Chances are if you’re on Tumblr, you’ve heard of Night Vale.
‘What is it?’ many people are asking. Well, there’s no easy answer to that. The technical explanation would be that ‘Welcome to Night Vale’ is a podcast by written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. It’s narrated by the amazing Cecil Baldwin, who’s voice is absolutely perfect for this creepy role.
Now, on a less technical side, Night Vale is a fictional town in the middle of the desert. Run by the Sheriff’s ‘Secret Police’ the town of Night Vale experiences daily paranormal activity. These experiences range from people growing extra heads to dragon’s getting arrested for insurance fraud. These are the lighter moments of ‘WTNV’, but there are so many darker instances.
This is definitely seen in episode 3, ‘Station Management’. Cecil begins to tell us that he has no idea what the station managament actually look like, or if they’re even from this world as they keep their office door shut constantly. After asking the listeners to write letters to them about how much they love the radio show and not to take it off the air, we then get a broadcast from Cecil where he claims to be hiding under his desk. He’s whispering and fearing for his life as he pleads with the audience to stop sending the letters. We can hear static and movements in the background, and it gives for an extremely creepy atmosphere.
Another plot point is Carlos, the scientist, and his hair. Carlos has come to Night Vale to investigate all the strange energies and claims to want to help the residents. Cecil talks frequently about how in love he is with Carlos, and this plays through the whole series. The voice acting, background music and actual songs (the weather segment is always a new song) are all absolutely fantastic, and I consider WTNV one of the best podcasts I have ever listened to.
And with that, dear listeners, I leave you with this…
Listen to Night Vale. Listen to it now unless you want to be ushered to live in an abandoned mine by the Secret Police. Granted, it’s not that bad. It apparently has HBO on Demand.
