I feel fine
The Lakes Of The Moon review
Production Company – Impala Films
Rating – 
I heard about this show after the latest season finished, the title “Innervale” and the cover art appealed to me (because I do judge a book by its cover). As you know, I like to go in blind to podcasts, so I didn’t read any blurb, and after I subscribed, I deleted the trailers too. Its impossible to go in completely blind however, you know there are such things as episode descriptions, and what little I did inadvertently discover just made my anticipation heighten.
So read on, and fly me to the moon…
So what’s it about?
The Lakes Of The Moon (or TLOTM as I will be calling it) is a sci-fi horror series that leans very heavily into the work of H. P. Lovecraft.
Season one, entitled Red Odyssey follows a Russian exploration of the moon. Remote probe Phantom IX, is being controlled from Earth by Illia Zakharov using a neural interface helmet. This helmet gives Illia a virtual reality-like experience of the surroundings, and is designed to stream real time data to the mission control.
A series of strange events see Phantom IX become sentient, some very strange and horrifying discoveries are made. Aaand I’m not telling you more than that!
Season two is a lot shorter. Entitled VHS, it follows Polish scientist, her relationship with her mother, her culture, and the collective unconscious.
Season three ties everything together as things set in motion come to fruition, and the future of humanity is in peril. Kicking off with a pretty much exact transcription of an infamous call to the late Art Bell. This is a nice twist on the intent of the phonecall that inspired it.
I say “it ties everything together”, but these stories were written as an anthology. There is no requirement to listen to them in order, or even listen to them all at all. The stories may be separate, but there is an overarching backstory that develops over the three seasons.
Is it any good?
If you’re a fan of The Lovecraft Investigations (and who isn’t?) then you’ll like this. I say “like” because it’s not as good as TLI. Sorry, but it isn’t. However, what it does, it does very well. Sci-Fi, existential, speculative horror is always going to get a subscription from me, but there are a few cons with this.
Particularly in season three, the voice acting is spotty. There is some great talent here, and some very emotional content, but some conversations were obviously recorded separately on different equipment. This was the main thing that really pulled me out of the story. I don’t say these things lightly. I even listened to the whole lot twice, and some things just get to me.
This had all the makings of a truly classic show. To all intents and purposes it is. It has the cast, it has the sound design, and it certainly has the writing. There’s just one or two blots on this copybook that stops the top score.
Season one is a classic. You should listen to that immediately. Season two is a great short series if you need more weirdness (and more of Sarah Golding playing spooky old women). Season three seems to over stretch itself. Everything is bigger and bolder, and I think it loses its intimacy and therefore some of its charm. Having said that, it is still worth a listen if you like cosmic horror.
Final thoughts
What could easily become just another Lovecraftian* tale is rescued by some clever storytelling and some amazing voice talent. This is well worth a look, or rather a listen.
*The series is described as “Lovecraftian”, and you know that that term makes me cringe a lot of the time. It was refreshing to note in a post season 2 interview that the writer said it was actually more “Chambersian” as in Robert W. Chambers. “Who?” You may ask, and that is precisely why he used Lovecraftian instead (although you should check out The King In Yellow if you haven’t already).
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