"This city is a dirty, ugly thing. A monster, born of a violent past, clawing its way to a doomed future. The streets are its veins, carrying its diseased lifeblood. Its skyscrapers are twisted bones, jutting up into the blackened heavens. And at the withered heart of it all is a dingy office, tucked into a dilapidated slum. The door reads: Blake Skye, Private Eye."
— The Opening Monologue
A signal passes through the cold night air like a mugger, silent and menacing. It creeps into your home, poisoning your radio against you with a story of romance and heartbreak, innocence lost, and unspeakable horror. The date on the calendar is as vague as the morality of this City, but one thing is certain: bad things are in store for one luckless gumshoe. This is Blake Skye: Private Eye.
Blake Skye: Private Eye is a film noir inspired cosmic horror audio drama created by SJ Ryker, which centers around a private detective who takes a job that is more than he bargained for. It is heavily inspired by audio dramas of the time, as well as creators like Raymond Chandler and H. P. Lovecraft (without the horrible bigotry), and centers around themes of horror, mystery, drama, and romance. The podcast is also LGBTQIA+ friendly.
The podcast is free to listen to, updates the last Sunday of every month, and can be found at their website
or any of these outlets.
open/close all folders
Blake Skye: Private Eye contains examples of:
Blake Skye: Private Eye Tropes
- Alternate Universe: In Episode 14, Elenore seems to discover, through her research of a series of 369 rocks called the Ellis Fragments, that there seem to be many universes in the podcast's cosmology.
- Any Last Words?: In episode 13, the first season finale, The Rat-King corners Mickey O'Shae and asks...The Rat-King: End of the line, O’Shae. Any final words before I finish you off?Mickey O'Shae: Yeah. Last words are for suckers who didn’t matter in life.
- Bad Guy Bar: One of the two bars in the podcast, the Elephant's Heart, is where the antagonists gather. Elenore tells Blake in Episode 2 that August would often take her there to unwind after translating Sumerian funerary rites with his good friends, who are later revealed to be August's fellow members of the sinister Esoteric Order.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the Season One finale, after holding them at gunpoint, August is able to capture Elenore by promising her Blake and Mickey would go free. He then immediately goes back on his word, killing Mickey O'Shae and locking Blake in his office, letting him die over and over again.
- Blue-Collar Warlock: Because the setting is a dirty city set in the Ambiguous 1930s/1940s, the spellcasters in the series are all otherwise normal people. Elenore Kostanski and later, Blake Skye himself are the two prime examples of this trope, being working-class, street-smart people who harness the language of V'roth to cast spells and incantations.
- Bluff the Eavesdropper: Mickey, Gordon, and later Blake (when he figures it out) do this when they get pinned down in the Tantalus by The Rat-King.
- Came Back Wrong: The few characters that have died and come back to life have had this happen to them. Characters that have made deals with Char Garrum, one of the Infinite Names, especially have this happen to them, as the consciousness from the body they steal from the Mirror Forest is still dominant.
- Blake has been subjected to the after effects of the Rites of Char Garrum fourteen times, and has had some personality issues.
- August, in a more extreme example, has had major personality fluxes that have persisted for longer than Blake's, despite only having died three times.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You:Daphne Howard: Are you... going to kill me too?August Howard: Kill you? Goodness, no! Daphne, even if you weren’t my wife, you’re far too valuable for that.
- Cast Full of Gay: Most every character in the main cast is within the LGBTQIA+ umbrella.
- Cement Shoes: After August Howard's second death, this time at the hands of Blake Skye, the O'Shae gang throws his corpse into the harbor, with cement shoes to weigh it down.
- City Noir: The setting of the podcast is a bleak, dirty city set in the Ambiguous 1930s/1940s.
- Clean Up Crew: Mickey sends members of the O'Shae gang to grab Blake and August's bodies from Blake's office after Episode 5, and clean up any evidence. Gordon tells Elenore that they didn't want a murder pinned on Blake.
- Companion Show: Episodes of Skye Mail, Blake Skye Private Eye's companion show, come out the second Sunday of the month. Cast members join series creator SJ Ryker in answering fan questions from the mail bag.
- Conlang: The Lost Language in the show is an Argot/Direct Translation Conlang developed by the showrunner.
- Constrained Writing: The episode's events are constrained to the recording range of a wire recorder.
- Cooperation Gambit: Elenore makes a deal with August to work with him in exchange for the safety of Blake and Mickey.
- Curbstomp Battle: In Episode 7, members of the O'Shae gang are sent to the Elephant's Heart to disrupt the operations of the Esoteric Order. Unfortunately, the Order had the Rat-King waiting there, and it slaughtered everyone Mickey sent and absorbed one of Mickey's men, eventually using his voice and memories against Blake and the others.
- Den of Iniquity: When Blake and Elenore are given a place to stay in the Tantalus.
- Dig Your Own Grave: The way August disposed of his OWN body, more specifically in his wife's rose garden, revealed in Episode 5.
- Equivalent Exchange: Power in this podcast always comes at a price.
- Fantastic Noir: Blake Skye: Private Eye is noir with a twist of cosmic horror.
- Gratuitous Greek: All the famuli under the Order's control are assigned a letter of the Greek alphabet as a name.
- Gunpoint Banter: Several examples of this, most notably between Blake and Mickey in Episode 9.
- Happily Married: August and Daphne in another universe. At least, before Daphne dies in childbirth.
- Kick the Dog: In Episode 13,August Howard's shooting and killing of crime boss, Mickey O'Shae serves as one of the big 'point of no return' moments for August.
- Killed Off for Real: Most characters that have died on the show fall into this trope. This gets zig-zagged for characters under the Rites of Char Garrum, or that have made deals with any of the Infinite Names.
- Kind Restraints: August does this to Daphne due to the unpredictable nature of her untended compulsion.
- Knee-capping: In the Season 2 finale episode, Elenore does this to August, unintentionally. The shot was meant to kill but Daphne tackles her out of the way, throwing off her aim.
- Language of Magic: V'roth/Vox Progenitor is the language by which many of the characters harness magical power.
- Leitmotif: Kevin Mac Leod's 'Night on the Docks' is used as a leitmotif for Blake and Gordon's romantic moments in the show. Likewise, 'Wholesome' by the same composer is the leitmotif for The Outsider.
- Lost Language: Much of the eldritch horror that happens is linked to an ancient, lost language studied by August and Elenore.
- Magically-Binding Contract: This seems to be how most of the serious and involved Rites of the Infinite Names are invoked.
- The Rites of Char Garrum have been described as a contract, whose terms involve infinite life at the cost of those from other rays of the Mirror Forest.
- The Rites of Relor Manat that Gordon undergoes to bring back his sibling, Mickey O'Shae is another magically binding contract, which trades that outcome for his knowledge of his father, under the condition that August Howard is brought to the Rat-King alive.
- Magical Incantation: Many of the spells utilized by characters are these.
- Miniseries: Blake Skye currently has several mini-series:
- Quinn's Mechanism was the first of several canonical mini-series, debuting daily short episodes for one week in January 2021. Act Two came out in August 2021, and there are three more Acts in the works.
- Transatlantic Trouble was the second of several canonical mini-series, debuting daily short episodes for five days in February, leading up to Valentine's Day 2021.
- The Great Ghost was the third of several canonical mini-series, debuting its first episode in March 2021.
- Diviner in the Deep was the fourth of several canonical mini-series, debuting its first episode in August 2021.
- Quinn's Mechanism
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: A simple case of infidelity leads to a dangerous and thrilling Cosmic Horror Story.
- Our Angels Are Different: The Angel of Prosperity is revealed to be more than what she seems in Episode 17.
- Plot-Inciting Infidelity: August's infidelity is what prompts Daphne to hire Blake.
- Police Are Useless: In Episode 15, August reveals that he's been paying off police to ignore reports from Blake's office's neighborhood.
- Poor Communication Kills: This seems to be the reason August and Daphne’s marriage started to break down.
- The Power of Language: Not only are many of the characters in the cast linguistics researchers, but dangerous power is wielded through the use of an ancient language.
- Private Eye Monologue: Much of Blake's dialogue, including the intro to almost every episode, is this.
- Radio Voice: The whole show sounds like this, but the distortion is taken even further in scenes where people are heard through the telephone or over two-way radios.
- Resurrected Romance: After August’s death at the hands of a resurrected Mickey O’Shae, Daphne meets a version of him pulled from the Mirror Forest that genuinely loves her, despite losing his version of her in childbirth. They both declare their unending love for each other, even as August’s prime consciousness takes over and removes him from the forefront.
- Resurrective Immortality: A few characters in the series display this trope, having come back from being explicitly killed.
- Reunion Vow: In Episode 26, Daphne vows that she will see Auggie again, once they escape the Order's mansion.Daphne Howard: We’re not going to shoot you and we’re not abandoning you. We’re going to get you out of here and find a spell to bring you back for good.Elenore Kostanski: But I don’t-Daphne Howard: We’re going to do it!
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Downplayed. The previous owner of the Tantalus Theatre rigged explosives in the attic, which ended up proving useful in Episode 9.
- Slave Mooks: August reveals in Episode 14 that some of his henchmen are repurposed research from experiments surrounding the Rites of Char Garrum.
- Sound-Only Death: All deaths in the show are this, by virtue of it being a podcast, though some deaths are more gruesome than others.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Auggie and Daphne after August’s prime consciousness takes over.
- Synchronous Episodes: Episode 5 of both Blake Skye: Private Eye and Diviner in the Deep occur at the same time and depict the same event from Blake and Daphne’s points of view, respectively.
- The Triads and the Tongs: The Harmonious Fist Tong, headed by Wu Zhun Hei, is introduced as one of the many gangs of the City in Episode 19.
- Time Stands Still: To prevent August from returning fully, and to allow him to talk to Daphne longer, his alternate version, Auggie casts an incantation to stop time, taking a detour near the Void Sea as time moves on around them.
- Variations on a Theme Song: The regular Blake Skye episodes use "Deadly Roulette" by Kevin Mac Leod as the theme song, but the episodes of Brant Storme: Gentleman Thief use an altered, sped-up version. Quinn's Mechanism also uses "Deadly Roulette" but backwards.
- Wham Episode: The series currently has a few Wham Episodes:
- Wham Line: Listed below...Mickey O'Shae: ...Take care of my brother. Tell him I’m sorry... I love him.Desmond Ayer: Oh, don’t worry about that, Humility. I don’t give August any of my real notes.August Howard: I love you too, Daphne.Desmond Ayer: 'Listen'... to my voice.
- Words Can Break My Bones: Spells are typically this trope, combined with optional sigils, in the aforementioned Lost Language.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Elenore to August after she willingly traded herself for Blake and Mickey.
Quinn's Mechanism Tropes
- Framing Device: Quinn's Mechanism is presented as a series of tapes recorded by Quinn Mc Dunn and Professor Hope Lezner for research on books of occult nature. In Act Two, these tapes are recorded specifically for information gathered by the team during Project Interloper.
- Miniseries: Quinn's Mechanism was the first of many mini-series written for Blake Skye: Private Eye. Act One's five episodes debuted for one week in January 2021. Act Two's five episodes debuted in mid-August of 2021. It is currently planned to be a five act structure.
Transatlantic Trouble Tropes
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Dottie dreams of endless hallways with many doors, and when she opens them she sees visions of the future, or possible futures. She writes to Lucy about what she sees, and this does end up saving Lucy's life.
- Epistolary Novel: The story in Transatlantic Trouble is communicated entirely through letters between Lucy Cunningham and her girlfriend Dottie Whitfield (with one telegraph in the third episode).
- Miniseries: Transatlantic Trouble was the second of many mini-series written for Blake Skye: Private Eye. It had five episodes which debuted in the days leading up to Valentine's Day of 2021. It is unknown if more is planned in this mini-series.
The Great Ghost Tropes
- Framing Device: The story of the Great Ghost is told as an old fashioned radio play. The scripts are sent in to be read by radio host Chester Legris (who is later joined by soap opera star Margot Mac Millan).
- Miniseries: The Great Ghost was the third of many mini-series written for Blake Skye: Private Eye. It debuted in March 2021, and releases sporadically.
Diviner in the Deep Tropes
- As You Know: Daphne sometimes explains things August already knows, for the benefit of any researchers who would eventually listen to the recordings (and for the audience, of course).
- Fever Dream Episode: Downplayed, in Episode 3 of Diviner in the Deep. It serves to convey a bit of traumatic backstory for Daphne.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Diviner in the Deep side-story series follows Daphne, starting as a prequel, but then takes her through the phone call with Blake in Episode 5 in the main series, eventually leading to the reveal of her capture and events post Season 2 finale. The listeners know how the story ends, but the start and the points in between are new information.
- Framing Device: Diviner in the Deep is presented as a series of statements and interviews from Daphne Howard, arranged by August Howard, as a way for the Order to understand the abilities of an oracle.
- Miniseries: Diviner in the Deep was the fourth of many mini-series written for Blake Skye: Private Eye. It debuted in late August 2021, and releases sporadically.
- Origins Episode: Diviner in the Deep has the following examples of origin episodes:
- Episode 1: The Breathless Depths, in which Daphne recounts a story about losing her father's boat in a storm and admitting her feelings for her best friend.
- Episode 1: The Breathless Depths
- Synchronous Episodes: Episode 5 of both Blake Skye: Private Eye and Diviner in the Deep occur at the same time and depict the same event from Blake and Daphne’s points of view, respectively.
- The Watson: As mediator and questioner during their sessions, August serves as a form of Audience Surrogate, from Episode 5 of Diviner in the Deep onward.
- This Is My Story: Though it’s introduced by August to start, Daphne recounts moments of her life as prompted by her husband and the Order.
A Most Vital Art Tropes
- Miniseries: A Most Vital Art is the fifth of many mini-series written for Blake Skye: Private Eye. It is currently in production.
