What Jennifer Did

This is a decent enough Netflix documentary about the murder and attempted murder of a set of strict immigrant parents and the assault of their only daughter. While the motive appears to be a robbery, or drug related revenge killing there may be more. That is what this one is about. Mostly told through interviews and archival interrogation footage it is not too long and decent enough. Not a real brain twister, but if you like true crime it is worth a watch. I did not find it to be the best or the worst of the real crime documentaries but still very watchable. Telling more would be to provide spoilers, which we don't do.

No pun intended - the run time may not be the longest and yet this could have been way shorter. I think a one hour documentary could have done the trick (again no pun intended). Just tighten everything up and get faster to the point and the "truth". I don't think there is much doubt about what happened ... there may be questions about the why .. but we can't really look into other peoples brains ... so there is that.

So short of someone giving us their reasons for their actions, we won't really know. We can take some educated guesses ... the title already suggest that there is more to the story that the start of the documentary suggests ... that said, maybe you already know of the story - I had not heard of it. So it was quite entertaining and had some interesting twists ... I may be cutting this some slack .. but I am known to be nicer than other reviewers I reckon ... and nice may not be the right way to go here I guess .. but that is another pun to tell ...

Astounding how a large studio with a substantial budget, can't do it better than one guy making YouTube videos. Look up the JCS video on youtube. It's around the same length but goes into this from the criminal psychology angle and absolutely nails it. Netflix tried too hard (as they often do) to ramp up the drama and cinematography and in turn essentially fall flat when it comes to actually giving you what you want from a story like this.

The story of this horrific murder is organically dramatic enough that the erie music is completely unnecessary and takes a lot away from the organic darkness of this case.

Essentially, it's too long for how much it leaves to assumption and too dramatic for how much it takes away from the incident.

Watch the JCS video instead.

I really hope they gave him credit for this, because his was so much better, and they obviously ripped him off. I only watched this because I learned of this case due to JCS. However, after watching this, and comparing to JCS, well it really can't compare. I feel like JCS was more thorough and kept my attention. I also like how he explains Jennifers demeanor and everything, so that you know how the story comes together. He gave a lot more backstory as well. I usually love Netflix, but it's really hard when you watched a really good one, and then you see this one, it just can't compare. I really recommend you watching JCS Criminology on YouTube instead.

If you ask me, I think JCS did much better in composing this case and presenting it through the lense of criminal psychology.

It highlights the most important aspects of the case - all condensed into what Jennifer really thought the solution was. Also, with the bonus of not including the dramatic music in the background that Netflix features in every single crime doco.

I honestly thought watching the case again, this time around on Netflix, I might learn something more. However, after seeing it, Netflix doesn't measure up the slightest to what JCS presented.

For those curious, it's called Jennifer's Solution on YT.