Eerie music sets the mood of the crime podcast “Crimetown”. The first season of the podcasts focuses on stories from the East Coast and its infamous history of mob related crime. The first seven episodes are dedicated to budding prosecutor Buddy Cianci’s investigation into a mafia murder in Providence, Rhode Island. Two men are dead and there is no clear-cut path through the mess of gang ties involved for the young lawyer. Presenting before a mostly catholic jury, Cianci seems to have no chance of winning his case when a well-respected priest comes to testify in defense of the accused. Cianci is quick to prove his worth in the courtroom and undermines the priest’s alibi, but is it enough to sway the jury? The podcast also explores the many paths that have led people to become mob members and the difficulty of escaping organized crime once someone has become involved. While the murder mystery focus of this podcast creates ample intrigue, the creators employ many techniques to keep listeners engaged and wanting more.
One of the most interesting features of this podcast is the abundance of interviews dispersed throughout the narration. The interviews provide a change of pace and bring many different viewpoints into the plot. The first episode alone featured interviews with cops, priests, lawyers, townspeople, hitmen, and even other mafia members involved in the case. This format allows the listener to hear the evidence firsthand and to form their own opinions as the case begins to unfold. Instead of just being told the story, the use of interviews provides a more active role for the listener and a sense of working alongside the investigative team. The interviews with the mob members are particularly interesting because most of them create a sense of empathy towards these murderous men. While most people might not feel very sympathetic towards them, hearing about the traumatic things that led them to organized crime makes the listener feel more connected to the criminals. One mob boss is revealed to have become a member after running away from home at a young age to escape a father that physically abused him since he was a baby. Knowing information like this makes these men seem a little less like cold-blooded killers and more like people that have troubled pasts and unfortunately fell into the hands of the mob.
Another key element to this podcast that provides a sense of engagement and excitement is music spread throughout the podcast. The music provides transitions between narration and recordings, and also sets the mood for what the listener is about to hear. The music helps create a sense of connection for the listener as well because it creates feelings of suspense and excitement that reflect the way the investigators felt while working firsthand on the case. The narrator’s tone and the pace of the podcast are also an important element to examine. The narrator’s tone is most often serious, but inflections of curiosity and questioning help the listener to pay special note to certain pieces of evidence presented throughout the podcast. The narrator’s tone also plays an important role in influencing which characters are trusted and which characters remain suspicious. Alongside tone, the narrators pace of speech also helps to give the listener more insight into the case. A calm, slow pace signifies the more informational sections of the podcast, and a more rapid pace helps create suspense and heighten the listeners’ attention to important details of the plot.
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The podcast “Crimetown” is an entertaining and different kind of crime podcast than what I have listened to so far. The first episode sets up the story in this small town called Providence that is run by mobs. This is similar to my podcast because it also introduces the story to create a small town feel and that all of it is relatively local. I think it is advantageous to set up a backstory including the history of the town or just what had been happening right before the story would begin. It establishes some sort of connection and understanding of the town your story will take place in.
Additionally, this podcast’s usage of a variety of interviews helps not only to thicken the plot, but to provide various perspectives. My podcast “Bear Brook” uses a similar strategy to give multiple accounts of what was going on at the time and to explain the crime in different ways. This is very advantageous to include in a podcast because it provides numerous perspectives and lets us hear more voices than just the narrator’s. Interviews provide multiple opinions about the situation at hand, in this case how the mobs were running Providence and the case with Cianci.
One thing I particularly enjoyed in this podcast was its use of music, which you were right to point out. It not only started out with suspenseful music to establish an eerie mood but it also wove music throughout the whole episode that matched with the time period the crime was set in. I think it helped make the podcast better and provide for suspense as to trying to figure out what would happen next. In comparison to my podcast, Bear Brook also uses music but I feel like it is less effective because sometimes there are weird long breaks of music that acts as a transition but don’t contribute to creating as much suspense. However, music is definitely an advantageous tool in creating a podcast but it needs to be used in the right places, using the right style, and ultimately improves the quality of the podcast.