The Blotter Presents, Episode 118: Bad Batch and Tell Me Who I Am
Plus: As if we'd ignore Halloween!
Change is afoot! As Sarah noted on this week’s episode of The Blotter Presents, we’ve closed down our Facebook page for all the obvious reasons. Between that and an ongoing effort to streamline/modernize The Blotter’s website, we’d like to encourage everyone who wants to discuss the podcast -- or all other matters true crime -- over here on Best Evidence. Free subscribers can participate in open threads, and folks who join at the paid level ($5/month or $55 a year) will not only receive Best Evidence every day, but will be able to comment on every issue. Our community is great, and we’d love to grow it, so please do consider a paid subscription today!
This week’s episode of The Blotter Presents offers a triple dose of true crime. Sarah’s flying solo this week, and begins with a review of Bad Batch, a new podcast from the folks that brought us Dr. Death (which Sarah and guest Stephanie Early Green covered here). The six-part series looks as medical disasters reportedly caused by the unregulated use of stem cell therapy, so it’s not for the easily icked out.
Sarah found it to share a lot of DNA (ha ha get it) with Dr. Death and Bad Blood, right down to the sketchball-CEO angle. She warns that the setup is slower than either of those pods, however, so it requires a little more patience. You can listen to her review here. -- EB
Sarah also took a look at Tell Me Who I Am, a Netflix doc that dropped earlier this month. The film is about Alex Lewis, a man who suffered a memory-erasing brain injury in 1982, when he was 18. The trauma meant he had no recollection of his strange and abusive home life, and he was forced to piece together his life story with the help of his twin, Marcus -- who, Alex discovered many years later, left some extremely important information out.
Sarah notes that the show isn’t true crime in the classic sense, but that crimes were definitely committed. (To say more would spoil things too much.) She recommends the film, saying that in the end, Tell Me Who I Am is “asking us to contemplate … not just the horror of what happened, but the horror of being unable to KNOW what happened.” You can listen to her full review here. -- EB
For her Cold Case, Sarah considers After The Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search. Sarah Perry’s 2017 memoir is about the slaying of her mother, Crystal, when Perry was only 12 years old. It’s a tough thing, writing in a clear-eyed way about a case that has a direct impact on you, and Sarah says that Perry struggles in early pages before settling in to “an assured, compelling pace with an occasional grace note that makes you look around you.” If you liked Down City, Sarah says, you’ll probably like this one. -- EB
When I see a headline like “When True Love Meets True Crime,” I worry that this is another of those pieces “discovering” women who strike up relationships with incarcerated men. That’s not the case in the above video item from The Atlantic, I’m happy to report: instead, it’s a short on Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the couple that runs Esotouric, a LA-based tour company that offers (among other tours) an experience called “The Real Black Dahlia.” Who am I to say no to true love? -- EB
In honor of today’s holiday, Spotify has put together a true crime-heavy podcast playlist. The Halloween Podcast Playlist was curated by Parcast founder Max Cutler, which (depending on your Parcast feelings) may or may not pique your interest. Expect urban legend coverage, scripted fare, and a couple unsolved murders in the mix, which you can find here. -- EB
Friday on Best Evidence: An adaptation and some Easter eggs!
What is this thing? This should help.
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The Blotter Presents, Episode 118: Bad Batch and Tell Me Who I Am
Just say no to Parcast (for me). But I thought any upcoming Theranos trial watchers (ahem) would get a kick out of this: thecut.com/2019/10/elizabeth-holmes-turtleneck-halloween-costume.html