In 2017, two people set to sea in a homemade submarine. Only one returned. The two-part HBO documentary “Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall” recounts the famous Nordic murder case, including its complicated investigation and motives around snuff-film sex fantasies. It also explores the life stories of a rising journalist and an eccentric inventor.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "UNDERCURRENT" BEGINS AROUND MINUTE 37:00
In Crime of the Week: smashed at the pub.
Carole Baskin runs a Florida sanctuary for tigers with her doting husband. Her efforts to stop a traveling cub-petting operation sends her on a collision course with mercurial zookeeper Joe Exotic, who sees Carole as an existential threat to his livelihood.
Based on season two of the podcast “Over My Dead Body,” the eight-part Peacock series “Joe vs. Carole” stars Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell. While played for laughs in sections, the dramatized retelling regards its lead characters with more sympathy and depth than either "Tiger King" figure have previously received in popular culture.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "JOE VS. CAROLE" TO GO MINUTE 41:00
In Crime of the Week: fowl play.
The crime writers welcome Ronald Young Jr. from the HBO Docs Club podcast to fill in for the vacationing Toby Ball!
In True Crime Update: MD prosecutors agree with Serial's Adnan Syed to test DNA on crime scene evidence not previously tested. What does it mean that the state supports re-testing and how might it affect Adnan's effort to win his release.
Then: high-achiever Elizabeth Holmes went to college with a vague dream to invent something that would change the face of medicine. She dropped out of school to start a company even though the experts told her the science behind her idea wouldn’t work. The eight-episode Hulu drama “The Dropout,” based on the ABC News podcast of the same name, stars Amanda Seyfried. She plays Elizabeth Holmes as an awkward yet driven idealist, so blinded by her vision she’d do anything - even faking results, lying to investors, and mistreating her workers.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE DROPOUT" GO TO MINUTE [round number 42:00
In Crime of the Week: dispirited.
Juvenile detainees in the Golden State are given an opportunity for service: fighting wildfires in California. The documentary “Fireboys” on HBO Max is a coming-of-age tale of incarcerated youth given a chance to earn money, reduce their sentence, help their community, and build their self-esteem. But will the lessons learned on the fire line give them hope for the future or set them up for more disappointment?
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "FIREBOYS" GO TO MINUTE 37:00
Note: Here’s a link to that Teen Vogue article Rebecca kept going on about!
In April 2016, eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered in their Appalachian homes. Investigators were puzzled at why an entire family would be annihilated. Was it because of their illegal marijuana operation? Or was it a more personal motive? In “The Pink Moon Murders” from Cavalry Audio and iHeart, host David Raterman explores the Pike County shootings.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PINK MOON MURDERS" GO TO MINUTE 42:00
Plus: an update on the Campside Media podcast "Wild Boys."
In Crime of the Week: your shit don't stink.
Since his conviction for murdering Rhoda Nathen in her hotel room, Elwood Jones has maintained his innocence. To believe him means to accept his argument that he was framed by the police.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer and USA Today comes season 4 of “Accused: The Impending Execution of Elwood Jones.” Host Amber Hunt looks at alternative suspects, shaky evidence, and investigators who spent a year resubmitting forensics until they finally found an expert to build their case.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "ACCUSED: THE IMPENDING EXECUTION OF ELWOOD JONES," GO TO MINUTE 42:00
For decades, he was an A-list entertainer who projected an image of wholesomeness. But the public was shocked to learn of Bill Cosby’s dark double life - one in which the so-called “America’s Dad” was drugging and raping women for years.
The four-part Showtime series “We Need to Talk About Cosby” examines all aspects of Cosby’s life - both as a trailblazer and beloved entertainer and as a felon. W. Kamau Bell provides a platform for some of his many victims. He also turns the mirror on the Black community and those who grew up watching Cosby to ask why they have conflicted feelings about his legacy.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY," GO TO MINUTE 42.
In Crime of the Week: prison break.
Anna Delvey was a twenty-something who posed as a young German heiress while living on the amenities of New York’s super rich. Magazine writer Viviant Kent sees Anna’s story as her shot at professional redemption. She struggles with her editors and with her subject to retell Anna’s path from Instagram darling to high society to incarceration.
Anna Chlumsky and Julia Garner star in “Inventing Anna,” a nine-episode, partly-fictionalized look at the Anna Delvey case. The docudrama recounts her long con as a poser who talked her way through big banks and luxury hotels, framed around a journalist’s efforts to untangle the web of deception.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "INVENTING ANNA" GO TO MINUTE 39:00
Anna is drowning the loss of her daughter and the end of her marriage in bottles of red wine. She’s taken by the kindness of the handsome widower and his daughter who’ve moved in across the street. Then one night, Anna peers across the way to see the man’s girlfriend get her throat slashed. When police say the girlfriend is safe in Seattle Anna sets off to confirm she’s not crazy, prove a murder happened, and discover who the killer in her quiet neighborhood is.
Kristen Bell stars in the mystery-spoof “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.” The Netflix series is a dry-but-cutting satire on domestic thrillers and cozy mysteries. Will Anna solve the case - one chicken casserole and bottle of cabernet at a time?
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE WOMAN IN THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW" GO TO MINUTE 36:00
In crime of the week: drilling in the ice.
Using a popular dating app, Cecilie connects with a caring playboy named Simon - the son of a rich diamond broker who wears designer clothes, dines at five-star restaurants, and flies her around Europe in a private jet. Though it seems like true love, their lives are upended when Simon goes on the run to escape his violent business rivals. Cut off from his fortune, he convinces her to borrow money so he can continue his extravagant lifestyle. But when the bills come due, Cecilie realizes Simon is not who he seems.
Three women share how they were bamboozled by Simon Leviev in the Netflix documentary “The Tinder Swindler.” Part catfish, part Ponzi-scheme, it explores his elaborate romantic con, his life of fraud, and his efforts to continue his grift today.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE TINDER SWINDLER" GO TO MINUTE 40:00
In 2014, a letter emerged detailing an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate schools in Birmingham, England. It became known as The Trojan Horse Affair. When journalism student Hamza Syed met podcaster Brian Reed, he told him about the scandal and the unexplored question of the author’s true motives. They teamed up to investigate where the ham-fisted letter came from in the first place - and if there was no extremist plot, what was the writer actually hoping to achieve?
From Serial Productions and The New York Times comes “The Trojan Horse Affair.” We follow Hamza and Brian’s frustrating journey to explore whether the letter was more about a labor dispute than an extremist conspiracy - and would proving its mundane origins upend the official narrative used as a pretext for a lasting, hardline government response?
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVEIWS OF "THE TROJAN HORSE AFFAIR" GO TO THE 42:00 MINUTE MARK
In Crime of the Week: thrown to the wolves.
In 2003, a pair of teenage boys emerged from the woods around Vernon, British Columbia. They claimed to have lived their lives in the wilderness with no contact with civilization. As the town rallied behind them, the so-called “Bush Boys of B.C.” attracted international media attention - as well as the suspicions of the Mounties who wanted to know their true identities.
From Campside Media, season three of Chameleon: “Wild Boys” looks back at the strange tale that gripped two nations.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "WILD BOYS" GO TO THE APPROX. 38:00 MINUTE MARK.
Omar Navarro has offered Marty and Wendy Byrde a plan to finally walk away from their debt to the Mexican cartel. All they need to do is help the drug kingpin go legit and receive immunity from prosecution in America.
Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner return for season four-part one of “Ozark.” The series again finds the Byrdes dealing with complications large-and-small to protect their family and get out of the money laundering business.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS GO TO THE 43:00 MINUTE.
In Crime of the Week: torch song.
Just in time for the Winter Olympics, the podcast “Torched” from FilmNation Entertainment recalls some of the most controversial moments surrounding the games. Hosted by former skier and noted poker game runner Molly Bloom, this an anthology podcast looks at a different kind of human drama of athletic competition. Each episode features a story of scandal, disgrace - and sometimes - redemption.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "TORCHED" GO TO MINUTE 40:00
The Cliftons have not seen their mother in years. She ran off with David, the boyfriend who controlled her money and her life. What’s his connection to Rob, a supposed MI-5 agent who in 1996 took a trio of college kids into hiding, claiming they’d been targeted by IRA assassins?
From Netflix, “The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Con Man” looks back at the exploits of Robert Freegard - accused of controlling, conning, and fleecing several women. Told largely by his victims, the docuseries also looks at the present day and asks whether he’s up to his old tricks.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PUPPET MASTER," GO TO MINUTE 34:00
In Crime of the Week: a clean getaway.
In 1989, as she was preparing to divorce her husband, Birgit Meier vanished from her home in Lüneburg, Germany. Detectives began to focus on the neighbor’s gardener, a man with a violent past and a secret room filled with instruments of torture and kidnapping. The Netflix German import “Dig Deeper: The Disappearance of Birgit Meier” follows a group of experts as they attempt to do what police have refused to - name the killer and find Birgit's body.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF "DIG DEEPER" GO TO MINUTE 46:00
In 1971, Sherman McCrary and his son-in-law Carl Taylor went on a multistate spree of robberies, killing and raping doughnut shop employees along the way. “Families Who Kill: The Donut Shop Murders" examines their murderous run. Featuring commentary from police, professors, and other podcasters, the show also profiles a felonious family from the 1800s.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF "FAMILIES WHO KILL: THE DONUT SHOP MURDERS" GO TO MINUTE 37:00
In Crime of the Week: ...and the Joker got away, hey!
In 2003, Charis Song was killed execution-style in her Koreatown apartment, along with her nanny and two-year-old son. Years later, a DNA sample from a former neighbor matched a latex glove from the crime scene. The podcast "Strangeland" from Western Sound revisits the Miracle Mile Murders and asks how much of the investigation was colored by cultural misunderstandings.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "STRANGELAND" GO TO MINUTE 42:00
In 1996, an airplane carrying a high school girls soccer team crashed in the wilderness. The few who returned home kept quiet about how they survived 19 months alone in the woods. In Showtime's feminist-powered horror-mystery series "Yellowjackets," an aspiring politician, a bored housewife, a recovering drug addict, and an unstable nurse find themselves being blackmailed for their untold story of strange symbols, supernatural premonitions, tribal warfare, and teenage drama.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEW OF "YELLOWJACKETS," GO TO MINUTE 36.
In Crime of the Week: hot dogg.
After Baltimore homicide detective Sean Suiter was shot with his own gun in an alley, it was revealed he was about to testify before a grand jury about a group of dirty cops. The department determined the evidence pointed to the headshot being self-inflicted…but was it actually a hit to keep Suiter quiet? The HBO Max documentary “The Slow Hustle” examines the controversial investigation.
FOR OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE SLOW HUSTLE" GO TO 35:00
In True Crime Update: a court settlement against a Baltimore homicide detective may have an impact on the Adnan Syed case.
