Caso no resuelto: Los asesinatos del Tylenol

I never cease to be amazed that there isn't a set of obvious guidelines and ground rules that documentary makers follow. One of those would be to keep the audience apprised of the timeline.

This documentary flips back and forth, mostly seemingly between 1982 and 1986, when two events occurred. Of course there was coverage after that and some from the present day. At times it was unclear what the timing was for a particular scene. This makes the story harder to follow for viewers. You can do better.

Apart from that, it was an interesting subject that I recall from my youth. I did not recall the resolution of it, such as it is, so it was interesting to get a more complete story although we still don't have the full story do we?

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.

The docudrama skipped over all the other products that were tainted with cyanide, not connected with J&J. There were other states involved. Little mention was made of copycat possibilities, though this was known to have occurred. There was no mention of the investigations in these other suspects, including those involving Ted Kaczynski. Lab chemicals 500 feet from manufacturing seem like a large separation, not a small one. I would like to have seen a Netflix investigation into the retail and wholesale parts of the product chain. I don't recall if the murder in Kansas City was ever solved or if that was dropped. Certainly, the issue was left dangling, leaving the viewer to jump to conclusions.

The strength of this true crime documentary is the random evil of the underlying crime and the bizarre machinations of its prime suspect. When the documentary hews close to the facts it's harrowing and fascinating. Unfortunately it too often falls into the trap of peddling a conspiracy. The conspiracy is presented in a way that makes it sound convincing; but pretty quickly it becomes apparent that not only does the conspiracy have no substance, there's no attempt to explain the mechanics of what's being alleged or counter the evidence that contradicts it. It's ultimately pretty tedious and it doesn't lead anywhere convincing.

Chicago medics are shocked when several healthy people die unexpectedly. The only link is that they'd all taken Tylenol. Investigations uncover a shocking truth: the Tylenol capsules had been laced with cyanide. Early indications are that James Lewis is the man, especially since he sent an extortion letter to Johnson & Johnson.

It's a very well-made documentary that isn't afraid to throw in a few controversial talking points, including the potential involvement of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

It's chilling to think that nobody was ever caught for it, someone or some organisation quite literally got away with murder, unfortunately I don't think we'll ever learn what happened.

There are some fascinating interviews, especially the words of potential killer James Lewis. I thought Michelle Rosen was absolutely fantastic: courageous, honest, and not afraid to call out corruption where it exists.

As for James Lewis, while listening to him speak, I just don't think he has the mental clout to carry it out, especially given the deaths that occurred once Johnson & Johnson had added all of those safety precautions to their Tylenol products.

7/10.

This Netflix documentary began very well and, in the first episode, presented a fair and balanced and reasoned telling of the facts of this case.

Then, they introduced two 'reporters' with axes to grind and a relative who decided to play the true-crime game, and it all spiraled into conspiracy theories and let's bring down a big corporation.

Clearly, if Johnson & Johnson had been responsible for the contamination in the McNeil plants, thousands, or hundreds of thousands, would have died nationwide.

In addition, J&J's response is still taught in business schools and crisis management as a model for how to deal with catastrophic situations like the deadly tampering in this case.