The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Peer Review”

“Peer Review” Lacks One Important Horror Aspect

“Peer Review” is evocative of a classic episode. I liked it quite a bit. The writing is strong and the voice acting stellar. But it did lack this one point of magic that The Magnus Archives has.

It’s the implication of explanation within the horror. In other words, how—toward the end of a horror story—we get some sliver of why this happened. The intention of the horror, if not the methods. Cosmic horror as a genre doesn’t like to fully explain itself, but I get what the horrible students were doing in “Anatomy Class.” I get the trap of that diner in “Gut Feelings.” I don’t know why, how, or what was attacking in “Peer Review.”

I especially don’t understand the stuff around the attack. This is clearly a Lonely episode with a bit of The Vast attached, so the people disappearing before a (maybe) monster shows up is fine—but why did the other people act so strangely? The victim doesn’t even get a backstory; we just know he was a nice date for the majority of the tale.

There’s A Surprising Lack Of Characterization Here

This is especially odd because the story otherwise is amazing at implications. A whole half of the conversation is redacted, but you can often tell what was said without it being too telegraphed. There’s a lot of worldbuilding and even some creepy implications all done in the margins.

Basically, adding a single line of dialogue—some hint of why this person is being targeted—would be all “Peer Review” needs. It’s already quite high on the list of episodes for me. And that praise does include our cut back to the OIAR.

Now, I would like more Sam moments, please, but we get two separate fun concepts here. Setting up Colin’s notes as something for Alice to work on is a wonderful plotline. It’s very cosmic horror. And giving us more of that paramilitary group is also a great idea. I’ve been curious about them since, I think, “Give and Take.” Making them both threatening and offering help is exactly the kind of complication I like to see. There’s no way it’s not going to lead to some kind of violence.

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