Both seasons were good. I will say that I did not expect the ending of season 2. Very well done! Every episode kept my interest and I binged the entire two seasons in one day.

I really liked season 2. About to start season 1 now!

The story starts slow, but don’t give up, it gets really good!

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This was fantastic and I was completely drawn in! I have been struggling to find another podcast similar to this, but nothing comes close! Fingers crossed we get more seasons or spin offs!

First season is boring but 2nd is great

I can’t believe I actually finished this. On apple podcasts this is one show with two seasons but on Spotify it’s two separate series where Life/After is described as being the sequel to The Message. It doesn’t matter in which order you listen to them though. I kept seeing people recommending both so much so I went in expecting to be blown away. I hated both. They’re both dull with many nonsensical elements. The Message was better by a very small fraction and Life/After is definitely one of the worst audio drama/podcast I’ve ever heard. I think the only reason people hype these up is bc of the super duper shocking twisty ending. The characters were all so extremely unlikeable. There’s none I relate to or feel empathy for. There were no redeeming qualities. It didn’t start out as a drag and then get better. I kept waiting but it just never happened. They both sucked from beginning to end. Two stars is probably overrated. There’s way better audio dramas out there. No need fo waste any time on either one of these.

For the love of god please give us an option to purchase this without ads. I have been listening to this fall asleep for 2 years straight. And now you have added ads and I can no longer use it. My heart is broken it is such an amazing podcast. This is a devastating blow please I will pay you all the money for an ad free version. It would be z 5 stars but with the ads it is unusable.

First season was great until the Indian lady with the absolute worst fake Indian accent (obnoxious, over the top performance and downright insulting to Indian people) ruined the last few episodes , not sure why she had such a crucial role to play and why they chose this particular actress among the universe of great Indian actors !

Both seasons were amazing! Brilliant plot and each episode keeps you on the edge of your seat. Not sure what the people giving it a mediocre rating we’re listening too. Binge worthy

Season 1 is just very bland and it feels like a stretch to pair these two up. Life After was a great idea but lost it’s way in the middle and later chapters. Still good, cool idea and worth the adventure but wish it was cleaner.

I loved it I think you will too

Season 2 was better for sure! Will we get a 3rd podcast from you guys??

2 best audio dramas that exist

First season is worth a skip. Second season starts out awesome, but halfway through it turns into this substandard police drama with AI thrown in. Not my cup of tea personally. Was perfectly content exploring the dynamic of the protagonist and the existence of his AI ghost wife. I found most of the supporting characters quite dull and one-dimensional. But I still enjoyed the first half of the second season and the overall acting enough to warrant a 4-star. There were even some moments where the series played with psychological horror elements. These scenes were a joy to listen to and genuinely creepy. You’ll know them when they come up. Let’s just say you’ll never hear stuttering the same way again. Take a drink every time Ross gets interrupted by somebody. I’m not responsible for your liver.

Have listened to probably 30+ audio drama series like this one, these ones stand out. The Message has a very original idea. Please, to the writer of these stories, keep going!!

This should be made into a movie! The plot twist was awesome!

My favorite podcast today next to the Black Tapes! Both stories were solid though "After Life after" was the better of the 2 imo. It would be great to see these stories on the screen as well!

Just finished both of these podcasts. Separate seasons, stand alone stories. I thought they were fantastic, enthralling, great voice acting, I really felt like I could put myself into the stories. For anyone into amazing sci-if stories, I recommend. The Message is a short season, short episodes. Life After is a longer season and longer episodes. Go for a drive, go for a walk and give them a listen.

S1 (The Message) makes good fun of lots of the most used toys of the Fiction Podcast medium ... found tapes, the investigative journalism tripe, horror ... and one of the best but most underutilized tropes of the medium ... a special sound experience. But ultimately, S1 ends up feeling kind of empty and cliched. S2, LifeAfter, however, is fantastic! It gives us more real and relatable characters. It asks more subtle questions about the medium of audio storytelling and portable personal audience-controlled entertainment and the way that intersects with social media & personas, and has a cooler, more subversive, more punk, plot. All suspended in a contemporary feeling workplace mystery. S2 is one of my absolute most favorite Audio Dramas thus far.

I tried to like it. Three episodes in and still not interesting. Sad as I was excited about it.

Season 2 actually stands on its own. It was completely engaging and thought provoking and scary in a “this could actually happen” kind of way. Binged it in a day, I wish there were more like this.

So I binge The Message in a couple hours, grind your some schoolwork that *should* be in person, but alas: quarantine. So I look forward to listening to Life After, hoping it is a sequel. Once the plot starts I'm a bit disappointed. While it is clear they are in the same universe, they don't exactly fit together. Needless to say, at this point I am VERY happy it wasn't just a sequel. One of my most content 5 stars ever. 10/10 would recommend (and have).

All I can say is wow. I just happened to stumble on this yesterday and once I started it, I was hooked. Binged the first 10 episodes at work. The cast is amazing. The dialogue is very natural and the sound design is spectacular. I have listened to many audio dramas, and this one is by far the best. It honestly felt like a movie playing in my ears. The story was very engaging. The twists are surprising. I sent this to a couple fellow filmmakers and they loved it too. Great job to the cast and crew! Please do more!!

Both seasons start off a little slow but it’s important to stick with it because the story telling is super impressive. Both stories are interesting and I cried at the end of Season 2. Super great twists that left my mouth open. Recommend if you enjoy sci fi.

I’ve listened to quite a few podcasts and this one is outstanding. Other podcasts dialogs are stented and poorly executed, this one sounds natural and well done. The plot drew me in and I enjoyed every second of it good job guys.

I can’t understand a LOT of the words because it seems like the casts are sped. Idk if it’s just my phone but I wouldn’t understand why that would be. Has anyone else experienced this? I like the plot so I’ll rate it well but the acting is very high school drama.

Season 1- I really didn’t like it. The main character was really annoying and the whole love plot between Ty and what’s her name was unneeded. I really only liked the character Mod, but he didn’t really play a huge part. Season 2- I liked this one more. The concept is really cool. Idk not great.

TLDR; S1 is Amazing & the reason for the 5 star review. S2 is more of a 3/4 star from me, ‘cause I just didn’t really like most of the characters. ((5 stars are also for the fact that neither season has a long intro/outro, so listening to them back to back can be done without skipping!)) — Season 1 was AMAZING. Following podcaster Nikki as she chronicles decoding an extra terrestrial message was SO interesting. A few things I liked about it— 1) It kept me on the edge of my seat. I was constantly trying to figure out what would happen next. 2) The premise?? The ideas & the science they introduced? SO interesting! 3) The characters!! I liked all of them, even if I did feel sometimes that we didn’t get enough time with them xD Nikki was particularly relatable—well. Until the end ;) 4) The twist/reveal at the end!! I had some suspicions around, um, episode 4 or 5? But, my suspicions were TOTALLY different from what actually happened. Well—I take that back. Not TOTALLY different. But different enough. Anyway. The Message: Amazing, bingable, I might even just relisten it. Season 2—well. I was very excited for the premise. The premise made me think of that one r/nosleep post, with the guys late girlfriend talking to him through Facebook? & I guess in a way, it kind of was like that. But—I had a few issues with it. 1) The agent’s girlfriend, Charlie? I just. Did not like her. I wanted to—I tried REALLY hard. But I just… couldn’t. 2) Speaking of characters, the only ones I actually liked were Octavia & Sasha. Oh, and Paul. Sasha was a very well written antagonist; Paul was just… a nice guy, once you get past the fact he’s a big member of the cult; and Octavia was just… perfect. Love her. Ross kept—irritating me, & Cutler seemed to have like… no empathy. She just seemed to embody a lot of the worst things about law enforcement. 3) The twist at the end. I wanted to be happy about it, to feel satisfied but—instead I was just kinda angry? Anyway. It was still VERY interesting & I binged it in one night, so I’m not saying it’s necessarily a BAD season, but—I didn’t like it as much as season 1. TBH I’d like to see more from the aliens :eyes:

Incredible, best fiction podcast I’ve listen to thus far. Very very well written, super clever plot. Really well produced. Just soo much fun to listen to! Highly recommend As for “the message” I wonder if any of that science if it was real could be applied to COVID-19? Anyways that was phenomenal, so mysterious and immersive and entertaining, and amazing writing paired with believable voice actors

LifeAfter is probably the best audio-drama I’ve ever listened to. The production value, story and cast are all so good and I just couldn’t stop listening and thinking about it afterwards. You have to listen to this story, truly game changing. The Message is just completely different. The overall premise is great but the storytelling is bad, I had to continuously change the volume to hear what was happening, and there were too many characters that were never explained. Also I felt that the way they told the story with the girl recording the podcast wasn’t the way to go.

Bbgfhn

The premise was great, presenting the fear (both the realistic and the irrational) of AI in a very relatable manner. Similar to an evil overlords situation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The settings leave something to be desired, like, “Hey, we’ve got a great plot, it’ll carry the show, bring life to the settings.” It didn’t. Even after umpteen scenes in the FBI office it still felt like any office in the ‘90s vibe and did not convey a convincing layout of the offices. I’ve listened to other serial podcasts that put me in the middle of the action, like a fly on the wall. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The acting/directing. Or whoever thought having Ross hyperventilate all through 10 episodes would be a positive trait for the character. No! Nails on a blackboard. Good—not even great—drama should lead to at least some suspension of disbelief. The incessant breathing kept breaking the suspension. I can’t really blame the actor, he was otherwise convincing as hell. The director carries the blame for this. Hint: Less Is More. ⭐️⭐️

I listen to podcasts a lot at work, this series was amazing from start to end, and then life after, let’s just say if I could have been at the edge of my seat in the final episodes I would have been

This podcast is one of the most captivating podcasts I’ve ever listened to. It’s filled with twist and turns that I loved. I could not stop listening to this podcast.

The is about "The Message." - First of all, new audio sci-fi is always welcome. "Radio" drama, as it was known in the old days, engages the mind's eye in a way that visually told stories just can't. "The Message" succeeds very well at creating a believable mise-en-scène. The "fourth wall" is not just ignored: instead, the podcast goes to the opposite extreme of creating a podcast-within-a-podcast, which is very clever. Great effort has gone into writing natural dialogue. The recording, however, is a little TOO realistic, in that audibility would have been much improved by boosting the speech frequencies in the mix-down. Although the writers do better than most at creating believable medical and scientific scenarios, they also take some really chucklesome liberties and commit several hilarious goofs. Well, nobody's perfect. Now, on to "Life After."

This is by far my favorite podcast I’ve ever listened to. The plot and characters of both the message and LifeAfter kept me feeling so many emotions and I just couldn’t resist listening to the next episode. Really would love for more seasons to build on the universe created here. Amazing work!

Let me admit that I did start out listening to The Message but I got impatient and gave up. But, after reading other reviews talking about how LifeAfter is a whole different story. So I decided to skip The Message and I dove back in and was hooked before the first episode was over! While I’m sure for some The Message was just as powerful as I found LifeAfter to be. Not to be too much of a spoiler to those looking at reviews trying to decide should I give this Podcast a listen. For me I felt a connection to Ross, the male lead in LifeAfter, and had empathy for his current state of mind. So seriously if you enjoy a great Podcast with no annoying commercials, sorry I know they are necessary to pay the bills, do listen to this Podcast! You wont regret it.

I loved Life After especially. I chuckled hard listening to After Life After when they say that the goal is to make a podcast to distract someone from realizing how terrible they feel on a treadmill because that’s exactly what this podcast did for me! Loved The Message and looked forward to my workouts just to listen to Life After.

Both seasons reminded me of the show “Black mirror” in that it takes you to a world where the dark side of technology is brought to light. Interesting and unique story lines, that are very much worth your time.

r/holdup

Why do people want to hear about an unrelatable, annoying weak person involved in a not at all interesting 'plot' in which nothing actually happens? I don't know either. Had to listen to this on a road trip and it was annoying, and filled iwth nohing anyone needs.

This series offers twists and turns that keep you hooked. The two seasons have different storylines which were both interesting. I liked the second season more and it was pretty scary to see where tech can reach.

I’m not going to include any spoilers. It’s weird that they are considered to be season 1 and season 2, because there are no obvious ties between them. Maybe the connection is they both have to do with audio files. And while there is one element used in both seasons, it is only barely mentioned at the end of season 2. Season 1... I felt was pretty basic. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but I didn’t think it was anything special. The story didn’t blow me away or anything. Season 2 blew me away. I strongly suggest that if you like creepy and weird conspiracy stories, then you should definitely check out Life After (season 2). The story was great. It definitely makes you think. I’d say Season 1 was 3 stars, and Season 2 was 5 stars. Season 2 was so good that I don’t want to rate it less than 5 stars because I don’t feel like that would be fair to Life After. That’s my 2 cents.

Season 1 Message was very good. Season 2 life After was the best Audio Drama ever!! Do yourself a favor and listen

Loved these sci-fi audio dramas! Even went back for a second listen since I blew through them so fast!

The ending is perfect! Definitely didn’t expect it

That twist at the end ... mind blowing! If only we could find out what’s next for them.

It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. You think you know what’s going to happen? Nope. The difference between computer programs and human minds is you can never predict what another person will do...

I love this show I binged it in one day I want there to be a third season. When is the third season coming out love the ending of one season two.