Monster: Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer

Phenomenal recap of the LISK case. Episodes are quick, but they will completely catch you up to everything you need to know about LISK(and everything LISK adjacent too!). Be sure to check out Josh’s channel on YouTube or Patreon (Sinister with Josh Zeman). He is bringing new interviews to talk about updates to the case. He is also releasing full interviews from his tv series The Killing Season. Would love for Josh to add some new episodes here once the trial starts!

I heard a commercial on the radio for this show when I was on a very long, solo road trip. I decided to give it a whirl, after the first episode I was hooked. I even bought the I ❤️ True Crime+ subscription so I could finish all of the episodes(which is something I rarely do). Well told, fantastic researching, seamless production, easy to follow and absolutely gripping. Everything about This podcast definitely made me think twice about my surroundings and had my head on a swivel. There was even a point when I was engrossed in episode 3 where I thought I felt something kick the back of the drivers seat….my stomach sank into my butt and I instantly had that feeling of fear overcome me, not something you want to feel while driving alone, at 3am. 100% recommend, must listen.

And what I expected was high quality, interesting content and this podcast doesn’t disappoint. I knew Josh Z would deliver, as his work is always top-notch!!

If you are a true crime investigator in your spare time you need to listen to this. Josh Zeman is in the Mount Rushmore of documentary film makers I’ve been following for years. This podcast revisits his game changing doc “The Killing Season” with the perspective and commentary after LISK was caught.

I wanted to like this show as an overview of this case but it’s just not very good. To start, the production is ridiculously overdramatic and over the top - there’s loud pulsating “bad true crime show” music over the ENTIRE show, not just at suspenseful moments. It sounds so cheesy! The host says a lot that doesn’t mean very much - repeatedly telling us about how bad of a guy the killer is, how wild the crime is, how everyone was stumped, over and over. We know he’s a bad dude, he’s a serial killer! Show don’t tell! He also mentions his own show/documentary way too often despite the fact that it didn’t reveal anything about the case. It feels a bit self important. The other thing that sucks about this show is the ads. I don’t mind some ads on a free show but the quantity of ads in these episodes is absurd - each ad break is really long and there are a lot per episode. A good 25-30% of the run time of these episodes is ads and other non-story fluff. Insane.

All of the ads. So, so many ads. I Heart Radio has so many trashy shows, stripping down interesting true crime stories into bland commercialized corporate events. Add to that the host’s dubious reputation for accuracy and manufacturing sensationalism. I suppose it is up to you if this is what you want