Blog-o-ween 2022: Limetown

Many years ago, in a small town in the United States, a crime occurred under mysterious circumstnaces. The tragedy bubbled up to the top of the 24-hour news cycle, then quickly lost steam and became an urban legend -- if it was remembered at all. Ten years later, a headstrong reporter opens an investigation into the event. The reporter sifts through various media formats -- VHS tapes, CCTV security footage, audio cassettes, photographs, written reports, first-hand, eyewitness accounts. The truth, it seems, is out there, but is a lot more complex than was originally thought. As new evidence is found, new questions are formed, until the reporter isn't sure what the truth really is.

Sound familiar? That's because the above is essentially the plot of every non-fiction, true crime podacast made in the past ten years. It is even the formula of many fictional podcasts that are written and recorded to sound just like a story on NPR. The line between fact and fiction is blurred more now than ever before -- if it ever existed in the first place.

For today's Blog-o-ween entry, we are going to take a trip to the mountains of Tennessee, to a company town of sorts called Limetown.

Limetown made its bow in July, 2015. Two-Up Productions released six episodes and five minisodes over the next five months. Three years later, Two-Up was at it again, releasing the second season of Limetown in October, 2018. Over the next three months, five more episodes and three minisodes -- including the series finale -- were made available. The following year, Facebook Watch aired one season of Limetown starring Jessica Biel. (No second season was ever made.)

The story of Limetown, as noted above, is a familiar one. Ten years ago, in a town that was built virtually overnight in the wilds of Tennessee, over three hundred men, women and children suddenly disappeared and were never heard from again. American Public Radio reporter, Lia Haddock, is obsessed with the case for professional and personal reasons. She promises to dig into the known records and reveal the truth behind the terrible events of that final night in Limetown. As she peels the layers of the onion back, she discovers the reasons for Limetown's existence, and in doing so exposes herself to the powers-that-be who don't want that truth known.

The genius of Limetown is in its construction and delivery. It sounds very real, and because it sounds real, its premise becomes plausible. Each episode is put together from disparate sources. Newscasts, telephone interviews, audio recordings, video all come into play, and holding it all together is the voice of Lia Haddock. As played on the podcast by Annie-Sage Whitehurst, Haddock is your typical intrepid reporter who will stop at nothing to get her story. While we do get captured audio of spooky things that happen to her, none of these events is "outside" the story, so to speak. Everything that we hear has been edited by Haddock and her team -- which only adds to the verisimilitude and the creepiness of it all. This would change in the second season (to the detriment of the story and its effects), but for that first season -- wow! -- it works like gangbusters.

Do yourself a favor this Halloween and make a little time in your schedule for a listen to Limetown. The third episode, "Napoleon," is alone worthy of your attention. It is one of the most heartbreaking, terrifying podcast episodes I've ever heard. Then give the TV series a chance. It is streaming on the Peacock app. Jessica Biel is incredible in the role of Lia Haddock.

Listen...watch...whichever you do after one episode you'll be hooked and begging the answer to the same question as Lia: "What did happen to the people of Limetown?"