Hulu's The Idaho College Murders is not just disappointing-it's a masterclass in how to exploit a tragedy under the guise of "true crime storytelling." What could've been a measured, respectful look at the lives lost and the investigation that followed instead feels like a bad YouTube rabbit hole-written, directed, and edited by people who seem more obsessed with clickbait than truth. This wasn't produced by documentarians. It was assembled by clout-chasers masquerading as filmmakers.
The documentary is offensively sensationalistic from the first five minutes. The music swells in all the wrong places, the reenactments are grotesquely tone-deaf, and the so-called "experts" interviewed throughout? Half of them speak like they're auditioning for a network crime show, delivering overly dramatic lines with all the subtlety of a teenager on TikTok. Their commentary isn't insightful-it's performative. You can practically hear the script notes in the background: "Make it sound more ominous."
What's worse is the blatant misreporting and conflation of facts. Multiple key details are either manipulated or presented out of order, intentionally muddying the timeline in favor of cheap suspense. The editing stitches together unrelated footage, quotes, and soundbites as if the truth is just a secondary concern. The writers and producers aren't trying to inform; they're trying to entertain-and in doing so, they betray both the victims and the viewer.
This isn't investigative journalism. It's emotional exploitation wrapped in dramatic lighting and overproduced voiceovers. The entire production reeks of amateurism and self-importance. It leans hard on regurgitating publicly available information while pretending to offer something revelatory. It ultimately offers nothing new-just a theatrical rehash of details that are already widely known.
In many ways, it feels like a documentary made by Reddit sleuths who stumbled into a production budget. Rather than acknowledge the exhaustive and often thankless work done by real detectives, The Idaho College Murders lifts from that labor, then warps it for shock value. The final product isn't just lazy-it's grotesquely opportunistic.
If you want a real documentary that treats the victims with dignity and presents the facts clearly, skip this Hulu travesty and head over to Amazon Prime. The four-part series One Day in Idaho: The College Murders is everything Hulu's version is not: thoughtful, respectful, well-researched, and grounded in reality. It tells the story without relying on dramatic voiceovers or manipulative edits. It honors the memory of the students instead of mining their deaths for dramatic effect.
To call The Idaho College Murders a documentary is to insult the genre itself. It's not journalism. It's exploitation-thinly veiled and poorly executed. Hulu should be ashamed.
