Don’t get discouraged when you see the amount of episodes to Welcome To Night Vale (abbreviated as WTNV). Especially the fact that every month
two new episodes come to surface. It seems like it’s going to take forever to catch up, but what’s the rush? The creators, Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink, came out with this podcast at the beginning of2012. The show quickly became a hit, which isn’t much of a surprise once you listen to Welcome To Night Vale. The ever so popular podcast is presented as a “radio show” in the fictional town of “Night Vale”. However, it isn’t just an ordinary podcast. From mysterious hooded figures to lights in the sky, the story never fails to be somewhat odd, but extremely captivating. There’s no doubt that the creators definitely made this podcast stand out; with haunting dark humour in every episode that just adds so much to the show. To demonstrate that, I’ve added some of my favorite quotes from the episode “The Shape in Grove Park”:
“The moon’s weird though right?…It’s there and there and then… suddenly not. And it seems to be pretty far up. Is it watching us? If it’s not , what is it watching instead? Is there something more interesting than us? Hey, watch us moon! […] This has been today’s children’s fun fact science corner.”
“The Night Vale School District has announced some changes to the elementary school curriculum. They are as follows : […] History class will focus more heavily on textbook reading and traditional exams, rather than live ammo drills. […] Math and English are switching names, their curriculum will stay exactly the same. [..]Also, Pluto has been declared imaginary.”
To say the least, the quotes above showcase the types of unpredictable ideas Cranor and Fink have. Every single episode I’ve listened to has never bored me nor has it been unoriginal, which is what makes this podcast so fascinating. Cecil Gershwin Palmer voices the only narrator of the podcast (who shares the same name as himself), Cecil Baldwin, Night Vale radio station’s only host. Fans of Welcome To Night Vale have come to a conclusion that Baldwin has a third eye, wears purple, and has sleeve tattoos, which is depicted in multiple fan art creations. The abnormal town of Night Vale follows the plot in which every single conspiracy theory is true. When asked about how the listeners react to the use of conspiracy theories in Welcome To Night Vale, Fink had this to say:
“I think the point of Night Vale is not whether or not the conspiracy theories are true.[…] Life in Night Vale is very dangerous, very hard to understand, but so is real life. I think a lot of people can really relate, and really, I think, find some comfort in this idea of a town where life is dangerous and hard to understand, but people just get on with their lives and get on with their days and go about their business anyway.”
And Fink is absolutely right. The town depicts weird but extremely dangerous situations but life still goes on for all the civilians of Night Vale. Which should bring comfort to the rest of us, knowing that life still goes on. The podcast itself has a supernatural vibe and frankly, it does take some getting used to. I definitely would not listen to it while walking home in the dark alone. But, I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who is interested in amazing storytelling and is simply open to trying out a new type of podcast.
