Up and Vanished

Listening to S3 again. These are really intriguing podcasts, really good. I hope, Payne, you are just working on S4 & that’s why we haven’t heard from you. But re S3, that Tee sounds like a sociopath. The way she laughs at inappropriate things in the interview, scary. And V-dog, same. Monsters walk among us.

I’m lost on where we’re at. With all he bonus’ and tenderfoot exclusives I have no idea what’s going on

I’ve been listening to this show for years. I don’t ever expect them to break a case open and find all of the answers but we were left hanging with nothing for season 4. It feels disrespectful to the two victims being covered. The last episode Payne says ”I’ll share my thoughts on the next episode” there is no next episode. He doesn’t close out the case at all or bring us any ending or closure. He gave us a phone call and then ghosted us and the victims. Disappointed and disrespectful.

I like his thoroughness and diligence but he’s clearly trying to do too much because this story limped along and we’re left confused as to the conclusion. Lots of repetition and taped phone call episodes that aren’t really produced - just recordings. Perhaps not time to start another new podcast (the UFO deal) when this one isn’t done? Or is it?

I almost never leave reviews, for anything. I’ve listened to almost everything Payne has done and enjoyed it. The shows are normally very well researched. I listened to the first 3 seasons of up and vanished and enjoyed them. I listened to the first part of season 4 and intended to follow the story through until the end. Unfortunately, I will need to look up what happens with these cases and the corruption in town as the show has become unlistenable. I would have to go back and check which episode it started but the descriptive portion of the episode now sounds like a chat bot. The same information repeated 3 times in 3 similar ways, all the “it wasn’t this, it was this”, etc. Far be it from me, a non-journalist to say whether someone is using ai, editing with ai, or what they are doing but it sure sounds like it. We are having ai content forced on us so I wouldn’t be surprised if this rubbed off on some people. Anyway, here’s and example: episode 23 or 24 around the 20m mark “The names bonnie and Kirk have mostly stayed in the background, they haven’t been too loud. But as the timeline gets tighter and the contradictions start stacking up Bonnie and Kirk don’t drift away from the story, they move closer to the dead center. ….. And slowly, almost without anyone noticing, two people who almost felt peripheral begin showing up at nearly every pressure point in this entire case. Not as answers, but as something that now needs to be understood.” Hope things get better at tenderfoot, not sure what’s going on but hopefully the writing swings back, it did not sound like this before. Thanks for all the work the researchers, hosts, journos, and crew done to give a voice to native families and advocate for missing people. It’s important work, this review doesn’t negate that. (Didn’t proofread, any mistakes are my own.)