13 Days of Halloween - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I look forward to this production every Halloween! I loved seasons 1-3. So creepy! I cared about the protagonists and was very invested in their well being. I still think about season 2, The Sea 😱😭 Sometimes I couldn’t listen to Season 3 bc I was so scared for Max!

Season 4 was not enjoyable, I only stuck around hoping Sayuri (the 1st one we are introduced to) would meet her demise bc she was so unlikeable, selfish and her vibe did not match one of someone who was trapped in a psycho prison. I was not scared and half listened, which is not like the previous seasons where I was terrified.

Hopefully season 5 mirrors the first seasons, it’s still a great podcast despite season 4 falling flat.

I love the 13 Days of Halloween series and 12 Ghosts. I return to these series through out the year. I have probably listed to ear 3 or more times. I am engrossed by the tales and the storytelling. I think this is such a lovely body of work and I look forward to it every year.

The production/ sound editing is really letting me down on the first episode. Once a specific character enters the narrative, the scratching sounds became a chalkboard in my brain. If you have even mild misophonia, AVOID.

The first season was great--I Re-listened this year it was so good. The second was pretty good but the third season drove me crazy with the annoying kid constantly running away from logical safe places and the whole ubiquitous kid/dog thing. Boring.
This season I loved until the end. After all that puzzling it felt rushed to have no answers. I get the Gunslinger reference but it was very vague --we still don't know who is responsible or why. Short exposition after all the character development. Bummer. Voice acting was great, I liked the apple. It wasn't as creepy as the others but I was definitely engaged.

I’ve never understood how artists can ignore what makes their product so unique and special with each subsequent iteration. It’s why most sequels fail. It’s why the MCU is running aground. This show had an amazing premise, with an outstanding first season. The second season was good, but not nearly as good as the first. But this third season has nothing of what made the show so special to begin with. It’s really unfortunate. I hope they go back to basics in the future. S4 Update: So many mouth sounds! It’s infuriating! God, she’s always chewing and talking with her mouth full. It’s disgusting! She’s already the most annoying and unsympathetic protagonist in a story I’ve ever heard, but she can’t stop slapping her lips and chewing stuff. I hate it!!!!! This season is so off the rails I don’t understand how it got published. Is every episode written in complete isolation? There is absolutely nothing connecting one episode to the next. Which would be fine, if this were an anthology show. But the premise suggests a larger story connecting all the disparate episodes. Not only is this proving to be flimsy in season 4, but I get the impression that there IS NO larger story. Rather, the only thing connecting these episodes on a narrative level is the protagonist (which we never learn anything about) and the setting (which we either learn nothing, or get contradicting information about). This could work, if it were done well, but it’s not done well here. I’m only on the 5th episode, but I have absolutely no sense that I’d miss something vital if I skipped an episode. There are no clues given to us from one episode to the next, only more questions. And the answers we do get point to a complete mish-mash of concepts. Based on previous episodes, I don’t believe any of the questions posed will have satisfying answers. To be honest, this entire show feels like a collaborative effort to bring to life one person’s idea. There’s no cohesion. There’s no overarching plot or story thread. There are no established rules in this world, so any questions raised can be conveniently swept away with magic at any time. At first I was curious and had tons of questions about this “prison,” the people in charge, and how the protagonist got there. But very quickly I realized that none of that mattered in the slightest. As soon as they started talking about memory-wiping drugs, paradoxical architecture, and making people vanish with a whisper, I realized anything can happen just because the writers want it to. There will never be a satisfying reason/answer/conclusion to any of this because there are no rules to any of this. And that’s very frustrating. S1 was a great template for how a show like this can be produced effectively, but every other season has been falling way short. Of course, I know this is probably an unpopular opinion. There are tons of fans of this show, myself among them. I just think there’s a lot of lost potential. This show could be so much better. It’s frustrating to see (hear) it become almost a parody of itself. For those that want a well-produced anthology of creepy sounds and nonsensical stories to fall asleep to, this is the show for you. But for those who want a richer narrative experience, with established rules, mysteries you can take part in and try to solve, and a larger plot unfolding while connecting a dozen or so short stories about interesting characters, look elsewhere. Nothing but disappointment lurks here these days.

The first season is solid, contained stories, each compelling in different ways. As each season goes by, it becomes just a lot of sound effects and too many character voices, lots of noise that is difficult to follow. The stories of Season 3 and 4 are not meant for an audio format. Give your listeners a little credit, we don’t need bells and whistles to be engaged. Just strong writing and voice talent.