Killing County

In the documentary "The Killing County", the actions of the Coroner, the Sheriff Department and the Bakersfield Police Department exposes character flaws akin to a modern day "Greek Tragedy" or "Shakespearean Tragedy". There are so many instances of hubris, misplaced trust, pride and lack of self-control.

Damacio Diaz crashes like Icarus, Donny Youngblood's pride and arrogance like Julius Ceasar, etc.

The last "Modern Day Tragedy" film I saw about a homicide of an unarmed citizen was "Fruitvale Station" based on the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant.

It was shocking and surreal how some individuals were intertwined in multiple shootings. You could not have script this to if you tried. This has to become an award winning documentary.

Not really a documentary, the story correctly points out the terrible actions of some police officers but goes on to generalize negativity toward all law enforcement. It finds prejudice on every street corner and ignores the hard working people who work, raise families and pay taxes. It is more of a political viewpoint than a documentary and that is not surprising considering the production company. The cinematography is decent enough. The interviews appear disjointed and again express a point of view rather than simply put forth facts. Bakersfield scenes are well done and the town itself looks like a nice place to live. I do not recommend this show though if one is sensitive to political posturing.

This is a documentary about unintelligent people. Narration is terrible, production is terrible, whole user experience is terrible. Please raise the standards for who appears on televised productions.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

A clear indictment on this disgraceful excuse for policing. Trigger happy cops with no respect for life - judge, jury, executioners.

The series showcases this throughout the series by showing repeat cases where the Bakersfield PD has clearly behaved with gross negligence and then covered for their officers. Perspectives from the victims families are shared, along with reporters who were following these cases at the time.

The disappointing aspect is the direction- they made a creative choice to use paid actors to read testimony and letters and they show these actors on screen who talk to the audience direct. It's so off putting, just read it via voiceover or summarise. It absolutely takes away from the flow. I also don't like the narrators voice or script - it's overwritten.

Certainly, Bakersfield is infamous for its high crime rate, which is 85% above the national average. There's definitely a lot of strain on the police department. But the question remains, why do so many people have to die due to police intervention, and why doesn't the police department put processes into place to stop these deaths? As this document shows towards the end, simply implementing, or updating the guidelines for police officers would have a tremendous impact. This documentary is well-made, well researched, and offers good insight into the effects of aggressive police behavior on ordinary citizens.