souplahoopla

I was actually appalled by this documentary, but perhaps I shouldn't be knowing the producers.

This an almost shockingly one-sided "documentary". Id say it was almost more like a piece of propaganda, or an attempt to ret-con history. The amount of time spent on the actual murders and the actual victims (which I think they only actually mentioned or showed 2), were brushed over very quickly at the beginning. It doesn't tell you anything about them really or have testimonials from people who knew them. The victims are not at all important in this feature. The victim in this is Aileen. As per the British producer rules where the serial killer is just so misunderstood *sob*. I thought perhaps this was going to be less about the murders at this point and more about a deep dive into her prior life. But it wasn't really about that either. It was touched upon but it wasn't really a narrative that way either. It ended up being practically 100% pro Aileen narrators talking through her convictions and sentencing. Okay now there was one really interesting premise in this. That her first conviction might have actually been unsound. That is where this documentary should have dug in. That she may have been wrongly convicted of 1st degree pre-planned murder for the first one. And that perhaps this first one was a catapult for the others. Now I think shes guilty certainly, but i also think this may have changed the outcome of her subsequent trials (had she felt the need to contest them but didn't, seeing as she already had the death penalty) to where she would have been remanded for life. There was also a moment in her telephone conversations with her girlfriend that indicated it was perhaps her girlfriend, and not her, that did this. And she just took the fall. Again the "documentary" does nothing about this either. This is shot and constructed well. But a very poor excuse for a "documentary". You'll probably find it interesting but they're insane if they think that you'll come out feeling sorry for a murderer...

I'm coming to the first series in 2025 in Netflix. I don't know the story and I didn't even know it was a book.

I literally started this out of boredom of something to watch, I wasn't particularly interested. But the premise was interesting.

The first episode was really intriguing, a lot of unanswered questions I assumed would be answered. And some inexplicably awkward person who happens to be a surgeon...I guess unicorns exist...

I couldn't even get to the end of the first of the first episode to completely disregard the main character as believable, but I kept with it.

I watched the entire first season. I don't know what the books say, but this show was so entirely disjointed, so shallow, so inexplicably nonsensical..relationships appeared out of thin air, familial reasoning and conflict totally unexplained .

I got to the end of it and honestly had no idea if it was a good or bad ending. And not in a thought provoking way. I genuinely had no idea.

Let me start by saying I watch a lot of crime documentaries, and I mean a lot.

This documentary series begins really well, it's a time line constructed by interviews, news reports and expert testimony that lays it all out really well. It explains it really well for people who are unfamiliar with it or weren't born at the time.

It starts falling apart in the 2nd episode. The narration is still there, but it's clearly trying to be as culturally sensitive as possible. I remember that day, and I remember those years. It did feel at times like they were attempting to minimise the extremism that permeated the world at that point. I appreciate the voices from Muslims who were there at the time, who spoke about how it didn't represent them. But despite the victims testimonies, it failed to capture the absolute fear and paranoia that gripped everyday people. Indicating people were unnecessarily 'bigotted' or people being profiled because people are just 'mean' was not needed. And the pointed repetition of 'homegrown' was so on the nose, by the end it was a little silly.

I understand the need to be a little careful when something still is a real world threat. And this is coming from someone with a Muslim partner. But this series really diluted what is a really big problem still.