WeCrashed on the wreck of WeWork

WeCrashed was one of quite a few big hits from US production house Wondery last year.

WeCrashed was one of quite a few big hits from US production house Wondery last year. The calamitous demise of co-working start-up WeWork is the perfect material for a serialised podcast, with its outrageous wunderkind founder and abundant stories of debauchery and deceit.

There are plenty of twists and turns in here to sustain six episodes, and the Wondery team’s extensive research gifts the series a wealth of interviews and existing material to weave into the story.

But for all that colour and drama, WeCrashed itself is surprisingly predictable and bland. Perhaps I went into this knowing too much, or the endless conveyor belt of true-crime content has dulled my palate, but this show seemed like it should have been more fun.

This is a truly nutty story, and one that has been well covered in print and on television.

I couldn’t help but wonder how it could have sounded if the audio producers flexed their muscles a little more in the edit, and pushed for something that matched the wild energy of the WeWork saga.

There’s certainly nothing particularly wrong with WeCrashed. It’s tightly packaged and thoroughly told. But it is interesting to see shows that feel almost formulaic rise to the top of an increasingly competitive field.

Wondery is a mammoth entity in the podcast ecosystem today, having leveraged an investment from 20th Century Fox and an initial huge hit in Dirty John into a steady stream of successful shows.

Sometimes it feels like there is a new Wondery podcast at the top of the charts every week. With 91 active shows on the latest podcast industry reports, that feeling probably isn’t far wrong.

But I guess maybe that’s the secret to a strong brand: Wondery’s shows simply do what they say on the tin. There’s not much in here by way of surprises, but to expect that might be missing the appeal.

Listen to WeCrashed on your favourite podcast app.

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