Popular Reviews of The Occurrence in River Oaks

Didn't do anything new and a lot of the characters were pretty annoying.

disappointing. someone on reddit recommended it as an actually scary podcast - it wasn't (however the parts involving a cat were distressing... because they involved a cat). it was a very classical take on the alien bodysnatcher trope and could have shined with the framing device - seeing everything unfold through the eyes of a police dispatcher was a cool idea - but delivered short. characters had distinct personalities, which is a plus considering how short the podcast is, but none of them were especially likeable or interesting. the writing was alright, but some parts sounded forced, and there were moments when characters had to explain what was going on because the sound design flopped. yeah, I'm most irked by the sound design because for a podcast that relied so much on action scenes and could, in theory, do some properly scary stuff involving gore or monstrousness, the sound design was sub-par, and it took away from the story and made the action scenes more tiring than gripping.

It was great. Hoping for second season.

Experience a paranormal disaster unfolding from the perspective of police station dispatch in this small town thriller, “The Occurrence in River Oaks.” Efficiently told in eight short episodes, this full cast audio drama has many twists and turns for its length. Some tragic heart-in-mouth scenes. And blazing action scenes with many bullets expended! I enjoyed the mix of police station characters: the friendly, the gruff, the gung-ho, the senior and the new guy. It’s a real spectrum of people just like the best of the cop shows.Personally I had no issues with audio quality and enjoyed the explosive chaos of pandemonium. I will say it’s difficult to do extended action scenes in audio drama, and yes sometimes there was confusion when the action was at its most complex (especially towards the end). But overall, I found most of the audio drama easy to follow and cleverly written with a sure hand. And am eager for more of course!As far as whether the audio drama is scary, no it’s not nightmare fuel. But it does have characters who I care about facing down incredible threat at their own peril, and incurring the steep cost of that bravery as well. And that’s enough for me!

A classic tale of "otherworldly presence invades small town America and the capitalist military industrial complex decides to try and profit from it with predictable results". The main characters are all cops, but at least they're the mostly decent local kind who have a close relationship with their community. Excellent monster sound design, very unsettling, nicely bingeable length to keep me going during my day.