I watched all three episodes last night and they are well done. I have honestly read (in the not-so-recent past) all the books on this case and had come away favorably impressed with Steve Thomas; not so much with Lou Smit. This documentary balanced the scales a little bit, showing me how highly respected Smit was and exposing some of the flaws in Thomas’ thinking.
What was truly interesting is what the BBC (apparently) put together regarding the miasma that is true crime media coverage. I’d like to see a documentary that takes us from the days of the penny dreadfuls to today, examining the changes - for better or worse - in the coverage. The other piece that was interesting about part three was the grand jury investigation, who did/didn’t get to testify, what the results of the grand jury were…and why the DA chose not to prosecute. The heavy divide between the law portion and the order portion were very clearly laid out in ways that are more visible in a format that is (in theory) more even handed than any of the books about the case.
Of course, I headed to Reddit afterwards to see what I was missing, and what had been left out of Berlinger’s opus. There’s a lot. Yes, it’s safe to say that we all want the DNA tested/retested and I hope this Netflix documentary will help push that happening. But there’s still no answer to that ransom note, or why a clear start to the note was still apparent on a different page of the notepad used, or how someone unfamiliar with the layout of the home could have found their way to that basement. TL;DR I still have questions, let’s test the DNA.
I watched all three episodes last night and they are well done. I have honestly read (in the not-so-recent past) all the books on this case and had come away favorably impressed with Steve Thomas; not so much with Lou Smit. This documentary balanced the scales a little bit, showing me how highly respected Smit was and exposing some of the flaws in Thomas’ thinking. What was truly interesting is what the BBC (apparently) put together regarding the miasma that is true crime media coverage. I’d like to see a documentary that takes us from the days of the penny dreadfuls to today, examining the changes - for better or worse - in the coverage. The other piece that was interesting about part three was the grand jury investigation, who did/didn’t get to testify, what the results of the grand jury were…and why the DA chose not to prosecute. The heavy divide between the law portion and the order portion were very clearly laid out in ways that are more visible in a format that is (in theory) more even handed than any of the books about the case. Of course, I headed to Reddit afterwards to see what I was missing, and what had been left out of Berlinger’s opus. There’s a lot. Yes, it’s safe to say that we all want the DNA tested/retested and I hope this Netflix documentary will help push that happening. But there’s still no answer to that ransom note, or why a clear start to the note was still apparent on a different page of the notepad used, or how someone unfamiliar with the layout of the home could have found their way to that basement. TL;DR I still have questions, let’s test the DNA.