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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Marble Hornets
Season 1 or Season 2 - which do you prefer?
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awakeasaurusrex
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Joined: 12 Oct 2010
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 		Season 1 or Season 2 - which do you prefer?
I think we're late enough in season 2 to start discussing this.
Personally, on balance I think season 1 was better. Even though in theory season 2 might come out with really awesome entries in the near future, on balance I think even then it'd be too little too late to make this one displace season 1 in my mind.

Reasons I think this:

- The mysteries have bogged down. We're not getting enough new ones coming in to keep us wrong-footed, and we're not getting enough answers to the old ones to feel as though there's any actual progress being made. Furthermore, what answers we are getting are tending to be answers to questions. The only significant mysteries from season 1 which has progressed even slightly are "where was Alex?" (right there in his apartment) and "who's the masked guy?" (Tim, though it was so obvious that the unmasking was a confirmation, not a revelation.

More or less all the answers we've been getting this season are for questions posed this season. (What does the key unlock? What's on that mysterious 56-42 tape? Who's Jessica? Where is that tunnel? Where did that chestcam come from? What happened after Entry 38? What happened in the seven months? What's in the safe?) In other words, the season just comes across as filler - rather than really advancing most of the threads from season 1, it just pitches in a bunch of new mysteries and then works on solving them instead, effectively just creating a bunch of busywork.

- The scares just aren't there. What scares there are are hokey and melodramatic - mwahahaha plot twist Alex and Slendy are buds scares, not cosmic/existential oh my god it's coming into his room and now he's woken up and bleeding scares.

- The guys said they'd put more effort into characterisation this time, but it just hasn't worked from me. All they've accomplished is shifting from a fairly low-key, naturalistic style which actually works really well with the whole found footage concept into showing off their Acting with a capital A. It doesn't feel real any more in the way that season 1 felt real.

In short: weaker scares, less interesting performances, plot stuck in neutral. Not thrilled overall, to be honest.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:47 am
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hsemagliG
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:16 am
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Randoman96
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 		^

The entire POINT of the series is "Where's Alex and what happened to him?". Season 2 is advancing that.

Yes, I agree there need to be more "oh god it's moving" scares, but so far, S2 seems to be more about plot than "oh god what is that".

I can't make an argument against you, as you are entitled to your opinions. I still enjoy the series fully, and I believe you're nitpicking.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:37 pm
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The Offspring
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Randoman96 wrote:
^

The entire POINT of the series is "Where's Alex and what happened to him?". Season 2 is advancing that.

Yes, I agree there need to be more "oh god it's moving" scares, but so far, S2 seems to be more about plot than "oh god what is that".

I can't make an argument against you, as you are entitled to your opinions. I still enjoy the series fully, and I believe you're nitpicking.


I agree with you. The "Oh dear lord it's right there..." moments are great, but I could go to any Slender video to get that fix.
I watch Marble Hornets for the story, that's what got me watching it in the first place.
Person: "Have you seen this web thing called Marble Hornets?"
Me: "No, is it good?"
Person: "Yeah it reminds me of LOST."

...I was sold. Very Happy

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:45 pm
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ThinSuit
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 		Season 2 can't beat season 1 creepyness.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:50 pm
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AngryDeepground
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 		Well lets keep in mind, out immersion, was stronger in season 1 then season 2. Storywise I prefer season 2, bur thrill/scare wise I prefer season 1.

For the record I love them both.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:54 pm
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The Offspring
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ThinSuit wrote:
Season 2 can't beat season 1 creepyness.


no it can't, but half of which is the fact that I didn't even now about the Slender Man mytho's and he was more unknown to me.
WHICH CREEPED THE CRAP OUT OF ME! >_<

But now I know more it's lost that affect on me, but still awesome.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:54 pm
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awakeasaurusrex
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AngryDeepground wrote:
Well lets keep in mind, out immersion, was stronger in season 1 then season 2.

That too.

Troy etc. seem to be much, much less interested in immersion these days, possibly as a consequence of having to break immersion to sell sweet DVDs. I think that's part of what's prompted the transformation from found footage naturalistic slice of life stuff to more orchestrated, performative, "we are Acting and here is some Character Development" stuff, which I happen to think is just less interesting. I think another thing was that they started planning things much more deliberately rather than just improvising, whereas I kind of prefer the madcap edge of your seat ragged about the edges not even the creators know what happens nextness of the first season.

And as far as plot goes, I don't think either season has an absolutely stellar one but season 1 was at least innovative and felt different from half the amateur stories told on the interweb. Season 2 feels, to me, like fanfic of season 1.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:00 pm
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Zebez
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 		I thought they did a better job with the story this time. I love how we would get little pieces here and there and they would be accounted for later. Season one had this too, but just not at the same level.

I also really like that Jay isn't some lifeless narrator anymore. He's got a personality now.

I do admit that nothing has scared me as much as the end of entry 26 but the moments in season 2 are just ugh, they get me in a different way. Like Masky's fingers curling around the door, or Jay's reaction when he sees the operator in the window, or Alex rocking people's worlds. I think we kind of moved from the main antagonist being the operator to the humans doing shit that's terrible. Sure the operator is the reason they become crazy but it's the people that are the main focus. I just think it's more interesting and it still keeps the operators motives unclear.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:04 pm
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awakeasaurusrex
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Randoman96 wrote:
^

The entire POINT of the series is "Where's Alex and what happened to him?". Season 2 is advancing that.

Eh, not really. "Where's Alex and what happened to him?" was a question which only shifted to centre stage as of entry 26. Before that, it was just part of a greater morass of questions. What is the Operator, why is he doing that? Who is TTA and what do he, she or they actually want to achieve? What's with Tim and that mask, and why can he teleport? And most importantly, what exactly did happen on the Marble Hornets set?

Season 2 has pushed almost everything aside to concentrate on one aspect of that, to an almost exhaustive extent. And that's more or less the sole strand that's really been expanded upon. Sure, we got confirmation that Tim is Masky, but only severe derping and ignoring the woods in favour of measuring each individual tree was blinding people to that, and sure we know he's working with other people, but we've only really learned three things about what his actual agenda is beyond vague antipathy towards filmmakers.

1: Sweet.
2: Fudge.
3: All.

And again, aside from exploring the Alex thing and teasing us with Tim and the Operator without really telling us much about them, the season has mainly been obsessed with posing new questions and then answering them within the course of the season.

It's like Lost. We've been dragged along being fed the occasional crumb of development of the core mysteries to blind us to the fact that the series has stopped paying attention to most of them.

As for Jay's personality, please. The guy derps around, does dumb shit, and fails to ask obvious questions because if he bitchslapped Alex and demanded straight answers the season would wrap up far too soon. Think of all the questions Jay SHOULD have been asking Alex but consistently fails to at every turn - like "Why didn't you destroy the tapes?" and "What did you mean by 'Jay's gone', I'm right here" and "What do you know about Tim?" and "Where are the other cast members?" and "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT FACELESS THING?"

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:10 pm
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BranRainey
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Joined: 25 Feb 2010
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 		I enjoy season 1 a lot more because I actually thought it was consistently scary. It hid its low budget and crappy acting really well and was paced so strangely (in filmmaking terms, not release dates) that it seemed like something that really could be real. Season 2 is paced exactly like a traditional horror movie (hotel entries are act 1, etc), and the focus on characters emphasizes how bad Troseph is at acting and (sometimes) writing dialogue. I still enjoy it, but it's not as good.

The season 2 TTA videos are awesome, though.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:12 pm
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The Offspring
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awakeasaurusrex wrote:
AngryDeepground wrote:
Well lets keep in mind, out immersion, was stronger in season 1 then season 2.

That too.

Troy etc. seem to be much, much less interested in immersion these days, possibly as a consequence of having to break immersion to sell sweet DVDs. I think that's part of what's prompted the transformation from found footage naturalistic slice of life stuff to more orchestrated, performative, "we are Acting and here is some Character Development" stuff, which I happen to think is just less interesting. I think another thing was that they started planning things much more deliberately rather than just improvising, whereas I kind of prefer the madcap edge of your seat ragged about the edges not even the creators know what happens nextness of the first season.


I don't know about others but, I personal feel better that there is an end and someone who is in their right mind think "ok we need to clear this up then expose this..." unlike TT or EMH. MH just feels more professional having a god over HM writing. (Troy.)

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:14 pm
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Geneaux486
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Joined: 17 Mar 2011
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 		Hard to rank seasons of a show with a constantly streaming narrative. Always just kinda saw it as one big season myself, the breaks put in for the benefit of the people who make it.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:51 pm
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Randoman96
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Joined: 26 Feb 2011
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awakeasaurusrex wrote:
Troy etc. seem to be much, much less interested in immersion these days, possibly as a consequence of having to break immersion to sell sweet DVDs.
Kindly fuck yourself.

From what I see, they made the DVD out of fanservice, and I'm glad it sold well. They deserve to be rewarded.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 1:54 pm
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awakeasaurusrex
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Randoman96 wrote:
awakeasaurusrex wrote:
Troy etc. seem to be much, much less interested in immersion these days, possibly as a consequence of having to break immersion to sell sweet DVDs.
Kindly fuck yourself.

From what I see, they made the DVD out of fanservice, and I'm glad it sold well. They deserve to be rewarded.

Kindly fuck yourself in turn. I'm not sorry the DVDs exist. I'm just saying that there are reasons why people who like immersion might not enjoy season 2 as much as season 1, and part of that seems to be a creative decision on the part of Troy and company to make immersion less of a high priority.

If you want to argue that that isn't the case, go right ahead. But don't run around grabbing other forum users by the neck and screaming at them just because they express an opinion you don't like. It makes you look as though you are exactly the sort of aggressive, rude, pushy, bullying little runt your detractors say you are.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:28 pm
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