Released in 2015, “Limetown” is a fictional 11-episode podcast produced by Two-Up Productions that follows American Public Radio (APR) reporter Lia Haddock (Annie-Sage Whitehurst) as she investigates the disappearance of over 300 people over a decade ago.
There are a lot of good things about this podcast. It’s a quick listen, unlike longer podcasts like “Welcome to Night Vale” or “Tanis,” and focuses more on classic, detective-style storytelling rather than using supernatural elements to supplement its plot.
The New York Times writes that “Limetown” borrowed its structure from “Serial,” an award-winning podcast that dedicates single seasons to researching real-life crimes. In this vein, Limetown incorporates audio from 911 calls and interviews with those involved with the disappearances. The majority of the podcast is narrated documentary-style by Haddock.
“Limetown” is a podcast that is not afraid to get its sleeves dirty. As Haddock delves deeper into the mystery of what, exactly, led to the disappearance of an entire town, she unearths buried secrets about the U.S. government, scientific advancement and her own family.
That being said, there were points during the podcast that were a little too gross for me — I especially remember episode 3, “Napoleon,” for its graphic descriptions of experimentation on animals. Similarly, there were times when the podcast seemed too focused on keeping listeners in the dark and building suspense than it did on furthering the actual plot of the podcast.
The season finale is really what made the podcast for me. The tenth episode in the season, followed up by a “mini-episode” announcement from APR, ends on a note that can serve as a concrete season and series ending, but also leaves enough open that there is room for the series to continue. In fact, on Oct. 31, 2017, after a two-year hiatus, Two-Up Productions announced that “Limetown” will be getting a second season sometime in 2018.
“Limetown” is a great podcast for people who love suspense and the occasional jump-scare. It isn’t something that I would recommend listening to while you’re home, alone at night, but its focus on developing a relationship between listeners and its characters really does pay off in the end. You can listen to “Limetown” on iTunes. More information or alternate ways to listen can be found here.
Story by
Megan Fairbanks
printchief@suunews.com
