dctrainer

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.

My wife and I watched this mini-series when it first aired in the 70's. There was a good deal of criticism of the series at the time that it somehow trivialized or sanitized the actual horrors of the holocaust. I understand those views, but they ignore the realities of 1970's network television. That it was produced and aired at all is a minor miracle. Graphic violence and associated imagery has become much more prevalent and acceptable in movies and television since then. There have been many productions in the last 25 years that have touched on the holocaust in much more brutal fashion than this production. And some of these have been criticized for being TOO stark and brutal. Had Holocaust been produced with currently accepted levels of violence and imagery it would never been aired. As a child I had accidentally come across a stack of my father's old copies of "Yank" magazine, including several from spring 1945 as the war was ending and contained completely uncensored photos from various concentration camps. It was pretty horrifying stuff for an 8 year old kid. But I had no illusions from then on about what the holocaust meant, even though that term hadn't come into popular usage. I still have those worn old magazines. In college I had a course in WWII history taught by a former US Army intelligence officer who had served in the ETO until the end of the war and had personally witnessed the horrors of the death camps. He spared no details in covering those horrors. I was surprised at the number of my classmates that had no awareness of that history. If nothing else, a series like Holocaust shines a necessary light on some of the greatest crimes ever committed, even if some consider it a sanitized version. It may be their only entry point to this dark history for a population otherwise unaware of it. The tool of a fictionalized family to illustrate this history may seem a timeworn gimmick, but it does show how denial, disbelief and hope can lead to fatal consequences for innocent and trusting souls. And the character of Dorf, played so well by Michael Moriarity, illustrates how a seemingly 'normal' educated man, initially lacking in any animus toward Jews, can become inured to the idea of mass muder of innocent men, women and children. Every society has its 'willing executioners'.