''Tanis'' is a mystery horror fiction podcast executive produced by Terry Miles who also voices the podcast's narrator, Nic Silver. In the show, Silver undertakes a search to discover what and where the mysterious entity Tanis is. While the style of ''Tanis'' evokes the earlier investigative nonfiction podcast '' Serial'' and its plot commingles real-world historical events and places with fictional elements, ''Tanis''s production team never acknowledges the story's fictional nature. After its premiere on October 13, 2015, episodes of ''Tanis'' were released every two weeks during the first four seasons and weekly during the fifth. Critical reception of the show has been positive and it peaked on the U.S.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

podcast download chart in the eleventh spot. A television adaptation of the podcast is planned as of 2017 and the fifth season of the podcast premiered on September 2, 2020.

Content

Synopsis

Nic Silver, a former radio host, discovers references to something called Tanis in two disparate sources. He begins hosting the podcast in an effort to determine what and where Tanis may be, quickly enlisting the help of an "information specialist" known via the username Meerkatnip. Silver comes to believe that Tanis is currently somewhere in the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

area. His search, aided with information provided by Meerkatnip, leads him to confront a variety of mysterious groups and organizations: Tesla Nova Corporation, a group Silver calls "The Cult of Tanis", and a group known as the Grackles.

Format

''Tanis'' is a mystery

horror podcast Horror is a genre of podcasts covering fiction, non-fiction, and reviews of the horror genre generally. History Horror podcasts are typically created and run by volunteers in their free time. As some podcasts such as ''Archive 81'' and ''Th ...

released every two weeks on

and other services. Terry Miles, with the production company Public Radio Alliance, serves as the show's executive producer and provides the voice work for Silver, who Miles refers to as his "cousin" and who is listed as the show's other executive producer. Episodes of the show take approximately one week to plot and write, another week to record, and two weeks to mix, edit, and score. Dialogue is recorded where it occurs in the narrative, such that a scene which takes place in ''Tanis'' in a living room would be recorded in an actual living room. ''Tanis'' is scored with backing music and features a musical intro song by Miles's former band, Ashley Park. Financial support for the podcast comes from listeners via

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...

and sponsors, for whose products and services ads are integrated into the production. The podcast was described as "deep fiction" by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' because, while it blends real-world and fictional events and people into its narrative, the show's creators and characters never acknowledge that the podcast is fictitious. The podcast, according to Molly Osberg in ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'', occurs in a world that "isn't so much an alternate reality as worldthat hovers comfortably adjacent to ours." In addition to the regular episodes, Miles also produces a variety of supporting documents and interviews which he posts on the show's official website in order to lend plausibility to the notion that the events of the show may be real. ''Tanis'' mimics the successful format of the earlier nonfictional investigative podcast '' Serial'', notably its "unpretentious narrative style and mystery 'plot'". It is one of a spate of podcasts released in the wake of ''Serial'' first season in 2014 that remixed those elements of ''Serial'' with the horror and mystery genres, other such podcasts including ''

Alice Isn't Dead ''Alice Isn't Dead'' is a podcast presented as a series of audio diaries by a truck driver in her search across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead (the eponymous Alice). In the course of her search, she encounters not-quite-human ...

'', '' ars Paradoxica'', and ''Tanis'' sister show '' The Black Tapes''.

Themes

Themes of powerlessness and uneasy alliance with a (possible) enemy are present in ''Tanis''s narrative. Michael J. Collins described a pattern in mystery horror podcasts of narrators existing within uncertain personal or professional situations, such as Silver's inconsistent work and sleep schedules, which mimic "the lifestyles of overworked, yet unremunerated, Millennials." Collins wrote that ''Tanis'' evoked

millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000 ...

economic unease when Silver accepts aid in his investigation from Tesla Nova Corporation and thus becomes complicit with the organization Silver believes may be responsible for the goings-on he is investigating.

Episodes

The first season of ''Tanis'' premiered October 13, 2015, when the first two episodes were released. The third episode was released on October 19 and subsequent episodes have generally been released every two weeks, although episodes were released weekly in season five. The second season premiered April 20, 2016, and season three premiered February 21, 2017. The fourth season premiered February 28, 2018, with the fifth premiering September 2, 2020.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Reception

''Tanis'' has received critical acclaim. Melissa Locker, writing in ''The Guardian'' described the podcast, as well as sister show ''The Black Tapes'', as "compelling and wildly addictive." The scholars Danielle Hancock and Leslie McMurtry described the podcast as "elegantly the new Gothic horror podcast paradigm" on account of its production value, attentiveness to the possibilities of the podcast format, and in-universe connections with traditional elements of

Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

. In ''

Bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

'', Lucia Peters praised the melding of real-world and fictional elements in ''Tanis''s narrative, calling the podcast "a fascinating, if somewhat confusing, ride." ''Tanis'' peaked on the U.S. iTunes podcast download chart at number 11.

Television adaptation

In 2017,

Universal Cable Productions Universal Content Productions (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal. History Universal Cable Productions In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions was split off ...

and

Dark Horse Entertainment Dark Horse Entertainment is a motion picture and television production arm of American comic book publishing company Dark Horse Comics, founded in 1992. They also have a sub-label, Dark Horse Indie. They have their headquarters in Milwaukie, Oreg ...

announced a deal to adapt ''Tanis'' for television, led by Miles and television writer Lee Shipman.

Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...

and

Debbie Liebling Deborah Liebling is an American entertainment executive and film producer. She was formally President of Production of Universal Pictures. Previously, she was a Senior Production Executive at 20th Century Fox. Before her tenure at 20th Centur ...

will serve as the show's producers.

References

External links

* {{official, http://www.tanispodcast.com/ 2015 podcast debuts Audio podcasts Horror podcasts Washington (state) in fiction American podcasts Scripted podcasts