Netflix no longer has “Archive 81” available. The sitcom was terminated after just one season, according to the streaming provider. Given that the analytics’ public-facing side indicated a highly successful series, the cancellation has some wondering about the numbers’ vast black box at Netflix.
Producer Atomic Monster and showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine collaborated to create “Archive 81” for streaming. Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), a young man with a troubled past who was recruited to repair video cassettes damaged in an accident, was the main character in the story. Between Dan in the present and aspiring filmmaker Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), who is filming the tapes from 1994, the show frequently cut between the two. Dan tries to figure out what happened to her and the building while Melody interviews its tenants in an effort to delve deeper into the mysteries of the historic Visser Building.
The first season of the show ended abruptly. Sadly, there will never be a satisfying resolution to that cliffhanger. However, many viewers were unaware that “Archive 81” was based on a podcast with the same name.
Horror still works in the audio realm
Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger are the creators of the podcast “Archive 81.” The horror podcast boom that gave us “Lore,” “Limetown,” “The Black Tapes,” and “The Magnus Archives” also produced this one, which started producing episodes in 2016. That’s fantastic company to be in considering that two of those podcasts were made into television shows and another has been in development since 2018 as a sitcom.
The podcast “Archive 81” deviates slightly from the corresponding television programme. The fundamental idea is essentially the same: Archivist Dan (voiced by the show’s creator Daniel Powell) is entrusted with recovering cassettes that the nameless organisation LMG has provided him. These tapes are the transcripts of interviews conducted by Melody Pendras (Amelia Kidd’s voice), a young woman, in the 1990s, with residents of the enigmatic Visser Building. Dan discovers that he is being sucked into a bigger conspiracy as he archives the tapes.
The specifics are what have changed. Dan plays an audio archivist in the podcast who restores Melody’s old audio tapes and stores them digitally. Dan and Melody don’t share the time-traveling supernatural connection seen in the TV show. Alexa, Melody’s longtime spouse, plays a supporting role in the podcast. (This modification did not please the podcast’s listeners.)
The podcast’s inclusion of a horror anthology is most significant. In the first two seasons, Dan and Melody’s stories advance with each episode, but the primary focus of each one is a unique spooky tale from a resident of the Visser Building. In audio format, it is “discovered footage.” The streaming programme has a more basic plot and occasionally mentions various iterations of these tales without particularly focusing on them.
Dive into the cosmic horror
“Cosmic horror,” sometimes known as “Lovecraftian horror,” is the fear of the unknowable and things beyond the realm of human comprehension. The podcast “Archive 81” fit very well with the cosmic horror subgenre. The podcast’s horror was briefly mentioned in the streaming programme, but the impact is muted by the fact that no particular interviewee gets any attention. Even if the residents of the Visser Building in the 1990s are unaware of what is going on, something is quietly affecting them all.
Consider Craig, the person who is the centre of the podcast’s seventh episode of the first season. When Melody interviews him, he admits that his problem is that he only sees one person’s face once a day, every day. And that one person will always have this issue. This incident, according to Craig, destroyed his relationship with his live-in partner. Can you love someone if you can’t even tell when they’re feeling something? Craig now works at a railway station, praying that the person who appears faceless that day will be someone he never has to see again as a result of having to deal with this trauma.
These and more subtle, eerie tales can be found on the podcast “Archive 81.” That’s what causes Dan and Melody to have this sense of dread and loneliness. Is there truly a problem in the Visser, or are people just going crazy? How long might you, the listener, have endured in comparable circumstances?
Where season 2 could have gone
In the final scene of “Archive 81” on Netflix, Dan participates in a ceremony that will release Melody from the pocket space she has been imprisoned in since a previous ritual that occurred back in the 1990s. He finds himself at a hospital with a view of Manhattan when he awakens. The World Trade Center is also visible, giving viewers the impression that Dan is either in the past or in a different universe. The second season is likely to follow the first, but with Melody attempting to contact Dan in the present.
The podcast is moving in a different direction. Dan is still being transported, but this time he arrives in The City, an alternate dimension hellscape ruled by enormous Leviathans that compete for the residents by materialising their horrific ideas. It leans more toward cosmic horror and the strangeness that can be explored without worrying about running out of money for special effects. Dan doesn’t even cross over to this dimension in what may be considered a fully human shape.
Season 2 of the podcast questions what would happen if the abyss swallowed you whole if Season 1 was looking into the abyss. Dan’s condition in the second season has become even more unbelievable, yet it still has some of the first season’s horror anthology vibe to it. While maintaining the same structure, the third season has a whole new roster of heroes.
What we’ll miss out on by not having season 2
2 of “Archive 81” probably wouldn’t have progressed as far as the podcast did. Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine acknowledged that Dan had ended up in the 1990s in a Variety interview. He is in the 1990s, I can tell you that, she said. “He is actually living in the 1990s, which can be inferred from the fact that there are no particles floating around. He’s in 1994. We’re also questioning this since we saw folks enter The Otherworld at various points in time. What does that imply then?”
There was still room to experiment with the New York that Dan was in. In the show’s version of The City, the Otherworld, Dan temporarily finds himself there in the end. a demon-inhabited world where ideas and fantasies can come true. The possibility of learning that the New York of the 1990s that Dan is experiencing isn’t totally our reality may have been intriguing. a strange but familiar environment.
Sadly, the reality will never be captured on camera. However, you can still take use of everything that the original “Archive 81” has to offer. Three seasons of the podcast were used to tell the main story and two smaller subsidiary storylines. The full thing is available on the official website, which also provides access to the podcast on your preferred audio platform. If you like the show, the podcast may provide you more of what you want and a finished story this time.
