Popular Reviews of What Happened in Skinner

very good podcast, incredible production value, compelling and interesting story, likeable and complex characters, wonderful worldbuilding materials going beyond the podcast itself. wish the ending was a bit less open, but it's just a personal preference. not full five stars, but let's say four and three quarters ;)

Enticing! Looking forward to this one!

Definitely has some strong Limetown vibes. I loved it. Great acting, writing and quality audio. However...FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHANGE YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR BATTERY. It made me nuts. Thanks and you're awesome

Awesome!

Wow. Just been pulled in by the brilliantly creepy trailer … can’t wait for the first episode. Spine-tingling music. Love this kind of podcast, it’s what podcasts are best at.

Once I started listening I could not turn it off. Very anxiously awaiting the next episode.

A well-written mystery with strong characters. The scope of the story expands enough to begin to strain my credulity, but the writing and sound are good enough to make you forget that.

Story keeps you interested and engaged! Quality audio drama!

Good but not great. I certainly didn't emerge from the series understanding the hype that suggests it is one of the best audio dramas out there. There's nothing too wrong with the show and there's certainly positives - the script is well written and audio design is excellent. Voice acting is very well done.It just didn't shine for me. The plots often trundled and the climax was underwhelming. I absolutely would tune in if there was more episodes, I just wouldn't be rushing to do so.

Gosh where do I start! Intense slow burn story that had my heart racing every episode. The narrative is engaging, I loved the ties to social media. The character interactions are so good you forget it's scripted. And music is fantastic! Excited to see where it goes from here.

This podcast takes the internet urban legends of the eerily odd youtube channels, and the mystery that must lay behind them. Unfortunately in real life that usually ends up being a staged or contrived mystery, but "What Happened in Skinner", delivers on the promise, and tickles the brain. Everyone loves a good rabbit hole to drive down, and in a way very reminiscent of "Limetown" - "What Happened In Skinner?" will have your neurons firing in all directions as you dive head first into the world of Skinner, Oregon.

Only two episodes out so far, but this really scratches that itch for eerie mysterious investigation!

There’s a lot to like in this audio drama. Production is quality, acting is good, story and mystery are compelling, and the theme exploring generational wealth is creatively approached. I would recommend this audio drama but I have a major caveat. Trying to fit this narrative into the found recording/faux trued crime podcast within a podcast genre really undermines what otherwise would be a very good audio drama. That I am supposed to believe that this would be a podcast or anything that looks like an actual podcast in our world is stretched way too far. Examples are perfect audio surviving being submerged in water, being in the middle of natural catastrophes, happening while someone is sleeping or fighting, numerous recordings of extremely personal conversations, within a secret society nonetheless, happening between multiple characters agreeing to wear lav mics they rarely shut off, is just too much. The lead being an investigative podcaster could have been an aspect of the greater audio drama without pretending the whole audio drama itself is contained within a published true crime podcast. For me, it just led to constant cognitive dissonance every episode; however, to its credit, I tuned in to every episode because the mystery and acting were good. Seemingly inspired by predecessors like Tanis or The Black Tapes, I feel the creators excitedly and bravely committed to this framework ignoring the overwhelming limitations for their story where it works against it constantly. Just like a book, it’s ok to have your protagonist recount their efforts or include multiple points of view without trying to pretend they are writing an unedited magazine piece even if they’re a journalist. We don’t need to pretend other characters are wearing lav mics 24/7. The faux podcast angle always limits an audio drama and the gimmick is only temporarily clever. Another listener may be able to get over it and suspend the disbelief beyond just the supernatural story aspects. Perhaps they can justify in their mind that some people would behave this way around being recorded and audio recording technology would invincibly and perfectly operate as such. I tried but couldn’t. For me, the second star gets knocked off for character arcs that were undermined by an ending that didn’t take us that far from our beginnings, despite some pretty dramatic stuff going down. Having said all that, I would totally check out another audio drama from this crew or a season 2 if it is not in the faux true crime podcast framework. If there is a next season I encourage creators to just make it a regular audio drama. The cast and production are good so do check it out. Again, another listener may be able to get past the unbelievable contortions taken to get it to fit the faux true-crime podcast framework but it was just too much of a block for me to really enjoy it as much as I could have.

I'm rating this while listening to episode 7, debating whether to drop this podcast.Pros: great audio mix in some places, good voice castCons: slow progress, disengaging narration styleThere's a good story here but the writing stretches the plot so thin. There are barely any progress in each episode. I listen to supernatural mysteries shows for the holy shit moments but there are barely any halfway through.