Two years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party Chapter 1 was posted to YouTube. Somehow, it simultaneously feels like way longer ago than that and not nearly that long ago. I feel like I was just writing one-year Poeversary posts, and yet it’s hard for me to believe that something that is such a significant part of my life only started two years ago. I legitimately can barely fathom what my life would be like without Poe Party, and yet less than three years ago, I had no idea it would even be a thing. Time is so weird. And also a construct, inherently tying us to death. Undo every shackle, unseat every oppressor, and time will be there still, inexorably laughing at us ‘til the bitter end. I was here at 6:25.

And let’s just talk about Ashley Clements. Is there anything she can’t do? Every new project I see her in, I’m more impressed. I know she always jokes about Charlotte being the fan favorite, but seriously, I love Charlotte. I mean, yes, I love everyone in Poe Party, but Charlotte Brontë is one of my favorite villains in anything ever, and a big part of that is the way Ashley Clements plays her. The accent; the eye rolls; the contemptuous, disdainful line delivery; the creepy neck touching...she’s just so delightfully diabolical I can hardly stand it. And then there’s SONA, in which she’s giving one of the most convincing and heartbreaking portrayals of isolation, frustration, fear, and determination I’ve ever seen; amazing in and of itself, but even more so when you’ve just been re-watching her Poe Party performance of a character who couldn’t be more different. The third episode of SONA aired today, and if she didn’t make you cry, you’re either lying or you haven’t seen it yet. And as if her acting range weren’t impressive enough, bear in mind that Ashley Clements used her own apartment for the set (which, if I hadn’t seen video of her and Brendan Bradley building it, I probably wouldn’t believe because it REALLY looks like a space pod), and also created, wrote, and produced SONA. This human has SO. MUCH. TALENT.

Here we are. It’s Halloween again. It’s been a year since Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party Chapter 11: The Tell-Tale Heart was posted, and it is still the best freaking finale of anything I’ve ever seen. I probably sound like a broken record, but I seriously cannot overemphasize how incredibly high my expectations were, and how thoroughly they were transcended in every possible way.

Yes, I anticipated that Eddie would show up alive, revealing that he was involved in the murders. But this did not prepare me for the epic slow clap, the perfect sneering evil monologue, or the profoundly disturbing but also amazing neck touching revolving villains. I want to be angry with Eddie and the Brontës  because they killed so many awesome characters, but I can’t because I love how fabulous they are. I mean, obviously I was glad they didn’t get away with it, but I’m pretty sure there has never been a better villain trio.

Of course, the biggest surprise of this episode was the Jane Austen flashback. I really wish I could have been at Buffer Fest and seen that for the first time in the midst of other fans. Like many others, my love for Pride and Prejudice led me to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which was what led me to Shipwrecked in the first place, and what I felt when the camera panned to Laura Spencer as Jane Austen cannot be described in words. If I hadn’t already been head over heels in love with this show, that probably would have clinched it. But the thing is, I was already head over heels in love with this show. They were already making one of the best things ever without this spectacular surprise cameo, but they still went above and beyond and gave us an extra treat they knew we would love. What did we do to deserve Shipwrecked?

And I haven’t even begun to describe half the things I love about this episode. Can we talk for a minute about the freaking soundtrack? Throughout the show, it’s utter perfection, but then in chapter 11 it actually changes the definition of perfection to something more perfect than it ever was before. If you don’t believe me, try watching that fight sequence with the sound muted. Not nearly as epic without that super intense rendition of the Poe Party theme, is it? And then the freaking extended theme over the end credits, like...that might be my favorite song ever. Don’t get me wrong, Poe staring at the creaking, heart beating floorboards was absolutely 100% the best way to end the story, but that extended theme right afterwards is a welcome release of all the feels built up throughout the show. I don’t think I’ve ever actually cried during that part, but I have definitely come close.

If this wasn’t already getting too long, I would talk about how much I love the whole meta Charlotte Brontë/Ashley Clements blaming Jane Austen bit, and super drunk Hemingway falling asleep in the background, and Lenore looking at Oscar’s back to see if he really does look like George Eliot, and the “Don’t be mean to me!” outtake that I always add in when I’m watching the show by myself, and Lenore finally being nice to Edgar, and so many other things, but I’m going to stop myself before this becomes an actual novel. No matter how much I ramble about this freaking show, I will never be able to fully explain how much I love it, and the people who made it, and my fellow fans. But even though I know this, I can’t seem to make myself shut up about it.

One year ago today, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Party: Epilogue was posted to YouTube...sort of. Technically it wasn’t published until the following day, but a lot of us got to see it a day early, a special day, a day that perfectly illustrated why this is the best fandom I’ve ever had the good fortune to be a part of.

Honestly, I have no idea who deserves more credit for how incredible this part of the experience was: Shipwrecked or the fans. Shipwrecked were the ones who created this beautiful epilogue and then turned it into a mysterious treasure hunt, but watching the fans help each other figure it out in the Facebook group was almost as beautiful as the video itself. People could have easily gotten mean or snarky or cocky about figuring it out first, but instead it was all working together and helping each other and sharing speculations. I didn’t contribute very much, and it almost felt like cheating to use the code that other people had figured out for me, but after watching all the buildup I couldn’t not watch the episode. And of course, it was exactly what we all wanted it to be: Wellenore revived!

It’s funny to look back on this, because now I don’t really consider the Epilogue part of Poe Party in the same way the 11 chapters are. I think of it more like another bonus author video, all of which are wonderful, but not exactly part of the show itself. As I said last week, I think chapter 11 ends in the best possible way, so I feel like the epilogue seems kind of superfluous. But AT THE TIME, Good Lord, how I needed that epilogue! I was so emotionally invested in the characters that I needed to know they were okay. Since we don’t see Edgar, it doesn’t ruin the ambiguity of the original ending, but it definitely puts a more hopeful spin on it. Granted, we don’t know if Poe cracked the way his protagonist did in “A Tell-Tale Heart” or if he got away with Eddie’s murder (and I suppose we don’t even know for sure if Eddie WAS murdered, or if Poe just thought he killed him, or was completely insane...so many possibilities), but the fact that Annabel returned as a ghost in his house is promising. I’m not nearly as into shipping as a lot of fandom bloggers, but I can’t pretend I wasn’t giddy to learn that Wellenore lived on and that Annapoe (Poebel?) was still a definite possibility. And since clearly they had found a way to bring people back as ghosts without Krishanti, it stood to reason that any of the murdered authors might return for their own happy endings. And they all died happily ever after.

One year ago today, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party Chapter 10: Annabel Lee was posted to YouTube. This is the shortest episode in the series, but it is full of beautiful moments.

It starts out with an adorable Annapoe flashback, which I remember thinking at the time was only there to exacerbate the feels from the end of chapter 9, but of course it turns out that the pet rock is actually pretty crucial in chapter 11. Even without knowing that, finding out that Annabel has been carrying it around all evening almost speaks louder than her last words. She clearly loved Edgar very much. Shout out to Mary Kate Wiles’s unparalleled pocket acting throughout the series to make this part work.

Speaking of acting with one’s hands, let’s not forget one of the greatest moments of chapter 10: the Diabolical Fist Clench™

That’s right, the sibling-like Edgar/Lenore bickering (which I love) finally forces Charlotte to admit her guilt, and then she immediately demonstrates that she’s actually way more fabulous as a villain than as a party guest. Even though I did not see this coming, I was instantly 1000% okay with it. Charlotte was definitely acting suspiciously enough to be the murderer; I just hadn’t been sure whether that was meant to give us clues or to throw us off. If it hadn’t been so similar to Clue, I probably would have been more suspicious of Charlotte, but the clues mean essentially nothing in Clue, so I was underestimating the quality of the mystery in Poe Party. I barely had time to remember that they’d already demonstrated that she couldn’t have committed all the murders before Anne suddenly appeared, and then the episode was over.

One year ago today, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party Chapter 8: The Cask of Amontillado was posted to YouTube. I’m still not 100% sure what my all-time favorite episode is because the whole show is SO FREAKING AMAZING, but this is objectively one of the best episodes, if not #1.

I don’t think there’s any way to adequately describe the superb, delicious feast of comedic delicacies that is Chapter 8 of Poe Party. No matter what your taste in humor, I can almost guarantee there is something that will make you laugh in this episode. Some of it is very subtle, some incredibly obvious, and most of it is somewhere in between, but it’s all so delectable you barely have time to finish laughing about one thing before you start laughing about something else. Literary jokes abound, of course. If Agatha Christie had to be DOA in Chapter 5, at least we got a reference to her actual life in this chapter. I had foolishly assumed that the #PoorEmily jokes would end after chapter 7, though in hindsight I can’t believe I actually thought a trivial thing like Emily’s death could stop the greatest running joke of all time. Of course, the main highlight of this episode is unquestionably Charlotte, Ernest, Oscar, and Annabel in the study, paired with Edgar and the constables’ reactions every time they come in and out. I have no words for how well-written and -acted those moments are. I wish I did because I want to talk about it forever, but I don’t even know how. All I know is I never thought it was possible to improve on the “Sh-Boom” scene in Clue, but somehow these guys managed it handily.

One year ago today, Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party Chapter 6: Spirits of the Dead was posted to YouTube. And just like that, the series was more than half over. No offense to Krishanti, but I was kind of relieved that she was the victim this episode, after the double whammy the previous week. All the authors were safe, at least for the time being.

Watching this episode now, all its clues seem rather obvious, but at the time I didn’t see it that way. Charlotte interrupting the seance could hardly go unnoticed, but was that significant or a red herring? Also, maybe this is just me, but I had no idea who or what Guy was pointing to when he said, “She is not able” so even if I had figured out that he was saying A. Bell, it wouldn’t have helped me that much. In an early version of the script, Annabel responds by asking Guy what he thinks she’s not able to do. I seem to remember the Shipwrecked people saying at some point (commentary? the podcast? some other BTS video? or did I just make this up?) that this was cut because they thought it made the clue too obvious, and I agree that it definitely seems that way if you already know the twist. Personally I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have figured it out even with this line, but who knows?

Once again, my Eddie theory was not disproved. I briefly toyed with the idea that he was working with Louisa May Alcott and Agatha Christie, since neither of their ghosts had been summoned either, and I still find that possibility rather amusing. I appreciated that, like Dostoevsky’s murder, Krishanti’s could have been committed by pretty much anyone, since they all split up right before it happened. I did note, however, that Emily Dickinson, who clearly did not kill Krishanti, left the study before any of the others, and yet the killer reached the kitchen before her. Granted, the murderer could have merely taken a faster route, and I still hadn’t given up my study/kitchen secret passage theory, but this seemed yet another reason to suspect Eddie. I was still waiting to be proven wrong, but I was going to stick with him as my suspect until then.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Hemingwells, the brotp that really only exists in this episode, with a reprise in that extra boxing video. It comes out of nowhere and vanishes just as suddenly, but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful. Although now that I know about Blake Silver’s allergies, I can’t watch this episode without noticing how watery his eyes are, which kind of dampens the Hemingwells effect. Both the #PoorBlake and the #PoorEmily are in full force in this episode. Most of the previous #PoorEmily jokes were about people not noticing her at all, but in this episode they notice her as if for the first time and think she’s a ghost, which is even funnier.

One year ago today, Chapter 1 of Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party was posted on YouTube. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should. Today the Shipwrecked Comedy twitter account is posting memories from the cast and crew, so I thought I’d do some reminiscing of my own, mostly about my first impressions of this fabulous show. Because it’s been several months since I’ve rambled about Poe Party on here.

The Poe Party trailer was posted on July 27, 2016, and I believe that was when we first learned that the show was premiering on August 22. I couldn’t believe it. The kickstarter ended in March, it was filmed in May, and it was coming out in August?! In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was. I’d been following the creators pretty closely since the kickstarter (on social media and their podcast and BTS vlogs, not in a creepy way, just to clarify) and was already impressed by their hard work and efficiency. Still. I don’t think I’d ever looked forward to something being released that much since Deathly Hallows was published, and I barely had to wait at all. It was almost too good to be true. And the small pessimistic voice in my head that I try to ignore when I can started whispering, “What if it is too good to be true? What if it’s not nearly as good as you want it to be? What if you don’t even like it, and you just wasted a bunch of money on Kickstarter?” I managed to push these thoughts to the back of my mind and mostly focus on how stoked I was, but I can’t pretend I wasn’t a little apprehensive on the night of August 21.

The show was posted at 9 am. I didn’t get home from work until after 4 pm. I waited all day to watch it. The very beginning was so awesome and I loved the music and the opening credits, but I distinctly remember when my thoughts changed from, “Okay, so far so good,” to “ASFDKSDSFLJSIDJFSLDF THIS IS LITERALLY THE BEST” and in case you haven’t guessed, it was this moment:

Sean and Sinead had mentioned a few times that the movie Clue was very influential, but I had thought they meant just in terms of the general premise and tone. As Clue is one of my all-time favorite movies, I was totally on board with anything remotely connected with it, but I was not expecting the THIRD LINE in the show to be a blatant Clue reference. I’m pretty sure the first time I watched it, I missed the “RSVP to her RSVP” line because I was freaking out so much. And the episode only got better from there. All the character entrances, and the way they interacted around the dining room table; I didn’t want any of them to die, and I didn’t want any of them to be the murderer. I loved all of them.