Crimetown: Chapter 1: Divine Providence

November 23, 2016 9:34 AM

Welcome to Providence, Rhode Island, a city where organized crime corrupted every aspect of public life. In the first episode of Crimetown, a young prosecutor named Buddy Cianci takes on a gruesome murder case. As the investigation heats up, Buddy goes head to head with the most notorious mob boss in the country—and launches a career that will change Providence forever.
posted by ellieBOA (10 comments total)

I like the premise of this but I found myself getting confused as the story went on. Maybe it needs more concentration than I can give it while I'm driving.
posted by primethyme at 4:58 PM on November 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think this will be a podcast that requires more attention, episode 2 was just as dense. Really enjoying it so far though.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:17 PM on November 23, 2016

(Hey mum: that's me doing the first Mailchimp ad read about Zombies, Run!)
posted by adrianhon at 5:08 AM on November 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm a bit disappointed by this -- I'm quite the fan of Providence history, and, so far, I'm put off by the lack of a through line holding the episodes together. There are some good moments, but I'm expecting this show to be less than it's parts. Also, the sound design is terrible. The music is really intrusive and bewilderingly inappropriate to stories of Providence from nearly 50 years ago. I'll keep listening, but I'm not very hopeful so far.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:41 PM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

All three of the new shows have gone hard on the sound design, will see how it pans out.
posted by ellieBOA at 2:25 AM on November 26, 2016

Going hard on the sound design suggests to me that they don't trust their material, writing, and narration to keep the audience engaged. More charitably, it might be adopting a radio news paradigm rather than the more spare approach I'm used to in my podcasts.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:08 AM on November 26, 2016

I see it as the fact that it's from Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier who have their documentary backgrounds.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:27 AM on November 26, 2016

Hey mum: that's me doing the first Mailchimp ad read about Zombies, Run!

Oh thank god; when I heard the ad I was all pissed on behalf of the MeFite who I remembered rolled out a similar thing a few years back and clearly had been blatantly ripped off!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:56 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Additional documentation and info on their website.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:21 AM on November 28, 2016

I thought the pacing was really good.
posted by bq at 4:58 PM on December 30, 2016