The Idaho Student Murders

As "The Idaho Student Murders" (2025 release; 87 min.) opens, it is "November 13, 2002" and we are in "Moscow, Idaho", home to the campus of the University of Idaho. The place is described as "the typical college town", and there hasn't been a murder in Moscow in YEARS. We are then introduced to 4 students and close friends, all attending the University of Idaho. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this true crime documentary is directed Catharine Park ("Wanted Man"). Here she reassesses the brutal 2022 murders of 4 students at the University of Idaho: who did this? How? And why? I am sorry to report that what could've been a super interesting documentary is alas far from it. Way too much time is spent on remembrances of the 4 victims by family and friends. And without spoiling anything, I can also add that seemingly obvious questions regarding the efforts to find who did this, are never addressed. From just a quick glance, there apparently are several other documentaries and/or documentary series streaming on other platforms about these events. I didn't watch the others, and don't plan to either. As for the reviewer who rates this 10 stars (an absolute PERFECT score for apparently the BEST documentary EVER), a reality check may be in order.

""The Idaho Student Murders" started streaming recently on Peacock, and I just watched it the other night. It makes for a quick watch, but even with that, I'm not so sure I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in these events. Instead you may want to check out some of the other documentaries on these events currently streaming on Amazon Prime, HBO Max, etc.

Cheesy, but not NewsNation or Youtube chessy. Not exactly inaccurate, but relies a lot on input from "experts" and some second-rate "journalists" that verge on sensationalizing this horrific crime. Interviews of victims' friends and family are touching and real. Review of evidence up to the change of plea are accurate, and there is a thorough account of Kohberger's life and personality - interviews with women who knew him are valuable. There are interesting forays into his possible 'femicidal' motivations, and his background as a crimininology student. Sharp intakes of breath at the beginning of each new segment were especially gratuitous. It's so easy to exploit a crime like this, and since I live where this took place, I am always critical of this Dateline kind of approach. We want to heal.

This documentary is frustrating for a few reasons!

1. This is still an ongoing case. They could've waited for the actual trial to take place before releasing this documentary. But instead, it decides to release a month before the actual trial, it will probably release a sequel after the trial. Why not just combine it into one full long documentary, I don't know why they decided to split it up!

2. Most the documentary, there just wasting time to just fill in runtime. Right from the start you tell us who this criminal is. But then you tell us the journey on how you discover that, still trying to convince us its not him although you told us it was him from the start!

3. There's a lot of moments where I'm like yes, this is well put together. But there's also a lot of other moments, when people you're interviewing are not people should be interviewing for a documentary. Such as a social media influencer! Theres a million other people you could've done, but since you want to do a sequel to this documentary. You have to meander for most of it.

And that's where the main problem comes across for this documentary, it's not completed. Most of it is is wasting time because it's not the full story. You don't have a full story to tell yet. They could've waited for a trial, but instead milked all the set up before the end.

Does the documentary do its job? Yes, I was hooked the entire time, I was invested in this case and I wanted to see how it ended.

But that has not happened yet.

I Tend to be hooked to these type of documentaries, so I still enjoyed it. I still want to see what happens next, but frustrating on how the final product was made.

Using the strange sound of a man heavily breathing made this almost unwatchable. Four people were killed and you putting a ridiculous track in the background took away from the seriousness and the honoring the victims. The young reporter who was talking to Kaylee's brother had an awful smirk on her face. I don't know why she was smiling while he described his inability to grieve. The author who wrote a book mid trial was the featured speaker and why? He could have jeopardized the trial and sounds like he embellished to make a buck. There are better documentaries that tell the story of Kaylee, Zana, Maddie and Ethan much more respectfully. Head to Amazon to watch.

This documentary does a great job being informative while also being victim focused. It's beautifully shot and very well put together. I learned a lot I didn't previously know about the case. The B roll of Idaho was beautiful - I really feel like I've been to Moscow, Idaho now. The animations of Brian's psychological symptoms were another unique, original touch. Likewise, the animation of the victims' house was unlike things I've seen in other crime shows - which is saying something since I watch a lot of crime shows! I hope they make another episode or podcast with follow up now that he has confessed. 10 stars for sure.