Doctor, pilot, suitor, murderer? Exes compare notes in The Girlfriends podcast — review

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At first, Bob Bierenbaum seemed quite the catch. A surgeon who could speak five languages, he was at the top of his field and frequently travelled via a private jet that he piloted himself. When Carole Fisher, a divorced single parent from Las Vegas, began dating him in the mid-1990s, she was delighted, as was her mother who always wanted her daughter to get together with a Jewish doctor. But then Fisher discovered that Bierenbaum had a short fuse: he yelled at her after she broke a glass at his home, and falsely accused her of giving him syphilis after noticing a rash on his hands. After six months, he called off the relationship.

But the story doesn’t end there. Fisher had learned that Bierenbaum had an ex-wife, Gail Katz, who was missing, presumed dead. Wanting to know more, she teamed up with another of his ex-girlfriends, Mindy, to discover the truth. Their findings led to the creation of a new nine-part podcast hosted by Fisher.

In The Girlfriends we hear from the women who dated Bierenbaum and suspected something was amiss. We also hear from Katz’s sister, Alayne, who tells of Gail’s stormy relationship with the surgeon. As she tells it, Bierenbaum sought to control every aspect of his wife’s life, and once tried to drown her cat on the grounds that she was too fond of it. After Gail disappeared, Alayne was convinced that Bierenbaum was responsible and resolved to bring him to justice.

True crime podcasts have evolved since the early days of Serial, when hosts and producers salivated over the details of murder cases without giving due time to the victims. The Girlfriends takes pains to tell Gail’s story with sensitivity (the series has been made in collaboration with the domestic violence charity NO MORE).

But despite its good intentions, the series never quite hangs together. Having Fisher as its presenter is the first error. In the opening episodes she is both host and interviewee as she is quizzed by the series producer Anna Sinfield about her relationship with Bierenbaum. Fisher is a compelling interviewee but, as a first-time podcast host, she lacks the required charisma and naturalism.

The tone is also wildly uneven. At the start, it is that of a comedy caper as Fisher paints Bierenbaum as a larger-than-life man who is every Jewish girl’s dream — a doctor, with his own plane! — and who, on visiting her parents for dinner, insists they buy in live lobster. But as events take a dark turn, the series suddenly becomes solemn and emotional. I have only heard the first four episodes, so there is still time for it to find its feet. But currently, in trying to be all things to all people — comedy, murder-mystery, meditation on domestic abuse — The Girlfriends is just a bit of a mess.