Jared from Subway: Catching A Monster

• Directed by Sam Miller
• March 6, 2023
• ID

The story of the investigation that exposed Jared Fogle.

Jared from Subway: Catching A Monster is something I originally turned on just to pass the time as I watch many random crime documentaries and crime shows when I have enough time to relax but not enough time to invest in a film or series. I guess that makes me a murder junkie. They are more background noise than something to get invested in. Big mistake on my part because this quickly became addictive.

We all know at this point that Jared is a creep and it’s hard to imagine now the world where we believed he wasn’t. Yet the thing is at one point he was one of the most liked people in the United States. He had made himself healthy by eating Subway sandwiches which played into our dream of healthy fast food.

Who doesn’t like to see an underdog or just somebody achieving a great victory and he really did achieve a great victory. Fogle was seriously overweight and through a combination of diet and some exercise got himself healthy. And he did it and launched himself into a new career as a pop culture icon. He even started a charitable organization to help children where he employed Russell Taylor as its head after they met at an event.

There was an everyman quality about him. He could be your neighbor. He looked like somebody that was harmless but that was all a lie. This unassuming and unexpected fast-food pitchman was a pedophile and he used his position to engage in that apparently.

This also focuses on one woman named Rochelle Herman who took it upon herself to expose this sicko after he not only came on to her but offhandedly mentioned that he thought middle school girls were hot. This either speaks to a great amount of stupidity on his part or a great deal of confidence that his celebrity and unassuming appearance would shield him from consequences.

While her efforts are the focus she eventually pulls away and it is an arrest of an associate, the previously mentioned Russell Taylor, that gets him arrested. Kind of a letdown there. I knew he was taken down but the details were unknown to me. It felt like a bait and switch. That does not take away from the overall story.

I wish we had gotten more on the Russell Taylor aspect. These were two terrible people that met by chance and that connection allowed them to become far worse. Rochelle Herman is ultimately an interesting anecdote to the story. Her pleas and evidence lead to nothing. However without her story this would have been much shorter. This is still interesting, but I wanted to hear about how he ACTUALLY got caught.

Jared from Subway: Catching A Monster is engaging and engrossing. They let the footage and the people tell the story. They don’t try to lead you to any conclusions, but simply let things unfold. It is certainly interesting and worth a look.