What is your pleasure sir?
The Antiquarium Of Sinister Happenings review
Production company – Bloody FM
Rating – 
Listening to podcasts has been pretty much a full time job for me for the last 3 or 4 years. What I mean by that, is that while I’m in my actual full time job I’m listening to podcasts. So it’s not unusual for me to listen for 8 or 9 hours a day. As such, I get through a lot of shows. I won’t say I’ve heard it all before, but I have heard a lot of it before.
Which brings me on to this week’s review. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce The Antiquarium Of Sinister Happenings.
So what’s it about?
The Antiquarium Of Sinister Happenings (or TAOSH as I will abbreviate it here on out to save my poor carpal tunnels) is an anthology horror podcast in the vein of A Voice From Darkness, or a fictional version of the brilliant Radio Rental.
Every episode we visit the strange and mysterious owner of TAOSH. He then tells us about some new acquisition that has arrived which he is eager to sell. This is used as the introduction to a new spooky story for your delectation and delight. The items here seem mundane enough, but by the time the story is over, you may have some reservations about obtaining them. Do you have a choice though?
Is it any good?
If you would have asked me that when I first started then I would have said no, not really. I wasn’t sure if I should stick with it at all originally. By now you know my rule of giving a show ten episodes before quitting and episode 8 was by far the best one yet, so we’ll have to see how it goes from there.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with the show. The sound design is rather good, and there are a lot of guest voices who are well known for their film and TV work. I think what lets the show down is that the stories just aren’t that great.
The stories are written by different people, which, yes, I know, makes sense seeing as all the items in the shop are different. Unfortunately this means that the quality differs greatly from episode to episode. No amount of good acting can rescue a mediocre story. This show is in a similar vein to The Wrong Station, although that was pretty much the opposite scenario. Those were stories all written and performed by the same people. It also got a 3 brain rating from me, as you will see if you click the link.
I really like the shopkeeper’s speech at the end of the episode though. About how he has been created in your mind, and what a good job you’ve done, and then delivering his fateful warning. There are episodes where that is the best bit of writing unfortunately.
Final thoughts
I had a real problem deciding which way I should go with this review, and the show in general. Should I give up after my self imposed 10 episode watershed?
I think this is a show I’ll keep in reserve for when everything else is either on hiatus or I just can’t decide on something. I just have so many other shows in the pipeline at the moment that I can’t justify giving this the time it may well deserve. At the moment, if it doesn’t come out swinging, then it won’t be judged too favourably.
That being said, have a look around the place. You might find something you like. Amongst the junk are some real gems to find, if you put the time in.
You can get The Antiquarium Of Sinister Happenings here:
For more podcast reviews, I recommend GreatPods.