The Breakdown: The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction sudo-anthology with an overarching connective plot that explores an institution that specializes in recording the bizarre and esoteric.
Listen If: You like spooky, Lovecraftian horror with a good atmospheric punch.
Not If: You have trouble paying attention to podcasts.
Similar To: I Am In Eskew (Podcast), Cult (TV)
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
By: The Rusty Quill
Written By: Jonathan Sims
Director: Alexander J Newall
Average Episode Length: 25min
Genre: Horror, Lovecraftian, Fiction, Anthology
Number of Episodes: 147 (As of August 1st, 2019)
The Bare Bones
The Magnus Archives is an excellent horror fiction, rich which intricate tie ins and underlying conspiracies. It's worth the listen, but try and make sure you're in a place where you can pay it the attention is deserves, or you'll miss stuff.
Premise:4
An archive that records potentially paranormal accounts. It's a simple premise that could easily be lost in its developed form, or become little more than a poorly tethered excuse for the setting, but the way The Magnus Archives utilizes this premise not only frames the episodes well, but it offers a sense of 'tip of the iceburg' to the already well conveyed dread. The curmudgeonly new archivist whose thrown into this position also gives the listeners an added framework and reliability that tie together the show and really manage to create a brand throughout the many episodes.
Quality:4
This podcast, let me tell you, has some of the cleverest uses of background sound planting that I have ever heard. They manage to subliminally drop the most discreet of audio cues amidst the general narrative so well that your mind begins recalling details and past episodes and tones without full noticing where it came from, and that shows a level of audio aptitude and a psychological understanding of horror and the subconscious mind that I can only applaud. Some of the effects border on silly, but those are so few and far between, and so well contextualized that any breech of atmosphere is immediately rectified.The music is recognizable and interesting without drawing too much attention to itself, and the actors are exceptional performers.
Atmosphere:5
The Magnus Archives has such a strong, well voiced atmosphere that it almost falls to its detriment. It manages to draw you in and captivate you in such a way that it becomes almost impractical. If you listen to podcast while your doing other things, proceed with this one with caution. I have found myself so trapped by the unraveling narratives that I have neglected whatever other thing I had been doing, and my productivity drops for it. Take the time to figure out when you can listen without loosing track of other things, or trying to over-focus on tasks and having to go back in the episode because you missed something important. I've also had a few friends tell me that the encroaching atmosphere is too comfortable, and that if they listen in the dark it either scares them awake, or begins lulling them to sleep.
Delivery: 5
We, as a species, have a guilty pleasure for the formulaic, and any piece of media that manages to feed that while also maintaining its own, distinct voice and developing its own system of rules with as much tangled intricacy as The Magnus Archive achieves deserves any pedestal it finds itself upon. I have yet to find a bad episode, and while some of them missed the mark for me, I have friends who herald them as the best episodes in the series. The anthology nature of the show permits there to be something for everyone, without neglecting quality. The overarching plot lines are engaging and intimately gnawing, to a point where obsession-level conspiracy boards would not be found out of place among avid listeners.
Consistency: 5
With any anthology-based media, there's going to be some flexibility in content and quality from episode to episode, and The Magnus Archives is no exception, but I have found, through my own consumption as well as discussions with others, that this variety only adds to the show. There are massive differences in content and story between many of the episodes, but they all posses that same Magnus quality, that same tonal focus and atmospheric presence that ties them all together. This binding element is a trait that most anthology shows entirely fail to utilize. But The Magnus Archives does this so well that it permits you to focus on the stories being told in such a way, that at worse an episode 'wasn't your thing' and at best, it stands out among the others as the thing that crawls in through the back of your mind when your laying in the dark waiting to fall asleep.
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