American Nightmare

Another True-Crime documentary from Netflix. It does a good job of presenting the police's point of view in the first episode, expands on what was the truth in the second and third episodes. It's a very bizarre tale, and it's understandable that the police would be sceptical. However, a good example of why multiple leads should be followed in an investigation. Initially, that the boyfriend has murdered his girlfriend. But instead of actually trying to prove this, they devote a great deal of time interrogating the boyfriend. And then when the girlfriend actually shows up alive, deal of time to saying that they created a hoax. But if they had devoted at least some time to actually investigating their story, they may have found the perpetrator. One question I have about the series is that they mentioned that they were kidnapped by more than one person, no only one person has ever been convicted of this crime. That person sent multiple emails to a newspaper claiming that there were two other people involved in the crime. The target of the crime was the boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. Her ex-boyfriend was an FBI agent who was investigating this crime. So why wasn't he investigated? Why was no one following up the leads of the two other assailants? It feels like the investigation is actually incomplete, but the law establishment was happy that they had one conviction, and they didn't go forward to finding the other people responsible for the crime. It's a good examination of what can go wrong when you focus on one theory during an investigation.

This documentary was very intriguing.

The slow start, the presentaion of events and the unbelievable stories led me to thinking, yep this is a Gone Girl copy but for real!

I vaguely remember the story but not the outcome.

The way the couple were individually shown in both police interviews and even the Netflix interviews truly sounded like the kidnapping was not true and actually bizarre.

I placed trust in the police investigation as that has been my point of truth but now find I need remove my bias and think more carefully about jumping to conclusions.

Watch this and draw your own conclusions.

I've been watching too many true crime serial killer things lately and I thought this was just one more of the same.

I was wrong.

It was not what I expected and after watching it I was sort of breathless.

Holy moly!

I did not at all remember this although clearly it was on the national news.

Here I am 24 hours later and still shaking my head.

How could a thing like this happen?

It's shocking and disturbing.

I really feel for the victims here. It could happen to any of us.

This is made very cleverly. I don't even want to say much more than that. We come to stories like this with firmly held preconceived notions.

But things are sometimes not what they seem.

I would have given this a 10 except at some (few) points it drags a bit. So a 9 but highly recommended.

"American Nightmare" is a short documentary that enrages you, not because it's a low-quality production - it's quite the opposite: It enrages you because it does an effective job of exposing injustice and incompetence from authorities who are supposedly here to serve and protect. You are reminded of the barriers women face when victimized. This is why most do not report. To this day, even post-Harvey Weinstein and the strong feminist movement, female victims are still not believed. It's easier to just forget that this is happening in our society, but thanks to good documentaries like this one, we are reminded that not only do victims get victimized twice, the law enforcement victimizers are actually rewarded and not punished for their smug incompetence.

As Episode 1 of "American Nightmare" (2024 release; 3 episodes of about 45 min.) opens, we are introduced to Aaron and Denise, a couple in their late 20s in Vallejo, CA. Then shockingly, Denise is kidnapped in the middle of the night, and Aaron doesn't call 911 until the next afternoon... At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Felicity Morris ("The Tinder Swindler"). Here she reassess events from 2015 when a woman is kidnapped (or was she?), and the boyfriend is an immediate suspect by the Vallejo PD and the FBI. I had not heard of this true crime case before, and it is super plot heavy, so the less said on that, the better. I will simply comment that once again if this was presented as fiction, it would lack credibility. But facts are stranger than fiction. Morris does an outstanding job presenting all the different aspects, and doesn't waste a second. My only complaint is the series' title, which is unnecessarily generic and surely someone could've come up with something more relevant.

"American Nightmare" started streaming on Netflix a few days ago. I watched all 3 episodes in a single setting. If you are in the mood for a kidnapping case that is bizarre, to say the least, but along the way makes for riveting viewing, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.