The Fatal Voyage podcast premiered last year with an “audio documentary” investigation into the 1981 death of Natalie Wood, and...oof, I almost typed “made a splash.” Let’s go with “made headlines” instead, as it purported to offer “new evidence that suggest[ed] a conspiracy” in the actress’s untimely death. Now it’s back for a second season, returning last Tuesday with the first episode of its “Diana: Case Solved” season -- and a new host, Colin McLaren, at the mic.

I didn’t know FV S2 had dropped an episode, and when I got a PR blast about it, I almost deleted it unread, and here’s why: I’m no more knowledgeable about Princess Diana’s life or death than the next Yank, but it does strike me that coverage of the latter that attempts to make the tragedy an actionable event -- particularly 22 years on -- is a misguided attempt to deal with the loss we as a culture still feel of a lovely and beset figure who tried to be everything we needed, and usually succeeded, rather than proof that something more sinister than a horrible car crash occurred. Diana could very well have been murdered by arms dealers, but Occam’s Razor, plus the way the culture tries to criminalize the deaths of the famous as a way to keep them in front of us (see also: Cobain, Kurt), suggests otherwise. That said, something made me skim the email, and when I spotted the name Colin McLaren, I paused.

McLaren is a former Detective Sergeant from Australia whom I remember from one of the gazillion specials on the JFK assassination that came out in 2013, JFK: The Smoking Gun. That one was kind of a nesting-doll narrative -- McLaren walking us through a book by Bonar Menninger about the theory of a ballistics expert, Howard Donohue, on how JFK really died -- and McLaren didn’t add much, but I will tell you that, once I’d read Menninger’s Mortal Error, I never had another doubt as to what happened in Dealey Plaza that day, and if you can get through some of the dry-ish accounting of test and control firing angles and meters per second and whatnot, you won’t either. It’s a solid book and the only hypothesis that makes sense IMO. All that by way of saying that McLaren attaching himself to that project was, yes, probably partly ambition and desire to move copies of the companion volume, but also indicated to me that he had the taste and sense to go with one of the less damply reverential (or twitchily bonkers) retrospectives on offer…

...and I’m far more inclined to give Fatal Voyage/Diana: Case Solved a listen knowing he’s involved. He’s a little gassy, on camera anyway; think “the Aussie version of David Starkey on Monarchy” (don’t at me; I actually liked that programme and Starkey). But if there is a case to solve of a criminal nature, I think McLaren will find it, and if there isn’t, I think McLaren will say so. And also if there isn’t, maybe this will let those who can’t seem to unstick that conspiracy from their craws have a little peace with Diana’s passing. ...Are you guys going to listen? Did you listen to the first season? Hit me in the comments. -- SDB 

The trailer for Lifetime’s The College Admissions Scandal has dropped. Given the straightforward title, I’m sure you can guess what this show is about…it’s where to begin that sets one’s head spinning. Penelope Ann Miller and Mia Kirshner apparently did something very bad in another life, as they’re in this bargain-basement-looking thing playing two seemingly fictional moms named Caroline and Bethany, and some beefy guy I do not recognize (I honestly thought it was Treat Williams for a second; reader, I was wrong) plays Rick Singer or a fictionalized version thereof.

It does not look good, so the big question is if it’s bad enough to be fun. We’ll find out on October 12 at 8 PM, but the window to come up with a drinking game for the show opens right this moment, in the comments. -- EB

The new season of A Wedding and a Murder launches tonight. If you feel like Season 1 just ended, you’re not wrong: The show made its debut in June, and was apparently so successful that the second season was rolled straight into production. On a weekly basis, the series -- which is not a take on Hulu’s unfortunate adaptation of Four Weddings And A Funeral (more’s the pity, because no jury would convict anyone who took Duffy out) -- covers a relationship that "disintegrates into betrayal, devastation, and ultimately ends in murder,” Oxygen’s website claims. Which, isn’t that the situation with most homicides? Show me a series about people who expect to be murdered when they get married and we’ve got a show worth watching, right?

Setting my cynicism about true-crime anthology show frameworks aside, there are some cases in the show’s second season that I like the looks of. One episode will be on John and Linda Sohus, which is a fascinating case in which a man named Christian Gerhartsreiter -- who pretended to be a member of the storied Rockefeller family for over two decades -- allegedly killed the couple. (Writing for Vanity Fair, Mark Seal penned a fantastic piece on the case back in 2008; you can read it here.) Monday’s premiere airs at 9 PM, and after that it’ll run at 8 PM on a weekly basis. -- EB

Rob Moor, the host of the Over My Dead Body podcast, says that he spent five days living with the subject of its second season. Season 2 of the popular true-crime pod kicked off on August 27, and we’re already four episodes in, which does nothing for the ongoing feeling of overwhelm I have when I look at Overcast and see how much stuff I need to listen to.

This time around, it’s about Joe Exotic, the exotic animal breeder and roadside zoo owner who earlier this year was found guilty of two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 federal wildlife charges. Moor says that as he reported out the story he “spent five days with Joe and lived in the trailer at the zoo and followed him around all day and all night. We got lunch together, dinner together, then we'd hang out, go to bed, wake up the next morning and do it all over again.”

I think this podcast is probably very good, but I’m not going to listen to it -- according to its producers, it contains “descriptions and sounds of animal abuse,” which Moor says had to be included because “we couldn't gloss over the ugliness.” Fair enough, but for me, that’s a non-negotiable. If you’re like me and can’t see or listen to animal abuse, but can handle it in text form, Moor also wrote a juicy longread on the case that ran on Intelligencer just last week. I’ll stick with that version, and you guys can listen and tell me how the podcast is, okay? -- EB

Tuesday on Best Evidence: A true crime pod drops its transcripts, which will maybe help with our backlog? (Or not.)

What is this thing? This should help.

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