911 - Quando a Morte Chama

It seems like the ID crime show producers are competing to come up with as many titillating and fast churning productions as possible, each being barely half-baked yet spiced with plenty of ridiculous gore, both visual and verbal.

Such a personal and sometimes terrifying look at crime from the victims perspective. So well told and genuinely freaky to get even a glimpse of what some of these people went through.

I love that this series has the perfect combination of real phone calls incorporated with re-enactment along with the family telling the story of what happened. Series that have the re-enactment dynamic definitely keep my attention & internet. It's easier for me to get drawn in and empathize with the victim & family in scenarios like this.

Stumbled onto this new TV series by accident, and so glad i did. This isn't like your normal crime investigation TV shows, this is REAL 911 calls of the dead/murdered which makes this so much more haunting. Only watched the first episode at the time of this review so hoping the future episodes continue how this one did. Show really goes into details in the evidence and investigation, with real life footage, real police interviews, real witness interviews etc. There are so many CSI shows that are boring and not worth the time, but this is something new and a whole new way of explaining.

Highly recommended.

To hear it said by former Detecetive Joe Kenda (the laconic star of ID's standout Homicide Hunter) reenactment crime is going through the roof in popularity. Judging by the number of programs hitting the 'airwaves' he's right - there are so many cropping up that each new production has to hang its hat on a new conceit or premise in order to stand out from the pack.

In the case of Murder Calls, it's...you guessed it - 911 calls. Each episode starts with a warning that you're about to hear graphic material and that 'viewer discretion is advised' before a 911 call featuring someone in agony is played and they get down to the usual business of inter-cutting interview footage of law enforcement & related characters with poorly rehearsed (though often beautifully lit) scenes of the drama that led up to the 911 caller's demise.

Murder Calls suffers from the same major flaw as its competitors in the genre - it's totally exploitative and made for titillation, more like a scary bedtime story than an insight into the crime itself. Even the graphic warning at the top of the show comes across as more of a tease than an actual warning.

Worst of all, because the producers have painted themselves into a corner by using an emergency call as the hook, they feel obliged to play it over and over again, in sequence, out of sequence, disingenuously re-edited and, most disturbingly, with a variety of sound effects to heighten the 'spookiness'.

In the age of hastily packaged real crime, whether it be reenactment or procedural or a mix of both, there is still room for quality on a budget. The aforementioned Homicide Hunter is proof of that. But Murder Call fails because they have fallen prey to the terrible idea that as long as the audience is happy, the victims don't matter.