Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes’ On HBO, A Docuseries Based On Ronan Farrow’s Podcast About The Harvey Weinstein Case

Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes takes the episodes of Ronan Farrow’s 2019-20 podcast Catch And Kill, about how he broke the sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein, and recreates it into a narrative-driven docuseries. Even if you think that translating a podcast into a docuseries is a recipe for a boring docuseries, you may change your mind after watching this one.

CATCH AND KILL: THE PODCAST TAPES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see the words of Harvey Weinstein, and hear his voice as he tries to order model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez to stay in his hotel room. “Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes,” says the intimidating voice of Weinstein.

The Gist: The first episode has to do with Gutierrez, and how she was asked by the NYPD to wear a wire to a meeting with Weinstein in 2015, after she reported that her groped her. She talks to Farrow about her harrowing experience during both meetings, especially during the second meeting, when he invites her up to his New York hotel room, then makes her completely uncomfortable as he says he’s going to go take a shower.

But Gutierrez, who was embroiled in the “bunga bunga” party scandals that brought down Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, had more than enough savvy to deal not only with Weinstein, but the backlash she would get once the tapes she provided — where he admitted to groping her — got buried by the Manhattan DA’s office and her name was leaked to the press.

Farrow narrates the story, talking about how the two of them met, how — despite signing an NDA when she sensed her younger brother was being threatened — she managed to make a backup recording and save it from the clutches of Weinstein’s lawyers, and how she “gave” Farrow the recording without actually leaving an electronic trail that she did.

In the second episode, Farrow talks to veteran entertainment reporter Kim Masters and New Yorker media reporter Ken Auletta, who both circled the Weinstein story for years, but never had enough concrete evidence to nail him in print. The story Farrow stitches together with these interviews — along with snippets of ones he did with Weinstein accusers Rose McGowan and Rosanna Arquette — is how he was able to utilize these colleagues during his investigation, and how they were helpful because they knew that Farrow had the goods via the Gutierrez recording. It also recounts how and why the investigation, which he was doing for his then-employers at NBC News, ended up being published in The New Yorker instead.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Not in form but in function, Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes methodically sets out its case very similarly to Allen v. Farrow, which of course have Ronan Farrow in common.

Our Take: If you look at the descriptions of the episodes of Farrow’s podcast, you can see that Farrow followed themes in those episodes, as well. But Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, rejiggers the episodes and adds in news footage, stock footage, and footage of the podcast interviews to tell the story from both Farrow’s perspective and the perspectives of the people involved in the Weinstein story.

It tracks the story of Farrow’s investigation starting with Gutierrez, mainly because she wore that wire in 2015, more than two years before Farrow’s article came out. By starting there, the directors give the story a logical starting point, even if it’s in the middle of the case’s chronology. Because of Gutierrez’ savvy, she was the only person who had Weinstein on a recording admitting to sexual assault. It was just that her “reputation” from the Berlusconi scandal, which Weinstein’s investigators dug up, made the DA’s office think that she wouldn’t be a reliable source. Of course, that wasn’t fair — “Did you hear the tape?” she asked them more than once — but that’s also what led her to seek out Farrow.

The way the episodes are structured goes through Farrow’s investigation, his issues with NBC News’ cold feet about airing the story as he got closer to finding proof on Weinstein, how it eventually came to light, and the aftermath. Even though the repetitiveness of some of the stock footage — closeups of recorders, Farrow looking at papers behind a microphone but not talking into it — might get old, the story is structured in a way that brings viewers in immediately, giving them information on it that they may not have known if they didn’t read Farrow’s book or listened to his podcast.

Sex and Skin: All we can say is that listening to Weinstein say he’s going to take a shower then try to intimidate Gutierrez into staying in his room while he did it was truly scary.

Parting Shot: Farrow previews episode 2, where he speaks to Masters and Auletta.

Sleeper Star: Guttierez for sure. She not only helped bring down one powerful man, but two. And the fact that she was able to make that backup recording and keep it out of the hands of Weinstein’s attorneys made all the difference in nailing Weinstein on assault chages.

Most Pilot-y Line: For some reason or another, we were driven a little nuts by how different the microphone setups were during each of Farrow’s interviews. Our guess is that he found a studio or setup that was convenient to his guests, which is why they all look different. But it drives the audio nerd in us crazy, especially when it looked like Auletta was 2 feet away from his microphone.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you want to see and hear how Farrow managed to pin proof of sexual assault on Weinstein when other excellent reporters couldn’t, Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes lays that process out well.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Catch And Kill: The Podcast Tapes On HBO Max