Why Did You Kill Me?

I didn't hate this but didn't love it either. It took a little while to reveal that the family is not particularly "clean" when it comes to crime activity but that doesn't mean they shouldn't get justice for their lost loved one. It's kind of a mess. The head of the family, the mother, is kind of messed up, on drugs and in the head. She basically has an underage kid pose as the victim to flush out the bad guys. The kid admits to being messed up emotionally by her role in the whole thing. So it kind of makes it hard to feel sorry for the victim's family especially the mom.

Content aside, the doc is fairly fast paced and relies mostly on interviews with the Homicide detective, the victim's family and some ex gangsters, but it's mostly interviews with a few live clips and some recreations. It lays out the tale concisely and moves it along at a brisk pace, with a fairly bland conclusion in the form of text on the screen to update you "10 years later the mother becomes president of the USA and yadda yadda yadda that's the reason we now have an alien invasion happening at our Mars colony". It glosses over major events that would have been cool to have seen in clips or something.

I watched this because Netflix recommended as one of my top choices but I don't think I would recommend it. I can't think of other true crime docs to watch instead, maybe go watch CSI again. If you skip this one you won't be missing much.

The poor girl's Mum is probably my least favourite person in this whole thing and the film doesn't go far enough to really show that. It feels like it frames too many of the things she does as these well-meaning acts that had unfortunate consequences and not how it really was with her just being a stupid, petulant woman with cognition reduced to ash from her meth abuse that has no ability to think about things in any sort of acceptable way.

As a pharmacist, the first MILLISECOND I saw the victim's family interviewed I just knew meth specifically was involved...it was clear the full story was not being told and their self-victimisation was clearly unreliable. EVERY single person especially the victim's family in this documentary was playing with fire which sadly led to this poor woman's death. The mother admitting she played a huge role in drug selling was disgustingly self-indulgent. This is nothing more than a documentary on the effect of meth in families ft. Gangs .

Yes, it was pacey, but it is like the film adaptation of "This meeting could have been an email".

...a former gang member who witnessed the crime is the only likable non-police character (with the possible exception of the victim's young cousin). I won't disclose his name here, as that would be a spoiler. But I found him to be the most articulate, intelligent, and sympathetic person in this horror story (not including the police). I would actually enjoy learning more about his story, as he seems to have come out the other side of a very rough start in life. Good for him.

In a "documentary" like this, you would expect that the family of the victim would have your full sympathy - surely there are "good guys" and "bad guys," right? Sadly, that's not the case here. The family of the victim (especially that mother!) is not a likable cast of characters. They initially refused to cooperate with the police! I literally had to rewind that part three times to ensure I was hearing it correctly. With a family like that, the poor victim never stood a chance. I am impressed with the restraint the detective demonstrated - if the mother of the victim wouldn't assist with the case, I would have been thinking, "ok, good luck, then!"

If there is anything to be learned here, it is that you reap what you sow. If you are unfortunate enough to be born into a family like that, do your best to get as far away as you can.