Mysteries are abound tonight

E.A.T.I. review

Rating –

Well folks, it’s the first Sunday of the month which should now mean that it’s interview time. As a bit of a spoiler, this month’s interview is with Al Ridenour from Bone And Sickle. The anniversary of the show is towards the end of the month, so I suggested posting then as a bit of a homage to that great podcast. Anyway, enough of the digression, here is today’s post.

This is another review that has been languishing in that limbo of my half written Google docs folder. As new shows pop up, the to-do list invariably gets jumbled, some reviews literally write themselves and tend to fall out of my head all in one go. Others are a bit more obstinate, and the act of trying to form a decent blog post is akin to carving a marble statue with a teaspoon.

Therefore I’m trying to at least clear some of the backlog, and use it as an exercise in forcing myself to be creative. So here we go. A much delayed review of the mysteriously named E.A.T.I. 

So what’s it about?

The Experimental Alien Technology Institute or E.A.T.I. is an organisation that collects odd artifacts. This podcast is a repository for their most baffling cases. That’s all there is to say really. It’s an anthology horror series with a vintage sheen.

Presented by the ominous sounding “Myster”, like mystery without the second “Y” (or should that be “Why”?) the show sends you on a strange trip into things that shouldn’t exist, yet do. Each story was recorded either in audio or video, and this “found footage” style is rather novel in podcastland. The agents of the organization spend a lot of their time out of their depth (as you would expect when dealing with such things)

The episodes range from phone calls and videos that have been acquired by the group, to actual examinations of weird artifacts. It is these episodes that I prefer. These are what sets the show apart from a lot of the others, and (I think) more in keeping with the ethos of the show.

Is it any good?

It’s OK. It’s far from brilliant, but it is rather engaging. No, the acting isn’t great. Far from it in fact. Using the same cast every time is obviously a necessity, and shows like Petrified do this every well. Here though, it just seems to get confusing to listen to when you get through big chunks in one go like I tend to do.

It’s the writing that carries this show. Each case is wonderfully weird. Whilst some are recorded experiences by the public, the more scientific approach by the group is perfectly “human”. By that I mean that they tend to forget safety and ethics as soon as something interesting pops up.

After listening for only a few episodes, then the real competition this show has is The SCP Archives, and unfortunately it can’t really hold up to something with as much lore created for it as SCP.

Final thoughts

If you have a sci-fi/horror itch that needs to be scratched, then give this show a go. A few years ago I would have rated this show higher, but as time goes on, I’m becoming a bit more severe in my judgement.

Just be aware though, that just because a 5 brain review is the best, that denotes a practically perfect show. Three brains is still a good show. I feel the need to clarify this because there’s a trend of anything less than 5 is rubbish mentality (and something I’ve really tried to overcome myself as this blog has grown). It’s almost pointless to rate shows if everything gets top marks 

You can get E.A.T.I. here:

For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods