The Idaho Student Murders

They drag 10min of story and content for 1:40mim documentary.

Not worth it.

Sounds like someone put together what they knew based on instagram headlines. And the "experts" don't really say anything worth while.

Not explaining just bare minimum information.

It's worse than a high school student film.

A bunch of vultures speculating about whether Bryan Kohberger was being railroaded because they didn't have any real information on the investigation, because of the gag order put into place to prevent the press from speculating and getting him railroaded.

These people are the reason there was a gag order.

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.

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.

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.