Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative

Those giving this low ratings don’t truly get the producer’s intention. This is simultaneously an interrogation of how documentary gets made — the magic behind the curtain, so to speak — as well as a failed attempt to flip the unequal process in which producers, whether for podcasts or docs, get all the wins like career, rep, money. People coming to find stories that conform to standard documentary — sensational, dramatic type stuff — will be disappointed. Jess doesn’t play to the typical “rules”. That’s the point.

I think a lot of the negative reviews are coming from people who don’t understand what Shane was trying to do with this show. She uses herself and her position to expose the messy and exploitative nature in our documentary media landscape. I found the show super interesting to listen to. Would recommend!

Most of all, I think the podcaster needs to get a degree in social work to clue in to how she presents herself (and misrepresents herself) and puts herself in her subjects’ shoes. She misses obvious signs of trauma and mental health issues and defaults to examining her own meta ideas. Very interesting idea though. Get a social worker in your team though, STAT!

I don’t understand how waiting until the end to do a marathon listen with the participants was collaboration. People aren’t neat and tidy, and the creator seemed stuck on typical documentarian pursuit of near and tidy without understanding that working with people requires effort to meet them where they are and work in a way that they can participate. The premises of the series was interesting to me, and I would have welcomed something that was outside of the typical documentarian view of what draws in listeners. Instead, the main “characters” (or people, as those outside the industry would call them) were just an excuse for the narrator to talk about herself. I was relieved to hear a modicum self awareness at the end, but it wasn’t enough.