Welcome, Constant Reader. I’m back for my series of full-season NoSleep reviews. I’m not going to waste any time with the preemptory stuff because Season 2 is a banger. I said it and I mean it, but this statement comes with some caveats. So, let’s get crackalackin’, fam.

When looking strictly at the number of episodes that were all-around winners, it’s not actually that good. In my own opinion, this season only had about a 50% hit rate. For me, this can mostly be all pinned on one specific issue. Across the board, this season has an excessively bad detail to context ratio.

One example of this problem is a story called ‘Tattoo You’ by Molly McDougal (S2E15), a story which is extremely interesting and unbelievably disappointing. It’s obviously literally just the first half (or maybe even less) of a larger narrative. I’ve looked all over the Internet in my limited crypto-detective capacity. There doesn’t seem to be any continuation to the story publicly available. I know I’ve said before that I sincerely enjoy some intentionally cultivated mystery in my entertainment. But this ain’t that. This is like the difference between the drop on the highest rollercoaster hill and that gif where the roller coaster track ends and the car just goes careening off into oblivion. There are a couple of stories with this kind of disappointingly abrupt endings, and it turned out to be the signature of this season.

On the other hand, some of the stories give so much intense detail and nothing to do with it. ‘The Secret Ingredient’ by M.F Korn and David Matthew is a perfect example to discuss here. It’s a longer story, the lone story that made up the First Anniversary show. One character specifically to outline my point is named is Christlieb. He’s a stereotypical gentle giant, and the narrative goes into uncomfortable detail about his unusual affinity for pain and alludes in a not-at-all subtle way that his childhood guardians locked him up because of his mental handicap. And don’t be upset, fam, because exactly zero of this information is pertinent at all to the narrative. The author goes into this level of detail for at least three other characters, and it’s absolutely maddening. Like I said, detail to context ratio.

There is one example of this where it’s frustrating, but it still works. Episode 20 only features 3 stories because the third, ‘Scratching’ by Jacob Newell, is an epic rabbit hole of eerie mysteries. In this case, the intensive detail and lack of cathartic apex is part and parcel with the narrative. The reason it works so well in this case is because the sense of incompleteness is shared by the characters. You’re not left feeling there’s an essential concept that should be clear, but which makes no sense in full context.

Don’t worry, I think I’ve got most of the bitching out of the way. Because the stories from this season that are good are really good. Some absolute classics got produced this season. This is the no-contest absolute best production of ‘The Disappearance of Ashley, Kansas’ by Allan Kantor (S2E5) that I’ve heard to date. This is also, to my knowledge, the first ever audio publishing of ‘The Showers’ by Dylan Sindelar (2012 Halloween Bonus). And while we’re talking about the best of the best here, time to bring up Episode 8. Oh, lawd family. This is the first 100% perfect episode of the show thus far. This featured NoSleep’s production of ‘The Scarecrow Corpse’ by Kristopher Mallory. Enough said.

One thing I might mention here though, is that there seems to be an uncomfortable amount of sexual assault in this season, both explicit and implied. It’s all handled in a way that’s as tasteful as possible, given the context. But I mean, it is what it is. [PSA, I’m crossing the county line to into Spolier here for a paragraph or two.] The two biggest examples include some of NoSleep’s most iconic voices. C.H. Williamson really brings the Big Creep Energy all the time and ‘I‘m No Angel’ (S2E11) is a great example of this weirdly incredible talent niche. He is a voice talent that I love to hate. This story consistently makes my skin crawl. His other NoSleep contributions are equally unsettling, but for the unlikely season sub-theme of sexual assault this is a real banger. This season is also the grand debut of James Cleveland, making him the most tenured actor of the NoSleep players. “Don’t Forget Your Friends” by Kevin I. Miller (S2E9) stands out creatively for being one of the only stories I remember where the protagonist goes to a spiritualist for help and they make things worse. It’s a nicely iconoclast turn of events in and of itself, and then immediately after comes the story’s sting. And damn is it a mean one.

Spoilers over! It’s safe for everyone to come back now. The other James Cleveland story I really enjoyed in Season 2 was ‘Snow’ from the Claverhouse Email series (S2E18). This season was the first time the seasonal episodes hit home in their own right, not just for their niche. ‘Snow’ isn’t specifically a holiday narrative, but neither is ‘The Mug’ by Eric Dodd (Christmas Special S2E17). And this was the very first Christmas NoSleep story I thoroughly enjoyed on its own merit. It’s creepy, it’s eldritch, there are random disembodied teeth. All my favorite horror tropes. Plus, it features Wendy Corrigan. She’s not a regular appearance anymore, but she has always been my favorite voice partner for David Cummings. They have great chemistry, and I always enjoy their performances together.

Speaking of Pod Dad, I’ll wrap up this review with a quick talk about one of my favorite stories he’s ever done solo. ‘She Was Just A Child’ by Neil Balthazar (S2E23) gave me a mixed reaction at first. I always feel two ways about not casting the appropriate gender or nationality in a story. I feel strongly that, when it’s not possible to cast accurately, just make it a nonissue. In this story, for example, Cummings affects an Indian accent. There’s very little in the story to make this necessary, and nothing to make it critical. To be clear, I wouldn’t go so far to call it racist. NoSleep is incredibly inclusive and sensitive to diversity. It was just superfluous. However, this is only the second season of the show. I get it. Not only do they have a relatively limited field of talent to choose from, they’re still finding their footing on what works. But realistically, it’s a non-issue compared to the quality of the story; it is fantastic. Creepy, unsettling, twisted, and unexpected. If you don’t remember this one, trust me when I say to go back to it with no context. It’s got a hell of an ending.

All said and done, there’s a lot to say about Season 2. Not all of it’s bad, but there’s a fair amount of meh. But in general, the quality of the stories in season 2 went up so dramatically from season 1. Four or five or more of my top 20 favorite stories got produced in 2. As far as I’m concerned, on the merit of Episode 8 alone, Season 2 gets an A+.

Thanks for joining me for this one guys. It’s probably going to be my last NoSleep review for a while. I had to factory reset my phone and lost all my favorites, notes and bookmarks in Podcast Addict. Since I’m so early in, I thought I’d take a minute to go back and get that information restored before moving on to Season 3. Because I’m maybe more than a little precious about my podcasts. In the meantime, coming in soon I’ve got discussions on ZoomDoom’s amazing pre-dystopian sci-fi horror ‘Spines’ and the premier season of this year’s eldritch horror superstar, ‘Old Gods of Appalachia’.

See you soon, fam. Hydrate, wash your hands and get plenty of sunlight.