This 3-part documentary series is what you get when you combine the premise of the gritty Forensic Files with slick Hollywood production values, and manipulative Hollywood storytelling -- interesting to watch but ultimately not very good, and pretty offensive in the liberties it takes with a sensitive topic.
The main problem with the series is that it deliberately hides information from the viewer (until the very end) that the cops knew all along, in order to create a false sense of suspense about how it was going to turn out. (I lived in LA at the time this happened so I remembered the initial conclusion of the investigation, but the show was working so hard to pump up the expectation that there was going to be a huge twist that I kept thinking: something must have come out since I originally followed this story). But no: they were just being deliberately misleading in order to create "drama".
The exaggerated focus on the "web sleuths" is unwarranted, and is only used in the service of peddling misleading conspiracy theories to the audience for 3 episodes in order to create false suspense.
The whole filmmaking strategy would be typical Hollywood cheese in a fictional film, but it's just plain unethical to do that in a documentary.
Many... and I mean MANY... of the characters come off very badly, and they come off badly as a result of the way the filmmakers use them, not because they are necessarily bad people. Again, it's simply unethical for documentary filmmakers to take advantage of the naivety of subjects, interview them, then chop the interviews up in a way that makes them look worse than they probably are in real life. In one case they film recreations of a web sleuth in a creepy green light that makes the guy seem like a serial killer or something -- in real life he is just a regular guy in his apartment, albeit one obsessed with the news story.
All those things aside, the Forensic Files is simply far more gripping television, despite the complete lack of production values. That series' matter of fact approach leaves room for the viewer to generate their own theories, to become emotionally wrapped up in the subject, and to make their own decisions about how to interpret facts and characters. The paint-by-numbers Hollywood approach here leaves you feeling like you are being led around by the nose on a deliberate wild goose chase for no other reason than that, perhaps, the real story didn't have enough content to fill up 3 hours of television. At least, 3 hours of "crimefighting" television.
The main problem with the series is that it deliberately hides information from the viewer (until the very end) that the cops knew all along, in order to create a false sense of suspense about how it was going to turn out. (I lived in LA at the time this happened so I remembered the initial conclusion of the investigation, but the show was working so hard to pump up the expectation that there was going to be a huge twist that I kept thinking: something must have come out since I originally followed this story). But no: they were just being deliberately misleading in order to create "drama".
The exaggerated focus on the "web sleuths" is unwarranted, and is only used in the service of peddling misleading conspiracy theories to the audience for 3 episodes in order to create false suspense.
The whole filmmaking strategy would be typical Hollywood cheese in a fictional film, but it's just plain unethical to do that in a documentary.
Many... and I mean MANY... of the characters come off very badly, and they come off badly as a result of the way the filmmakers use them, not because they are necessarily bad people. Again, it's simply unethical for documentary filmmakers to take advantage of the naivety of subjects, interview them, then chop the interviews up in a way that makes them look worse than they probably are in real life. In one case they film recreations of a web sleuth in a creepy green light that makes the guy seem like a serial killer or something -- in real life he is just a regular guy in his apartment, albeit one obsessed with the news story.
All those things aside, the Forensic Files is simply far more gripping television, despite the complete lack of production values. That series' matter of fact approach leaves room for the viewer to generate their own theories, to become emotionally wrapped up in the subject, and to make their own decisions about how to interpret facts and characters. The paint-by-numbers Hollywood approach here leaves you feeling like you are being led around by the nose on a deliberate wild goose chase for no other reason than that, perhaps, the real story didn't have enough content to fill up 3 hours of television. At least, 3 hours of "crimefighting" television.