Stream About It Tuesday: Lore

Lore is a podcast and now a television series that tells the frightening history of common folktales. The podcast debuted in 2015 and the show premiered on Amazon Prime in October 2017. I had never heard of the podcast, or the show, until my co-worker suggested I review it. All she told me was that it was scary. Well, here we go.

First, I listened to the very first podcast titled “They Made a Tonic”. The narrator is producer Aaron Mahnke. His voice was smooth and easy to listen to as the story went on. The story was suppose to be the introduction to vampires and I couldn’t have been more bored, but that’s just me. Vampires are not intimidating or believable to me, but I kept listening. The only “scary” part was when a character ate his sister’s heart. I was more confused than anything. The information was interesting enough, but it felt like I was back in school listening to a lecture.

Since that episode was only 18 minutes long, I decided I should try out another one. I chose to listen to the most recent episode, “Silver Lining”. I turned that shit off so fast. The narration was so awful that I almost threw my phone. OK, I didn’t, but the voice was so cringeworthy I had to stop. I don’t know what happened to Mahnke’s voice, but instead of being smooth, the voice paused after every two or three words like the robot in your phone saying random words that weren’t recorded together. So I’m not sure how that episode went.

Finally, I went to Amazon and watched the first television episode with the same title as the first podcast, “They Made a Tonic”. And yes, the horrible cringey voice was back. I almost closed my laptop, but I knew I had to give the show a chance. Boy, was I wrong. The show started off with some narration, clips and some cartoons related to the story. The animations were done really well, but did not match the rest of the show. Remember, this episode was about vampires, but not the ones we know today that have fangs and sleep upside down. Again, I felt like Lore was something I could watch in my high school science class, not scary. It was way over-dramatic and I was falling asleep to it.

What did you think about Lore?

My Rating: 2/10 exhumed bodies

Should there be a season 2: only if the voice changes

What are your thoughts on a podcast becoming part of the television world?