Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster

This could have been a powerful 80 minute documentary about Jared Fogle, his life, crimes, capture, and the why of how all this happened. Instead we got nearly an hour of Rochelle Herman, who did a great job helping to catch him, but ultimately her story isn't very interesting. If that entire section was eliminated, this could be much better.

There's also an odd trope where they constantly offer warnings of potentially disturbing language, which every viewer is well aware of at all times. The warnings actually feel like they are trying to sensationalize the horrific nature of the statements Fogle makes.

If it were possible, they should have done everything in their power to avoid having Rochelle involved in this. The story is absolutely compelling enough on its own & although she played a 'key' role in the story she made the documentary almost unwatchable.

This is also yet another documentary that has fallen into the formula of multiple unnecessary episodes when the story could be properly covered in one really well done episode. It's become tiresome that most multiple episode docs are at least 50% fluff and the message loses all of its potency. There's only been a handful that have done a multiple episode layout successfully in my opinion.

The first 2 episodes are filler... a waste of time, build up to 3... they are more about Rochelle Herman than about Jared.

Herman is a hero for stopping Fogle and Taylor.. no denying that. And Fogle and Taylor deserve every single repercussion they've suffered .... if not a great deal more.

However, regarding this series....

All the "meat" in this series is in episode 3. The third episode covers the actual crimes and outcome. Quite honestly there's really not a great deal actual content to watch in the first two episodes - they are just over-dramatized leading... over-dramatized leading.. over-dramatized leading.. over-dramatized leading.. to get to episode three.

Just skip the first two episodes and watch the third, that's all that's necessary.

Note that the FBI, The Indiana State Police, and Fogle family had no participation in this documentary (it's disclaimed). So there are no real tangible legal or investigatory facts presented here beyond what may be already publicly available.

The only "new" facts come in the form of voice recordings which may have never been heard before (I hadn't heard them.) After hearing those.. ANYONE who thinks Rochelle Herman coerced or "tricked" Fogle into ANYTHING is blind to cold-hard facts and is merely kidding themselves.

This *could be* such a compelling story and there's plenty of material here, but my God, why does this 60-year old woman still clinging desperately to her 25-year old self have to be so prominently featured in this?

What Jared did was despicable, disgusting, and disgraceful but she's making this into some salacious soap opera that's completely unnecessary to the telling of the story- she's telling this story like it's a tawdry sex scandal, but this is a predator who actively preyed on children. She's not a superhero but she sure wants to sound like one, desperately trying to make this about HER and how SHE felt, how SHE was doing so much, and SHE was a victim; ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

There's real children involved here, and are willing to tell their stories, their lived experiences and trauma. Instead we're subjected to THREE ENTIRE EPISODES of this woman who clearly has a narcissistic need to be seen, especially when she ACTUALLY ADMITS TO SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING AIRING HER EVIDENCE ON THE RADIO! AND THEN, claims to have PTSD, and again HER STRUGGLE is horrible!! I just cannot understand how in the world the show runners actually thought making this debacle focus on Rochelle was the right direction to go. Did they seriously wonder why no one in law enforcement really wanted anything to do with this nonsense? When your entire premise focuses on a clearly unwell woman with some serious issues and sees no problems with contamination of evidence, corrupting evidence, going public with accusations that are nothing but what would be considered entrapment in a court of law, and leave her open to incredibly damaging to her and her property, having absolutely nothing to do with her unreasonable safety fears.

I have incredible sympathy and compassion for these poor victims- that they're even remotely sane at this point is a great credit to those who surrounded them after this travesty came to light. I am only giving 4 stars for their willingness to come forward and be so incredibly courageous.

Everyone else involved in this catastrophe of a project deserves zero stars. There's no way to fast forward past the sheer volume of Rochelle and her ego, so I can't even recommend doing so but just keep in mind when watching that you're going to find yourself rolling your eyes so hard you'll likely have eye strain.

I hesitate to call this a documentary. It appears completely written and produced by Rochelle Herman, even with "cliffhanger" comments before each pause for commercial break. This could have been a 45-minute show.

I'm guessing here, but screentime per "character" Rochelle Herman: 90 percent Jared Fogle: 4 percent All FBI agents:2 percent Ozzie: 2 percent Others: 2 percent.

I appreciate the lengths Herman went to in order to catch Fogle. It appears, however, that it was done to the detriment of her life and family for a career bump that never happened.

Rework it into a 45-minute documentary and make it available to 60 Minutes.