Inexplicable Crimetown Review: Buddy simmers in EP5

Buddy Cianci has a posse.

From now on, I’m going to be discussing the contents of Crimetown episodes, and specifically, spoiling the episodes. So, if you still aren’t following along, I’d recommend catching up on the past episodes. They’re usually in 30 minute chunks, and I highly recommend them!

The awesome photo is from here.

Episode five of Crimetown is a bit of a slower boil or simmer, as compared to the past two episodes on vault heists and mobsters at the zoo. Instead, we’re following Vincent “Buddy” Cianci and his spiral downward, which was highly interesting to me but obviously not as much of a puzzler as the previous episodes.

As usual, the opening anecdote of the episode – Buddy using his aide’s hands as an ash tray – was compelling and immediately hooked me in. Again, having audio from the aide really helped to tell the story, and you can feel the decay of Buddy’s moral. From there, we hear about Buddy being clobbered in the gubernatorial race, the Republicans reneging on their job promise, and Buddy’s problems trying to plug the budget holes in Providence.

How does Buddy get out of his public relations hole? By getting deeper in with the Mob and the sleaze, apparently, and mostly via grandstanding in a garbage strike. Buddy’s theatrics help his popularity, but as the end of the episode reveals, his efforts didn’t have a net positive on the budget woes of Providence.

As I said at the top, this episode is more of a slow-burner, so you might be left wanting more. Might I recommend Eric Ducker’s piece on The Ringer about the show? It’s a good, long read on the show itself, and the podcast as a medium for investigative journalism.

It also brings to mind the one “complaint” I have with this show. The Providence Journal is doing previews and reviews of each episode… But geez, why didn’t they just go through with a podcast of their own? They have the reporting and historical resources to do so, or even to produce a good “review” and supplemental podcast. I’m curious to see if that develops as we go along, since it seems like a slam dunk for some clicks.

I’ve written about podcasts here and there, and this entry from 2014, after Serial finished, is still mostly valid. And hey, I host a podcast! If you like pre-2000s video games, check out Your Parents Basement.

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