I'm about to start skipping Elspeth Eric episodes. 

Episode #294, "The Climbing Boy", broke me. Take a plodding period piece. Add self-righteous indignation. Stir in a meaningless psychosis. Add a dash of contrived loss. Simmer with a pointless spectral appearance, and garnish with a Disney-esque ending. 

I'm not saying that she isn't talented. But the episodes just are no fun to listen to. I had to listen to an episode of "X-Minus One", to stop my ears from ossifying.

I've been diligent in my logging, and listening, and am 1/2 of the way through 1975. But if I skip all of Elspeth Eric's episodes from about #300 to the end, will I really miss anything? Are there some really great commercials that I might miss? Or is it possible to develop a taste for joyless audio psychodrama? 

I like what she tries to do, but there are more misses than hits. I won't try to convince you to like her, but I will say I would rather listen to an Elspith Eric metaphysical non-starter than one of Sam Dann's crime stories. He wrote them in the '70's but they sound like the '40's and now in the 21st century they sound more out of date than ever. 
I agree that some of Eric's stories are pretty stagnant though. It's like she wants to be a new age Ibsen or Strindberg or something. They usually feature a couple of people sitting on the beach or in an old house sounding sad and tired, constantly pausing and giving cryptic one word replies to each other. I always imagine them looking at the ground or off into the distance. I like the peaceful quality that her tales have and the sad music that they always play in the background. Yes, I think that's it: I just like the sad music.
