The Truth About Jim

I would not call this documentary true crime but instead reality tv. A family documents their attempts to pin infamous murders on their late grandfather (who doesn't even have a criminal record) with no proof other than that he was a bad guy. It's obvious that Jim is not a good person, but that a serial killer does not make. The links are tenuous at best and commentary from all family members is wildly speculative. The documenter cannot provide any conclusion due to this lack of evidence and so it makes you wonder why you're watching at all. A hard pass for any true crime or good tv fan, this is just opinions.

No spoilers here as Jim was not Hitler's baby and really not sure what he was besides a mean guy ag studies teacher as the entire series is conjecture and speculation. I believe he was probably abusive to people and the rest I just have nothing to go on because the series gives us nothing to go on. The detective-narrator, Sierra Barter only tertiarily knows him and tends to be overemotional either for the cameras or herself but it just drags the series to a crawl and is the part that feels disingenuous. And what we are presented with are just basic descriptors of any rural person. Knew how to raise and slaughter animals, knew local area and backroads, carried a knife in the truck, use farm phrasology to threaten etc. It all probably sounds bad to a city person but I have frankly seen and heard much worse about people in the Publix checkout line. Anyway there are a PILE of these kinda murder pr0m docs so just watch something else. It really jumps the shark in the last episode and part of the third. (zomg what was the 20 mins of the lake scene???). I also cannot get over the fact that both HBO and Max signed off on this longwinded story. You know what most serial killers don't have? Hours of film footage (70s pre youtube and phones was a big deal heck my parents probably have a total of ten mins of me growing up) with the family doing family things, a cancer razor, and a cadre of live people aka survivors to talk about them. Sorry I just had to get that part out as it really stuck throughout the series. ALLLLLL of that home footage... Even if this was a podcast I would have been disappointed. I dunno if the powers that be are going to make this a returning series of some sort, but hope it goes through more production scrutiny before we are faced with hours of Sierra sitting in places, open mouthed, and trying to make sense of some feelings or buying a mocha latte (as you do) on your way to visit your mom because the drive is super stressful or her mom has severe IBS issues and keeps coffee out of her house as it is demon poop juice. And finally hire another private eye to put together a nice Kinkos murder info packet for the federales lol. Maybe it is meant to be a Steel Magmolias kinda old women are strong movie but it just feels like the vibe is off the entire way through. I throw my hands up at this one.

One of the worst HBO documentaries ever made.

Mostly conjecture and staged interviews where subjects are more or less fed lines and leading witnesses. The narrative constantly deviates from serial killing into family drama and how men are bad and nobody believed rumours in the 1970s, a time when hearsay dominated life. Evidence shcmevidence it seems the filmmaker is saying.

The entire first episode could be condensed into a 3 minute intro but the filmmaker is too invested in her own namesake and San Francisco trauma to stop.

Just because you can shoot a documentary doesn't make it compelling or necessary.

Far below HBO documentary standards.

The only evidence presented in this "documentary" is pure hearsay with Ms Barter trying to hype up the suspense with over the top narration to lead the viewer where she wants to take them.

This does far more harm than good. Mobs act on feelings and emotions; law enforcement does not.. Feelings are what lead people to shoot up pizza parlor because they think it has a hidden basement where crimes are being committed. Feelings lie.

I'll grant that J Mordecai was probably a horrible person. But to wonder what an FHA instructor who teaches agriculture is doing with a hunting knife and guns is akin to wondering what what a baker is doing with some egg beaters and a rolling pin... It ain't unusual.

I really wonder what the true motivations are for this documentary.

Between the mother who basically called her daughter a liar in the most passive aggressive manner, who ignore countless red flags, who couldn't see what was happening right in front of her, even though he threatened to kill her more times than could be counted, and pretends everything is just fine. You're at least 70, it's blatantly apparent you haven't a lick of sense in your head, despite your years of life.

The granddaughter (Sierra) who seemingly is too completely moronic, I half expected the person she went to with her discoveries to be a psychic. She keeps claiming to not want to bother people, but doesn't bother to do a single bit of research into families of murder victims with no answers, and how desperately they cling to the hope that some day they'll finally get the answer to all the questions. She's constantly putting HER BARE HANDS all over every piece of physical evidence with no thoughts as to evidentiary integrity. She spends far too much time talking about pointless drivel that has no bearing on what this absolute abomination did. WHY DID SHE NOT IMMEDIATELY GO TO LAW ENFORCEMENT? I swear to God all she ever says is 'I'm so freaked out right now!' It's like the worst Scooby-Doo episode ever. So this entire 4-episode snoozefest was an attempt to grift off of Zodiac? STOP. IT.

The daughter who's the mom of Sierra (Shannon)- they disposed of an entire box of possible trophies of victims of Jim, because they were just tired of it all? WHAT?! So there's all these CHILDREN who died and you could hold the key to it all and just 'screw it, I think I took it to a thrift store or something!', like it's totally normal and understandable.

This so-called Zodiac 'expert' by whose account exactly? Because he wrote a book? These people seek out their victims for specific reasons-murderers don't just turn their entire MO on a dime, going from couples to children.

This entire series is so much blather that it's stunning to think it was stretched into FOUR EPISODES. It's not shocking at all that this complete snore is from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer- (what ever happened to Grazer's #MeToo claims?) these two have taken what could have been good subjects to cover and turned them into something that came straight from TMZ or National Enquirer, and spat out over-produced, tacky nonsense that works better for falling asleep than anything remotely related to engrossing television.