The revived Unsolved Mysteries series on Netflix doesn’t have the same feel as the old Robert Stack version. Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic rendition of a classic. Rather than give us an hour of television with about four stories lasting ten minutes, each episode of the new Unsolved Mysteries is a single case. I’ve enjoyed most of the episodes consistently with one exception.
Many of the new episodes are focused on true crime, but not all of them. There have been a couple about other mysterious events. The two worst were aliens getting spotted by a bunch of townspeople. There isn’t even an abduction. Who cares?
Unsolved Mysteries can go away from true crime, but enough with the aliens already
The two weakest episodes from the new Unsolved Mysteries program are the ones about the aliens. They’re boring, offer no real insight, and are the most forgettable. I’ll regularly watch a documentary about aliens and enjoy it. When it comes to Unsolved Mysteries, their specialty should be with true crime and the occasional unique monster tale.
I did like the early episode about the people in Japanese water ghosts or whatever they were. In the most recent production, the skinwalkers were creepy. Those are done well. Much like the true crime cases, there is something different about them.
A part of my problem with these alien stories is they are all the same. There is no conclusion in the end. After watching an episode about a crime with some fascinating suspects, the debate over intelligent life flying over a small town in America 25 years ago doesn’t exactly pique any interest. Not a single moment stood out in either episode which is pretty bad.
Back in 2021, I watched all of the original Robert Stack episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. The alien segments were okay. They didn’t make up as large of a percentage as they do in this latest version. Nothing about them stands out or differentiates itself from anything else on extraterrestrials. With so many unsolved crimes, it’s the spot where Unsolved Mysteries should stick their landing.
On a side note, the latest episodes in the Unsolved Mysteries collection felt a little weak. Maybe it’s because I had COVID when I watched the first series back in 2020 that had me feeling the darkness of those crime stories or perhaps I’m a little more jaded and less fearful after watching well over 100 true crime documentaries and series since.
Has the show gotten lazy? I’ll watch this program forever as long as it doesn’t end up on Apple TV+. I’m not paying money for such little quality programming again.
Practically Trouble 
Leave a Reply