Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative

This series definitely made me cringe.. sometimes painfully so.. but it also opened my eyes to what kinds of things happen when podcast producers and documentary makers *aren’t* recording, and what they sometimes have to sacrifice to tell a story that will sell. Reminded me of Janet Malcolm, retooled for the age of social media and the content boom that followed. You could call Jess Shane self-absorbed or naive or whatever, but aren’t we also naive for consuming stories of so many peoples’ suffering and trauma and personal growth, without considering how these stories have been shaped to keep us listening, what these stories are actually doing for the world, or where they leave their characters? Nice to see a series about such a dry topic tackled with so much play and punch

I prefer to think of it as a fictional production in the style of a “Nathan for You.” Jess Shane calls it a documentary. God, I hope not because *that* would be shocking and heartbreaking. Surely it’s fictional. Surely there’s no way Radiotopia would go to the expense of producing a series with a host as clueless and dangerously absorbed by her “art” to the extent of the way she holds her power over her participants. Was this an elaborate poison pen letter to the audience for being complicit by consuming exploitative content or a documentary? I’m giving it all stars because it certainly raised unsettling questions and feelings with excellent production values and sound.

I kept waiting for this to turn into something more interesting… for the twist or insight. But it never came. I also had relatively high expectations due to the fact that this was rated one of the top podcasts of the year, but aim sorry to say that it wasn’t even one of the top podcasts I listened to this week. (and I’m not a true crime fan or sensationalist when it comes to podcasts so I don’t need constant stimulation. But this just really fell short.) First, I’m sorry, but the people profiled are not very interesting, especially Ernesto, who speaks in a monotone and has nothing at all to say. Michael is more likable, but he’s similarly superficial and doesn’t really offer much. The most interesting situation is that ofJudy, whose episode apparently needed to be eviscerated due to some kind of higher principle that the creator is trying to explore. So the twist, I guess, is that we lost the twist. And instead of letting the (admittedly fairly dull) people just carry the narrative, it’s full of inside-baseball, navel-gazing, meta reminders of what they’re trying to do that’s so different from other documentaries that basically go nowhere. So a lot of agonizing over principles and decisions that just aren’t very interesting at all.

I listened to this entire podcast because it was on a ‘best of 2024’ list. All episodes. I kept waiting for it to develop a story or reveal interesting things about the subjects. The sound quality and effects were great but that’s about it. Don’t waste your time on this one.