Why Night Vale is Not as Appealing as it Used to Be

Listeners, as I have been a part of this fandom, I have seen recently that people have been drifting away from the fandom. I’ve heard people talk about how they are not as interested, how they’re leaving the fandom, or that more people are falling behind on episodes. It is quite obvious that Night Vale is not as appealing as it was when it first began or even as soon as a year ago.

But that’s okay.

Night Vale has gone through ups and downs. What made it so appealing when it was first created was its lack of plot and its strangeness and its new characters and diversity and representation. But we’re used to all of that now. We know what Cecil is like and therefore can predict what he does. We know the other characters and the general atmosphere of the show so when new characters or strange events occur, we take it as it is. This is different from when we all first listened to Night Vale.

When we first listened to this podcast, we were so shocked by the strangeness of it all. A dog park where neither dogs nor humans can go into it? A post office that has the sound of a human soul being destroyed through black magic? A glow cloud that drops animal carcasses? All of these things were strange and jarring because we were unaware what this podcast was going to be like. Now that we’ve seen so many of these strange occurrences, we take them just as the citizens of Night Vale take them: they’re normal.

This is similar to how we take the characters. We were intrigued with Cecil and his evolving personality, and we wanted to know more about Mayor Pamela Winchell and her seemingly random press conferences, and we became invested in interns like Dana and Maureen. Now we know that every new character that’s introduced can become someone extremely important, just an intern that we thought was going to die like all the others eventually became mayor instead. We still hold these characters dear to our hearts because they are so important to both the story and to ourselves.

So why does Night Vale not seem as appealing anymore?

Night Vale has developed a pattern of episodes and a structure of storytelling. When the show first came out, we loved it because there was no plot, but plot slowly began to emerge. Things slowly built up to the Strex Arc and when that arc came to fruition, everyone was on the edge of their seats. I still remember when Old Oak Doors came out and the WTNV tag blew up with theories and excitement and angst as to what would happen next. The build up to this was flawless and the climax was exactly what we could have asked for. However, with every climax comes a falling action.

We have been so used to this build up and these edge-of-our-seats episodes that now that we are back to the original formula, we are, simply put, bored. We love the town and everything it has to offer, but these episodes like Civic Changes or The Registry of Middle School Crushes or Fashion Week, as good as they are, they are not what we want anymore. We want action and tension and suspense, and instead we are getting classic episodes that call back to the beginning of the series. And while these are fine for nostalgia, they simply aren’t what we want anymore, and because of that, the series is less appealing to us as a whole.

But, again, this is not a bad thing.

Night Vale will go through its ups and downs, just like any good series will that has been going on for a while. Fans will still love the original episodes for what they were, but they still look forward to changes and evolutions from what the series is offering currently. There will be low points when things seem slow, but that’s just to build up to the next arc. Fink&Cranor are not going to simply continue with these same types of episodes. There’s evidence of some kind of build up to an eventual arc, probably one pertaining to time, and all we need to do is wait and be patient. Night Vale is a part of all of us, and while some of us may move on from it, there are still a large number of us that remain. So even when things seem slow and maybe not as entertaining, you can still look forward to more of what makes Night Vale the podcast we have all grown to love.