Hosted by Starlee Kine Updates occasionally Provider Gimlet Media | Genre humor, human interest Debut May 22, 2015 | |
Opening theme "Those Mysteries"
performed by Sparks | ||
Mystery Show was a Gimlet Media podcast hosted by Starlee Kine. In each episode, Kine solves a minor mystery which cannot be solved with search engines alone. The show was started in 2015, and that year was declared the best new podcast of 2015 by iTunes.
Contents
Mysteries she has solved for the show include why a video rental store closed, and where a peculiar custom belt buckle came from. Along the way, Kine interviews people who may have a connection to the mystery. She also frequently veers from the original topic, asking subjects about more personal and philosophical matters.
In October 2016, Kine announced via medium.com and the show's Facebook Page that she was no longer working at Gimlet Media and that the network would not be producing a second season of Mystery Show.
Reception
Apple named Mystery Show the Best New Podcast of 2015 in their year-end awards.
Episode 3 of Season 1, 'Belt Buckle', was ranked #1 on The Atlantic's list of the top 50 podcast episodes of 2015, with their summary stating that "the episode is unrelenting in its playfulness and joy, but a sense of profundity lies just beneath the surface, bobbing up in the final minutes, when you won’t be sure whether to grin or weep".
Hiatus
After the conclusion of Season 1, no new episodes were released. A January update posted to the show's Facebook page stated that Season 2 was "in the works."
In October 2016, Kine published an update to Medium and to the Mystery Show Facebook page saying that she had been let go from Gimlet Media in April 2016, during the early stages of Season 2's production. The same day, Gimlet published a blog post stating that Mystery Show was "unsustainable to produce and publish on a consistent basis, and therefore Gimlet will no longer produce new episodes of Mystery Show. We are in discussions with Starlee to reach an agreement where she may produce Mystery Show independently of Gimlet."