To say the first three episodes of Cryptids are mysterious is an understatement. On first pass, they seem to follow a certain formula. There’s a beginning, middle and end on almost every level big and small. The first episode runs the gamut of emotional responses from sweetness to sadness and believable to cryptic.
Episode one, when compared to two and three, acts a prologue and chapter one happening simultaneously. A narrative device that is both strange and familiar. One need only look as far as any found footage podcast to examples of this done well. Cryptids manages to awe the listener with the same trick, just heard a different way.
Cryptids on Repeat
Like Greater Boston, the first three episodes of Cryptids require at least two listens to understand the motivations and emotion state of the characters. The plot remains a mystery even after repeat and with four episodes left, the creative team is gonna need to step up their game if they want a satisfying ending for the whole series. As it stands, the trilogy of opening episodes is like a good season finale with a stinger at the end.
Cryptids follows a formula that mirrors the larger structure of the first three episodes. An obvious example is the end with the two mysterious voices who appear to know more than everyone else. By episode three one of the almost omniscient characters gets several funny drunk fish out of beer moments.
From the first scene, Cryptids informs you of their position on the supernatural. Like the X-Files, it wants you to believe. The ingenious of intercutting between the radio talkshow scenes and the hospital scenes in episode one is both pleasing from a story standpoint and sounds as good, if not better.
Links
Radio Public (iOS and Android)
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