TANIS: Episode 112: The Map

March 10, 2016 6:31 PM

Nic's uncovering Veronika Pilman brings him one step closer to discovering the truth about those mysterious research studies in the Pacific Northwest.

Stuff happens and Nic isn't completely useless.

posted by Tevin (10 comments total)

I am so confused about the timeline. So, so confused.
posted by yasaman at 8:33 PM on March 10, 2016

The big issue I'm having with TANIS right now is that the timeline doesn't make any fucking sense- the journals can't have existed since episode what, 5, when they started to be read? Not if the show is progressing in real time. If it's not progressing in real time, then the way Nic talks about the investigation doesn't make any fucking sense. There's a serious causality issue here.

That said, the bit where Veronika starts saying the words from the beginning of the journals was a nice "...oh, oh shit" moment. That was well-executed.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:56 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

I really like the central mythology here. The Zealot, The Novelist, The Witness, The Runner. The weird rules. That all is pretty cool.

But just about everything else drives me absolutely bonkers. Nic doesn't really do anything besides react, there are too many names thrown around, the aforementioned timeline, the silly Grackle stuff...if it wasn't for the journal entries I don't know that I would have kept listening and now that I've heard the whole thing I don't know if I care any more.
posted by Tevin at 11:15 PM on March 10, 2016

I liked finally finding out the Official Tanis Role of the journal writer (unless they called him the Witness at some point previously and I missed it); I was kind of surprised by how comparatively disinterested I was in finding out/confirming it was Nic.
posted by dorque at 3:43 AM on March 11, 2016

Pope Guilty, I'm with you on the timeline/continuity causality issues being my biggest issue with the show. I seriously can't let it go, especially in conjunction with The Black Tapes, which shares characters and thus continuity. What in the world is happening with the timeline? How do we get Alex reading those journal entries way back in Episode 5, while Nic is still right there? Did they find the journal before Nic went missing through wibbly wobbly, Tanis time travel nonsense?
posted by yasaman at 11:05 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think that what we are hearing in the podcast is assembled after Nic's journey. They've always played a bit fast & loose with the timeline -- introducing situations but not presenting them in true linear fashion. It's like they've had Nic recording his investigation in real time, then it's all assembled later so that it's no longer in true chronological order.
posted by Burgoo at 12:20 PM on March 11, 2016

They addressed the timeline in the most recent newsletter for Patreon backers. I'm not comfortable copy and pasting directly from it in a forum visible to non-backers, but long story short Burgoo nailed it.
posted by Itaxpica at 12:50 PM on March 11, 2016

Might have to throw a couple of bucks at 'em, then. They've certainly earned it and then some.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:56 PM on March 11, 2016

there are too many names thrown around, the aforementioned timeline, the silly Grackle stuff...

This is all stuff that could be well-developed and adding to the story, but nothing gets more than tangentially touched on. Let's hope season 2 gives us more depth.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2016

All this time I was hoping that TANIS had gone digital and MK was the Runner guiding Nic. I agree on the timeline issues, both TBT and TANIS have them and they sort of take you out of the story and really put the unreliable in unreliable narrator.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:59 PM on March 12, 2016