Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster

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.

As others have said better than I will, this could have been a better documentary, a shorter documentary, if edited a bit more. After the second episode, I was wondering why this was entitle "Jared from Subway," instead of "Rochelle Rochelle." She did have a lot of guts turning Jared in, but too much time spent on how it affected her. Maybe a little less of that and more about how Jared was arrested and sentenced by the court, and where he ended up. The actual consequences he faced were covered in about five minutes at the end of the third episode. I would have liked to know more about his circumstances now and when he'll get out.

I watched this movie to learn something about this 'Jared' guy and what his crimes were. Yes, I could have went to the search and found out the depth of what he did, just like I could go to the internet and find out the who's and why's of Jeff Dahmer, Ted Kaczynski, the Catholic Church, etc...to find the gory details. In this case, I was ok getting a story. No, it wasn't the typical 'documentary' style detailing the official police case, with many of the people involved at that time giving 'testimony' on camera, re-telling the case. Here, it is told by one person, a central figure in identifying this guy (and friend), with support from others who have first hand accounts of who these folks were and the case against them. Sure, as with any 'history', it's narrator sounds sanctimonious, but I can see past that to find out much of what I need to know...and YIKES! I didn't know, until now.

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.

This is gross and upsetting and disgusting, I wish there were more we could do so people like Jared never sees the light of day ever again, but this was all about Rochelle Herman, when she's making these tapes with Jared saying absolutely disgusting things she's like very complicit with him like they were a couple plotting out who to stalk next, I felt her to be going along with this over YEARS! And what exactly did the wife of Russell do to get MORE jail time then Jared? Absolutely disgusting and I pray for the survivors. And why didn't the FBI help more when she went to the local police? And where was her ex husband? Just so many open ended questions.