The Blotter Presents

Latest Episodes:

SJ: The Sickest Secrets Come Out On Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders Oct 18, 2017

Show notes

José and Kitty's survivors are left reeling when Lyle and Erik confess that they actually did kill their parents...and also why.
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027: Criminal Confessions And Showrunner 'Would You Rather' Oct 11, 2017

Show notes

In the excitement about The Menendez Murders, you may have missed that Dick Wolf snuck ANOTHER show onto the schedule: Oxygen's Criminal Confessions, a process-y look at law enforcement's efforts to get suspects to admit their guilt. Uproxx's Alan Sepinwall took a break from new-book promotion to discuss what the show does right, how long it can sustain our interest, and how it stacks up against stylized scripted confession scenes like Homicide: LOTS's. Later, we played Would You Rather with famous true-crime cases like the Black Dahlia and Bernardo/Homolka, picking which showrunner should take a crack at them: Ryan Murphy, or Dick Wolf.
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SJ: Some Kind Of A Reality TV Show Oct 11, 2017

Show notes

As Erik finally lets his legal team know what ELSE might be on those tapes of Jerry Oziel's, Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting go over the Star Witnesses (Judalon's boobs; Leslie's hiring of so many women) and Aggravating Factors (Diane Faux-yer; the jacket Julianne Nicholson borrowed from David Silver) in E03 of The Menendez Murders.
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026: The Disappearance Of Maura Murray And 'The Psychiatrist And The Selfie' Oct 04, 2017

Show notes

Maura Murray's disappearance has preoccupied the internet for years -- and some of the nutballs theories about it have preoccupied Sarah D. Bunting and Stephanie Green for almost as long. Does Oxygen's The Disappearance Of Maura Murray add anything to the case file, or only to our annoyance? Later, our Cold Case section delves into Jake Nolan's attempted murder of his cousin/shrink/possible lover's ex-BF, and whether true-crime shows should be less dated in how they talk about mental illness.
Show Notes

Stephanie Green on Missing Maura Murray
Sarah D. Bunting on previous Maura Murray TV properties
Michelle Dean's review of James Renner's book
Renner sues his former employers
The Times on Nolan's conviction

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SJ: Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders E02 Oct 04, 2017

Show notes

Welcome to The Blotter Presents: Summary Judgment -- a shorter pod devoted to continuing coverage of a single series we're finding noteworthy. This inaugural episode and the half dozen following will be putting Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders under a microscope -- and in this ep, Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting look at the Star Witnesses (what worked) and Aggravating Factors (what didn't) in the latest ep of the Menendez series. Please admit Wig Cop's evidence, and make YOUR case on our forums.
Show Notes

Our full-length pod on the show from last week
Alan Sepinwall's review

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025: Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders And The Russell Williams Case Sep 27, 2017

Show notes

The long-awaited Dick Wolf take on the verrrrry well-trodden ground of the Menendez case has finally arrived, and Tara Ariano is in for the entire series. What does this property do well that others don't? What is it about this case that producers and actors seem to love? And why is Lyle's wig the best one on the screen? Later, the Cold Case section looks at murderer and serial rapist Russell Williams, and how he escaped suspicion for so long (while looking so similar to an American character actor).
Show Notes
- The Fifth Estate, "Russell Williams - Above Suspicion"
- Williams's confession
- The Blotter Presents on Courtney Love as Kitty
- The Blotter, Famous Original Flavor on dueling Menendez TV movies
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024: Strong Island And Two Takes On Sam Cooke Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

Yance Ford's Strong Island is a, well, actually it's a flinching look at the injustice of grief and loss, and guest Mark Blankenship is here to take us through its elements of Greek tragedy as Ford memorializes his murdered brother. Then we contemplate the life and death of Sam Cooke in two very different shows, American Masters and Mysteries & Scandals.
Show Notes

The New Yorker's review of Strong Island
Muhammad Ali's rendition of "The Gang's All Here"
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023: The Confession Tapes And Unraveled Sep 13, 2017

Show notes

First-time guest Anna Beth Chao joined Sarah D. Bunting in a horrified binge-watch of The Confession Tapes, a new series on old cases that convicted "killers" based on false confessions. How does this keep happening? Why do juries keep believing them? And when we will learn from the West Memphis Three? Later, Unraveled introduces us to better-than-normal re-enactments (and can afford to pay Jim Clemente for talking-head interviews) as we look at the Gary Plauche case out of Baton Rouge.
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022: Biggie: The Life Of Notorious B.I.G. And Gesualdo: Death For Five Voices Aug 30, 2017

Show notes

A&E debuts its life of Biggie Smalls at last, and my Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs co-host, Mark Blankenship, has a few thoughts on Jay-Z, versification, and whether it matters that the film spends only a few minutes on Christopher Wallace's murder. Then we take a detour into the Werner-Herzog weird with a German-TV docu on Italian madrigal composer and melodramatic murderer Carlo Gesualdo. Please watch Death For Five Voices and discuss it with us in the forums, because we feel like we're having all the strokes when a ghostly re-enactor whips out a boombox.
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Episode 21: 021: The Disappearance Of Natalee Holloway And The Charlie Brandt Case Aug 23, 2017

Show notes

Oxygen premiered The Disappearance Of Natalee Holloway over the weekend, and Al Lowe Huff is back to talk about the case, new twists on old evidence, whether the miniseries' weird undercover set-up is going to yield new clues, and how mad we'll be if it ends up in a(nother) big nothing. Al also brought a 48 Hours on Charlie Brandt to our Cold Case section -- and we're thinking maybe the show should have expanded its proven template to dig into issues of child psychology and familial liability. We're also making fun of Florida a bunch in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
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