Atentado en Londres: La cacería tras las bombas del 7/7

Let me start by saying I watch a lot of crime documentaries, and I mean a lot.

This documentary series begins really well, it's a time line constructed by interviews, news reports and expert testimony that lays it all out really well. It explains it really well for people who are unfamiliar with it or weren't born at the time.

It starts falling apart in the 2nd episode. The narration is still there, but it's clearly trying to be as culturally sensitive as possible. I remember that day, and I remember those years. It did feel at times like they were attempting to minimise the extremism that permeated the world at that point. I appreciate the voices from Muslims who were there at the time, who spoke about how it didn't represent them. But despite the victims testimonies, it failed to capture the absolute fear and paranoia that gripped everyday people. Indicating people were unnecessarily 'bigotted' or people being profiled because people are just 'mean' was not needed. And the pointed repetition of 'homegrown' was so on the nose, by the end it was a little silly.

I understand the need to be a little careful when something still is a real world threat. And this is coming from someone with a Muslim partner. But this series really diluted what is a really big problem still.

I didn't know much about 7/7 as I was relatively young when it happened and I didn't care much about the world beyond my neighborhood. Also 9/11 takes most of the attention when it comes to stories about terrorism for obvious reasons, so other terrible events like the London, Boston and Madrid attacks get a distant second spot. So it's good to hear the story of the 7/7 victims and survivors as well as the first responders. I wish the documentary didn't resort to so many production cliches that are so predictable and distracting like interviewing amputees with a closed up shot to later give you a wide shot of his missing legs, the digital clocks counting down and the Minority Report style geo locators with their silly "computer sound". With so much access to material and stories the director could have done something much more interesting and powerful, instead of just copy and paste all the same tricks and artifacts we have seen hundreds of times.

The documentary was fine, not super compelling but generally interesting if not bland.

It is pitiful to watch the relative of the man who was shot by the police. She says the police lied lied lied lied lied, but the story that the suspect jumped over the turnstiles was perpetrated by the public, not by the police. So perhaps you are the liar ma'am.

It is so easy to criticize the police in any situation. In fact the police can almost never win. If you don't do enough, citizens are dying due to terrorist attacks. If you do too much, an innocent life may be taken by accident. You must execute your job with absolute perfection, and then perhaps 25% of the people will think that you did it correctly.

This documentary highlights that people are unbelievably unrealistic and ignorant. In the vast majority of cases, the police are trying their best to do the job and you couldn't do any better.

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. Hi.

So wrong of Netflix to use this calamity to push an anti police narrative. Yes, an innocent person was killed by mistake but those truly responsible for this are the bombers who created the environment and, going further, the political class and elites who allowed people to come to the UK who hate it and want to destroy it.

The police do a very difficult job and should not be prosecuted for mistakes. That would have a chilling effect as it would mean few would want to be police. This suits some activists who hate the police and romanticize anarchy and Netflix has played into these radicals' hands.

The bombers killed over 50 innocent people yet at the end all the director can do is blame MI5 for not stopping it?! Are you serious? What about the bombers themselves, their families, Pakistan who seems to have trained them, governments who have allowed them to enter the UK and the Islamic religion and preachers who encouraged them?? Why aren't these all blamed as well. In some ways, I think they are much more culpable than MI5.

Please let's start to lay blame where blame is due and dispense with political narratives that end up blaming the victims.

Pros:

It focuses on the title "Hunting the bombers" and just that.

Topic is vastly researched and no bias at all.

Cons:

Can do more. It had a lot of potential and did not cover Samatha Lewthwaite at all except in a 3 second photograph.

Post arrest story is missing. How the govt tackled the terrorism groups and after math of it.

As I started the documentary i was pretty excited in anticipation of how the terror group went down. But as I ended the documentary i left with a feeling of dissapointment since the makers have covered only the bombers not people behind them. I believe the victims would want to know how the evil has been tackled by their government.