Here is where I have a personal-bias; I’ll often not bother with a true crime documentary if the name of the person in the title sounds like it might not be American. It doesn’t make me a bad person. Many of these documentaries I watch are viewed while working. I’ve mastered the art of being proficient at work while being able to absorb film and television. There’s always the pause button in case something important comes up.
When I saw a new one from Netflix, Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil, I figured this would be a French or Canadian crime story. I was right on the former. This true crime series is a new one taking place in French and Belgium. Fortunately, Netflix has wised up and is now giving the option to go with the dubbed version. Rejoice! I was able to watch.
But was my choice the right one? I usually try to watch new crime films or series as soon as they arrive so I can brag to my non-existent friends about it. I took a chance on this one without knowing much about it. Was it any good?
What was good about Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil
This is a dark documentary. It deals with the titular Monique and Michel Fourniret. The two become a couple while Michel is locked up. Monique is a lonely woman willing to look beyond his rape conviction. In fact, as the story unfolds, we come to learn that she might be just as sick and twisted as him. Together, they abduct, rape, and murder multiple women. The actual number of victims is unknown, totalling at least a dozen. This documentary’s main purpose is to question whether Monique was a complete accomplice or a different kind of victim of Michel’s.
Stylized the same way many newer Netflix documentaries are, it’s a proven successful way to cinematically create a docuseries. We don’t get interviews with journalists. This documentary is driven mostly by news footage and investigators. We hear a little bit from Monique on a recording. Those moments, however, don’t really lead to much.
The documentary has a nice budget and looks really pretty. Storywise, we definitely have a strong case about a serial killer I’m sure not too many Americans outside of true crime fanatics knew about. I had never heard of Monique or Michel. If you said those names to me prior to watching this, I might think it was a comedy from the 1990s about a high school reunion. I bet you didn’t come here expecting a Lisa Kudrow movie reference.
Perhaps my favorite thing about this documentary was how it posed a major question. Was Monique as guilty as her companion even if she never actually murdered someone? It definitely seems that she was culpable in a lot of ways. How close will her seat be to Satan when she dies?
What could have made Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil better
Maybe it was the dubbing, the French names, or the filmmakers really didn’t have a good style of delivering this one. I was lost many times. We start off already knowing the end result. I’m never a fan of this style of filmmaking even when it’s an obvious case. Netflix’s Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is about Richard Ramirez and yet I remember it unfolding in a way where they don’t immediately reveal the information.
Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil fails to stand out from a lot of the other documentaries produced by Netflix. The foreign ones, especially, blend together in my mind afterward. They seem to prefer being more visually pleasing than anything else. Personally, I’ll take a shaky camera and some below-average audio if it takes us behind the scenes a little more than this series did.
One thing that would have made this a far more memorable documentary would’ve been interviews with Monique. Even if all she did was spin lies, those kinds of documentaries are superior than ones told in the way the directors chose to go here.
We also probably didn’t need five episodes to tell this story. The Motive, a mysterious true crime case from Israel about a young boy who kills his family, is a great example of what this series could’ve been. Those episodes are a bit shorter, more to the point, and have that dark non-cinematic style. It’s partly my preference. I enjoy feeling like a fly on the wall.
Is Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil worth watching?
Eh, this wasn’t captivating enough for me. I need a little bit of mystery in any true crime documentary I fall in love with. This one didn’t have all that much. Were they trying to not follow the formula of a classic who-dunnit? Because so little is explored into the why-dunnit of the case, I cannot recommend this documentary.
On a dart board, Monique Olivier: Accessory to Evil hits far from the bull’s eye. At least it didn’t land in someone’s cheek.
Overall Score: 5 out of 10
This is an average documentary you’ll be creeped out by but forget about in a week.
Practically Trouble 
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