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Reviews
Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini (2024)
Good exposé
I learned a lot of stuff that I hadn't heard in the media and other true crime shows. At first I questioned why it needed to be 3 parts but I get it now. There is just a lot there to unpack. Sherri is a loon obviously. I can't imagine how someone could do the things she did and live with herself. One of the things that really hit me hard is, after Sherri returned, when she eats something with a bit of hot sauce and she starts coughing and reacting to the hot sauce, her poor little boy starts crying. It was heartbreaking. She put her family through hell. I hope the family is able to move forward without her. I suspect they'll never have any rational reason for why she did what she did and that would be tough to deal with.
Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders (2022)
Probably decent for people who know nothing about this case
Others have already said it so I won't spent a lot of time belaboring it - Kristin Chenoweth should not have been made the focus of this show for all kinds of reasons.
Anyway, I was a 9 year old boy in Tulsa when these murders occurred and it's the first real crime case I can remember. The case was very impactful on my childhood as these were kids my age and it was the first time I'd heard of real violence being committed like that. So I was curious to watch this series to see if I could get some new info or findings. For someone who doesn't know anything about this case, I can see how this would be a good high-level review of the events. But for someone who already knows a lot about the case, the only thing that was new for me was the revelation about the DNA testing results. Otherwise, I spent my time fast forwarding through the Chenoweth stuff looking for the next tidbit of info. It could've been edited down to maybe 2 episodes which would've made it better.
Unknown Visitor (2019)
I've seen worse but not many
Just pretty poor all the way around. I guess they figured every other kind of camera had been used for a found-footage film so why not a single security camera. At least there isn't any shaky-cam footage which is nice. But the whole promise is ridiculous. If you've decided you've committed a crime immediately in front of the security camera, at some point one of them would've said "hey, we should probably delete all that video that shows us actually committing said crime". But that would've made this movie not possible so we have to suspend that amazing flaw in logic.
The Devil You Know: A Twisted Mind (2011)
Interesting episode but it's amazing how some people operate
I wasn't familiar with this particular story. One thing that stuck out to me was that, because Terri had been in abusive relationships before, she decided that it would be a smart move to test Gillis by initiating an argument and then slapping him in the face to see how he would respond. I have no idea why that would be considered a good idea. He didn't attack her in response - he actually cried and left the room and her response was "now I know I'm safe with him because he didn't hit me back". But now he's wondering if he's safe with her. And what if he actually was violent with her and beat the tar out of her in response? People make weird decisions.
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)
Way too drawn out
It's almost like they were contracted for 4 episodes but they only had 2 episodes worth of information and video so they stretched in beyond the breaking point. They spend sooooooo much time talking about the elevator video and rehashing the same points. Every YouTuber wanted to put in their .02 but their take was exactly like the previous 5 youtuber's takes. This is an interesting case and I recall when it happened. It might have been decent documentary had it been half as long but it just got annoying and repetitive.
Unmasking a Killer (2018)
Good documentary about the hunt for and apprehending of one of America's worst killers
This is a very effective series documenting the hunt for The Golden State Killer. Lots of detail is provided and it's done in an engaging way. My only real criticism is that they barely mentioned true crime author and blogger Michelle McNamara who was so integral to the investigation that its very unlikely DeAngelo would've been caught without her tireless effort. McNamara gave her life for this investigation in a very real way.
Tenet (2020)
Not Nolan's best effort
I generally like Nolan's work - Prestige and Inception probably being my favorites. However I feel he missed the mark here. For most of the movie I felt like my hearing was going bad. The dialogue was almost constantly muddled by a combination of bad accents, speaking through masks and the extremely loud soundtrack. The first thing my wife asked me was "did you understand much of what was said?" so I knew it wasn't just me. And this is not the kind of movie where missing dialog will work. I can't remember the last time I watched an English language film and wished the whole time it had subtitles. I suspect that even if I could understand what was being said, the plot was still overly complicated. I didn't really care whether they saved the world or not. And even the "good guys" seemed like they were morally corrupt clear up to the end. This was doubly disappointing because there has been so little new content due to the pandemic that I had really looked forward to this. At least the visuals were relatively interesting.