Heavyweight

Heavyweight is Jonathan Goldstein helping someone go back to a moment they cannot stop replaying, to see if anything can still be repaired.

A friendship, a parent, a humiliation at school. Goldstein travels, knocks on doors, and is often the most anxious person in the scene. The jokes are his way of staying in the room.

The series, from Gimlet and later Pushkin, is a high point of personal narrative. The stakes are small on paper and enormous to the person who brought them. Goldstein does not pretend he is a therapist. He is a friend with a microphone and a theory.

Episodes are complete stories. The best ones hurt a little and then resolve into something more complicated than an apology. Hear one, then stop, then hear another.