By Sorry, everybody—podcasts have officially been bought. Podcasts still have a kind of wild west appeal; after all, any schmuck off the street is only an idea and a $50 microphone away from launching a podcast of their own. (On that note—check out TRAILER TRASHED!) But what was once a platform similar to the nascent internet is now dominated by ads for toothbrushes and mattresses, content is sponsored by major broadcasting platforms like Hulu, and the major podcast networks grow more and more powerful on the scene. And y’know what? I’m fucking here for it.
OVER MY DEAD BODY’s inaugural season, called “Tally,” follows Dan Markel’s fraught marriage to Wendi Adelson and his eventual murder. Both successful lawyers, their marriage was joyfully announced in the New York Times but ended in bitter divorce. Not much longer afterwards, Dan was shot dead in his car by an unknown assailant as he pulled into his garage coming home from the gym. The case lay cold for years, but through new leads laid out in the podcast, the suspects will go to trial this upcoming June 2019.
Now—my love for true crime has been well-chronicled on this website, as has my love for schlock. I’m happy to report that OVER MY DEAD BODY scratches both of these itches. Host Matthew Shaer narrates this doomed love story with the enthusiasm of someone telling you a juicy piece of gossip at a party. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some serious verbal responses listening alone in my car—gasps, “WHAT?”s, and even the occasional ¡Escandalo! It’s got a Civil Wars-esque gothic country theme song despite being about rich Jewish lawyers in Florida. It’s a juicy story full of twists and turns, he-said-she-said drama, conspiracy, love, loss, and damn good detective work. It feels like a Lifetime movie, but it’s all true.
And herein lies what I really love about this podcast, and the specific brand of content OVER MY DEAD BODY represents. I love being able to listen to a four-hour dissection of Josef Mengele’s crimes, or a woman’s harrowing escape from an abusive cult, or even the potential wrongful conviction of Adnan Syed. But sometimes a girl just needs a short, accessible murder story to get her through her morning commute. OMDB doesn’t try to make any grand statements about human nature, and in fact kind of roasts the one interviewee who tries to. It’s deeply aware of what it’s trying to do, something I always appreciate in content, which is to tell a really good story. And it accomplishes that to the highest degree.
Wondery’s latest accomplishment wraps up in a tight six episodes that will leave you eager for more, which is impending as the trial develops in real time this summer. I highly recommend hopping on the train now before it leaves.
Comments