dctrainer

Friday nights were always a favorite time growing up. In the 1960's the whole family gathered to watch TV together, not staring at our own seperate devices in different rooms. Rawhide was the first show to watch that evening and if we were REALLY good our parents would let us stay up late and watch Route 66 right afterward. I loved the show for its portrayal of different parts of the US and all the varied jobs the protagonists found, along with the local color, regional characters and accents, and scenery. This episode was great for several reasons: the presence of Sylvia Sidney and Ben Johnson, 2 great film legends; the fracture of Buzz and Todd's relationship; and the back story of both Buzz and Sylvia's character. No matter how much two friends get along in life there will differences and disagreements just like the one shown here between Buzz and Todd. I always liked Sidney since her portrayal of Mrs Verloc in Alfred Hitchcock's "Sabotage" and the way she kills her murderous husband. A long career, all the way to "Beetljuice" and "Mars Attacks" no less. And Ben Johnson? A key part of so many John Ford westerns for decades, his film career capped by his well-deserved Oscar for "Last Picture Show" in 1971, he continued working in film and TV for 2 more decades after this brief appearance that should have been a much bigger role. I'm watching all the episodes in order again for the first time since I was a kid. This series holds up amazingly well in 2025 despite the passage of time. I was lucky enough to end up spending some time in Reno and Carson City as a result of my work decades later and was pleasantly amused at how some parts of those towns hadn't changed all that much since Todd and Buzz stopped there!

Many other reviews fault the series for going too far down the conspiracy theory rabbit holes like the ritualistic/Odinism angles the defense team brought up unsuccessfully. But that's the duty of a defense team, especially in such a high profile, high stakes case as this one. That approach obviously caused unnecessary damage to the lives of some innocent people, but the routine, dogged police work ultimately showed that no one else was connected to the crime. The misplaced tip sheet uncovered by the volunteer staffer is another example of how routine police work often plays an important role, rather than the flashy technology and certainty of DNA analysis too often portrayed on TV.

The defense tried to make this discovery seem as if law enforcement had purposely misconstrued an honest attempt to help the investigation by an innocent man into incriminating evidence against an innocent man. But Allen changed his story several times, a classic mistake that incriminated him further at an early stage of the interview process. That gave greater cause to obtain the warrant to search his residence and find the Sig Sauer .40 caliber pistol, ultimately matched to the unspent cartridge found at the scene of the murder. He hadn't known about the cartridge left behind until the later interview when the investigator pointed it out, along with the markings matching it to his weapon. That revelation apparently caused his first admission and realization that "I'm f**ked". Had that information and other data been released to the public at the outset he would have gotten rid of the weapon to eliminate the most important link between him and the crime. The defense rightfully challenged the exactness of such evidence but not sufficiently to dissuade the jury.

The most important link was Libby's phone. At the start of the investigation, law enforcement ONLY released a single image of the "Bridge Guy" a few feet away from them, and the audio of the suspect ordering them "down the hill". But actually Libby had recorded an unbroken sequence from the "Bridge Guy" walking up behind Abby, then Libby suggesting they move off the path and then the "Bridge Guy" ordering them down the hill. They obviously had become wary of this individual but by then it was too late to save themselves. But most importantly the images and audio place NO ONE else at the scene moments before the murders that even remotely resembles any of the alternative suspects offered by the defense or the conspiracy theorists. The combination of all those elements made it difficult for an acquittal even without the confessions Allen made verbally and in writing, regardless of his mental state when he made them. I think the defense put forth a good effort, but the case against Allen was too good. If the defense could have placed someone else at the scene at the time of the murders with forensic or video/photographic/cell phone signal tower data for instance it would have cast reasonable doubt. But they didn't because it likely doesn't exist or else we'd have seen it by now, especially with an army of online sleuths looking at the case from every angle to come up with exactly that sort of evidence.

Detective Morck is a perpetually irritating jerk to everyone around him. It's his default setting. His assistant, Syrian immigrant Akrim best sums up the situation after one more disastrous encounter with a potential witness by saying: "I'm learning so much from you". His paralyzed, suicidal former partner is even driven to help solve his cold case as the only way to deal with his irritating behavior. The use of two different time lines in the opening episode is a good technique to draw in the viewer. The great supporting cast of Kelly McDonald, Mark Bonnar and Shirley Henderson contribute to the production.