Starts strong but unravels
I'm at episode 14, which is season 2, and I'm not sure I want to keep going. I'll start with the good points. This podcast has great production and a great concept. A girl inherets a spooky house, and through their exploration, we find out there's some weird stuff inside. Unfortunately, the writing brings the show down. Character actions are implausible. They do actions that conveniently serve the story but they are actions people wouldn't do in real life (such as going along with a spooky ritual that they know will end badly.) And there are other implausible writing elements that serve the story in an unrealistic way, such as correctly guessing two passwords in a row when trying to hack into a computer. Moments that make the listener roll their eyes. Other frustrating character actions are, when the mystery has sufficiently been resolved, the characters keep researching and investigating. As a listener, I kept saying, "I get it! We have enough information, let's move on!" But the characters don't stop, so lots of information is repeated several times. For this reason, the story is drawn out far too long. What could have been a fun little podcast gets stretched over multiple seasons and overstays its welcome. The final bad writing decision was to make this a "found footage" type of story, where we are hearing it unfold through recordings. It weakens the fear factor of the story. The main characters are recording and collecting these audio clips as they investigate, which means we are hearing them after the fact ... which means the main characters are safe and alive. So there is no tension or suspense as we're listening back to their recorded audio. Using recordings also hinders the story telling, because there are so many scenes that wouldn't have been recorded in real life. For example, we hear the main character wake up from a scary dream, but ... why was she recording herself sleeping? And why did the scary dream end up in the audio? And we hear seperate scenes with the antagonist but ... why would the villain be recording themselves? And why would we, the listeners, have access to that recording? So the "found footage" aspect really falls apart after a season. All-in-all, this could have been a fun show, but it's too long, it's poorly written, and despite some lovely production values, I think I'm ready to move on.Read full review »
manlybrian via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 10/25/22
More reviews of Parkdale Haunt
So creepy and fast paced! Can’t wait to hear more.
Natbearsicus via Apple Podcasts · Canada · 09/29/20
The characters and dialogue was super fake, corny and cheesy, like small town theatre productions. The concept idea was good. It killed time, so it still managed to hooked me somehow.
timmins118 via Apple Podcasts · Canada · 11/02/20
The first episode was great! I’m looking forward for more! 👌
Giniz1 via Apple Podcasts · Sweden · 10/01/20
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