickers, t-shirts, mugs, hoodies, and all kinds of stuff. So, at the $1 a month support, paid yearly you save 10%, and then you decide to purchase something from FMT using that 30% discount they provide, you just saved 40%. Wow! I’m no mathematician, obviously, but I do like saving money, and that sounds like a good savings to me. There are a couple tiers between $1 a month and $10 a month, with each offering a little more, but come on, we both know you have already pulled up their Patreon out of curiosity already, so you can see what they are.Now you $1 a month donors may think, “My whole dollar a month isn’t going to do much, so no big loss to them if I don’t help out.” You do realize if you are thinking that then so are many, many, many other people right? Now think if you and all those other people throw in that dollar a month, or don’t forget a whole $10.80 if paid annually (90 whole cents a month with that discount,) that adds up. 100 people paying annually works out to $90 a month they can use towards production and support. 1000 people paying annually works out to $900 a month that is used towards production and support. Again, I am no mathematician, but that’s more than what they were getting before you decided to support them. Correct? I could go on and on with these numbers, but I’m about written out, and I am going to wrap this up with one last little phrase….As Ali says in every episode, "Mind the Shadows"-Michael Virgin

Some of the most wondrously immersive storytelling there is to be experienced! In any given episode, one may find the grotesque, the darkly humorous, the poignantly uplifting, or the starkly uncanny. What one can always expect, however, is a nugget of Truth in each tale, a faint light, perhaps just enough to help us to mind the shadows.

This charming original story telling podcasts transports you to the golden age of radio drama. Original score, musical preformances and enthralling well written modern macabre- you really couldnt ask for more.

Creative original radio show content. Really fun stories with unique twists and a solid cast. Super fun for a late night listen...

EPIC! u must try this podscast.