Crime, Chaos, Corruption Documentary Reviews
If true crime documentaries like Tiger King are trash television, what the heck are Lifetime original movies? The network known for being “television for women” is actually full of violence and mayhem. Over on Hulu, they’ve done a good job of advertising their Girl in a (insert location here) films. After seeing Girl in the... Continue Reading →
Look at this. Topical stories. I recently wrote a little bit about The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann because there was an update to the story and it really is one of the stronger true crime documentaries out there. This week, another big story happened relating to true crime documentaries. Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison. The... Continue Reading →
The true crime documentary The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is one I haven’t written about much here for a couple of reasons. I watched it in 2022 for the first time when I was first getting into true crime documentaries at a level where a person may need to be institutionalized. By then, the 2019... Continue Reading →
The first season of Wild Crime focused exclusively on the case of Harold Henthorn whose own involvement in at least two murders made him an intriguing enough topic for a four episode series. In season two of Wild Crime, we bounce around a little more and cozy up with two notorious serial killers. In Yosemite,... Continue Reading →
I find myself struggling to find the right true crime documentary for me these days. Usually when I find one I really like it’s a complete surprise. Missing Kenley popped up out of nowhere on Amazon and it’s easily one of my favorites. Another recent joy was the documentary Relentless which might slip into a... Continue Reading →
Dennis Nilsen isn’t a well-known serial killer in the United States. He’s more “Blur” than “Beatles.” Sure, people in a certain sector of the community know all about him. There’s a pretty good short series on Amazon about him where David Tennant does possibly the best portrayal of any real life murderer I’ve seen. Let’s... Continue Reading →
Let’s do this review of the Netflix documentary Victim/Suspect a little differently and not just because it has a slash through the title. I’m giving it away in the title; this was not a particularly good film. Yes, it was better than Old-Growth Murder which got a 1 out of 10 from me. I’m going... Continue Reading →
I Shot My Parents is a true crime documentary that last just under an hour. In my experience, this is usually a bad sign. The subject matter is immediately given away in the title. It’s about a 14-year-old named Nathon Brooks who shoots his parents. The documentary covers the case and tries to answer the... Continue Reading →
This is easily one of the hardest true crime documentaries to categorize. Is it even a true crime? Buried begins as one thing, ends up something else, and by the end we have a little bit of everything. There is some crime we know about. There are others we’re not so sure of. And then... Continue Reading →
Outcry. That’s all this true documentary is called. I’ve had a pretty good history of simply titled true crime documentaries. Would this one be able to keep the trend going? Promoted with a picture of a high school football team, this documentary ended up being something completely unexpected. It tells the story of Greg Kelley... Continue Reading →
There wasn’t a true crime documentary I was less interested in watching than No One Saw A Thing. I held off for a long time on this because the story of Ken Rex McElroy getting gunned down in the middle of town, in the middle of the day, and surrounded by dozens of people who... Continue Reading →
I’m trying to watch as much Discovery+ on Amazon right now before they switch over to HBO Max at the end of May just in case it’s no longer available. Who knows how these things work? In preparing myself for the loss of access to some of the best true crime series and films, I... Continue Reading →
Is it a crime to share your privacy with another person? Netflix thinks so. At some point in early 2023, the password sharing we’ve all come to love is supposed to end. This means no more getting annoyed at the new Netflix homepage and how it doesn’t allow you to view anything other than “what... Continue Reading →
When you watch a true crime documentary, you don’t always expect to laugh. There are often some low-key funny moments in these films or series. Unintentionally funny is one thing. Laugh-out-loud hilariously-awkward is another. That’s where Casting Jon Benet falls. You’ll swear Casting Jon Benet was produced by Ricky Gervais. You’ll watch it waiting for... Continue Reading →
Last week I went on the closest thing to a true crime podcast I’ve ever been invited to join. Aside from doing the occasional documentary review, I write a ton about baseball. I’ll get invited to go on different podcasts maybe once or twice a year. This email in particular caught my eye because it... Continue Reading →
How did Amazon not recommend this one to me sooner? The true crime documentary Missing Kenley had all of the makings of being the exact kind of film/series I adore. The mystery. The theories. The possibility of no crime at all was committed. The possibility a horrific crime was done. Missing Kenley is such a... Continue Reading →
What the Dakota Entrapment Tapes is all about without spoiling the show Out in North Dakota, Andrew Sadek has run into trouble. He has been arrested for the sale of marijuana. He works out a deal with the local police to become a confidential informant. A good kid who made a mistake is suddenly pulled... Continue Reading →
You can get through this documentary in less than an hour if no one interrupts you and your bladder is empty. The Castration Cure is a documentary about a possible "solution" for pedophiles behind bars: removing their testicles. Narrated by a British man, you’ll feel like you’re watching an old-school documentary you might see in... Continue Reading →
I’ll take a chance on foreign language documentaries when they have dubbing because most of the time I’m doing other things while watching, like trying to earn a living. Donald Stellwag, the subject of Big Mäck: Gangster und Gold may know a little bit about this. He was convicted of a bank robbery and spent... Continue Reading →
True crime documentary Life with Murder takes us up to Canada for a brooding film about the murder of Jennifer Jenkins by her brother Mason Jenkins. At 20-years-old, he has been arrested for killing his 18-year-old sibling by shooting her multiple times. He creates an outlandish story only to admit a decade later he was... Continue Reading →
Hulu has a new true crime documentary series called The Lesson in Murder. Three episodes have been released and I’m curious if there will be more. This is a true crime documentary series starring Bryanna Fox, a criminologist and former FBI agent who has decided to educate a new generation of future crime solvers. With... Continue Reading →
The State of Texas vs. Melissa is a true crime documentary whose title gives away the premise. It’s perfectly fine. We have a case between the state of Texas (not the state of mind of Texas where you inexplicably wear cowboy hats north of the Mason Dixon Line) and a woman named Melissa Lucio. Melissa... Continue Reading →
I’m writing this well over a year after watching Have You Seen Andy? It’s a true crime documentary about the disappearance of Andy Puglisi in Massachusetts during the 1970s. Whenever I watch true crime documentaries or any other genre I feel is worth reviewing and writing about, I’ll make a note of it. Sometimes I’ll... Continue Reading →
Let’s clear up one thing right away. Mark Stroman and Marcus Stroman are two very different people. The one in the documentary An Eye for an Eye is a bit more sinister, at least at the start of things. If you've followed the ballplayer on social media, you'll know he can get himself into a... Continue Reading →
Beast of Bangalore: Indian Predator is the true crime documentary about an alleged sexual predator and murderer in India during the late 1990s named Umesh Reddy. The documentary covers multiple crimes of his and several escapes he made while imprisoned. Reddy is cunning and more clever than those assigned to watch over him. There’s nothing... Continue Reading →
It was probably the release and popularity of Making A Murderer which created the true crime documentary BOOM! We can credit streaming services for continuing it. The availability to go back and watch old documentaries made with blood, sweat, and tears was easier. What’s more, anyone with a camera and a police file could film... Continue Reading →
I was watching a series on Hulu about missing people when the director of Cropsey popped up to talk about a different case taking place at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Intrigued because I kind of recall seeing something about Cropsey in the past, I made it my documentary to watch the following... Continue Reading →
Young love and a lot of murder is one way to sum up the possible story behind The Twelfth Victim. The other is far less sexy. It involves an 18-year-old going on a killing spree with a 14-year-old girl hostage. A lot of what happened is known. Whether or not Caril Fugate was a willing... Continue Reading →
Michael Peterson and Damien Echols are easily two of the most famous main characters in true crime documentary history. Peterson is the leading man in The Staircase with Echols appearing as the primary defendant in the Paradise Lost trilogy alongside Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley. Peterson and Echols have more in common than their Errol... Continue Reading →
The Murders Before the Marathon cover the unsolved murders of three men in a suburb of Boston on 9/11/2011. The date is significant in this case because one of the major suspects is Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers. He’s the one who died while on the run and not the younger brother... Continue Reading →
I didn’t know what I was getting into when I watched A Murder in the Park. I was pleasantly surprised because this true crime documentary seems to be over after about ten minutes only to take a great big turn against social justice warriors, snooty college kids, and professors who think they know better than... Continue Reading →
Where is the best place to watch a true crime documentary? On a comfy couch with a loved one of course! But seriously. I spent way too much time searching for the perfect true crime documentary to get me through the day. Most of my watching takes place while I work so anything foreign language... Continue Reading →
What A Murder in Mansfield is all about without spoiling the show This true crime documentary is different from many others. It’s not so much the case of Jack Boyle murdering his wife Noreen as much as it is about their son’s revelations in the aftermath. A Murder in Mansfield starts off with courtroom footage... Continue Reading →
You couldn’t turn on television in the early 2000s without seeing Jared Fogle aka Jared from Subway. It’s one of the most unique stories in the history of the world in my opinion. He’s one of the most obscure celebrities alongside John Wayne Bobbit and Kyle Rittenhouse. In no other version of reality are these... Continue Reading →
I first heard of the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders on an episode of the true crime podcast Criminology. This was back in 2021 when I was the only person working from the office and didn’t know how to turn the lights on in the room. It sets a dark mood each working day. Only a... Continue Reading →
What Enemies of the State is all about without spoiling the show Matthew Dehart claims to be a lot of things. He says he has sensitive government information. He claims to be a member of the hacker group Anonymous. He admits to those two but he denies allegations of grooming two minors online and soliciting... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
What Death in the Bayou: The Jennings 8 is all about without spoiling the show Death in the Bayou is the case of the Jennings 8. There you have it! Explanation complete. I think most people who are into true crime are familiar with this case. It’s well-known, a rumored inspiration for the first season... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
In what I believed to be the last hours before Netflix password sharing ended, although I’m not even quite sure about that, I decided to give Bad Vegan a try. I’ve been avoiding it for a while without really knowing much about the story. We begin with a pretty intriguing case. A restaurant owner who... Continue Reading →
Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story gives away exactly what it’s about in the title. It’s all good. Plenty of true crime documentaries work even when you know the outcome. I won’t tell you exactly what happens in the end because I think it’s a worthy watch. In this story, Cyntoia Brown is a... Continue Reading →
What Fortune Seller: A TV Scam is all about without spoiling the show Fortune Seller: A TV Scam takes us to Italy for the story of Wanna Marchi and her daughter Stefania Nobile whose best contributions to society might be how much fun it is to say their names. They are a mother and daughter... Continue Reading →
Murder in Big Horn is a true crime documentary about several different cases in Big Horn County, Montana. The area is largely populated by Indigenous people. If you’ve followed true crime, you’ll know the rate of murdered and missing Indigenous women is outrageously high compared to the population. This is a huge problem in the... Continue Reading →
The ongoing trial of Alex Murdaugh has every streaming service scrambling to create some documentary about the case. And before we get into this battle of true crime documentaries, take note he pronounces his first name as “Alec” for some odd reason. I’ve listened to multiple podcasts about this case and have already reviewed Murdaugh... Continue Reading →
With a title like Where is Private Dulaney? one would expect something a little more unsolved or a slew of suspects. The true crime documentary Where is Private Dulaney (dropping the question mark because spell checker loves to capitalize the next word automatically) starts off like a mystery but early on in the first of... Continue Reading →
What Tell Me Who I Am is all about without spoiling the show The documentary Tell Me Who I Am is exactly what it presents itself to be: a mystery. We begin with a man waking up from a car wreck with no knowledge of who he is or what happened. He later finds out... Continue Reading →
I have a new favorite type of true crime documentary. Ones that were once featured on the Robert Stack version of Unsolved Mysteries have a certain connection with me. I watched the entire catalog of episodes back in 2021. The true crime documentary Still Missing Morgan is a case featured on the classic 1990s television... Continue Reading →
Everyone has had PEZ at some point in their life. The colorful, long-necked devices which carry the candy is a staple food of some children. The Pez Outlaw documentary tells the story of a man named Steve Glew who worked to smuggle different collectible PEZ dispensers back in the 1990s. The documentary is as advertised.... Continue Reading →
I was the last one to watch Paradise Lost but among the first to see Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence. How can one woman have an entire cult inside of her? Well, Sarah Lawrence is a college, not a girl. This three-part docuseries tells the story about how Larry Ray moves into... Continue Reading →
An autopsy on The Vanishing Women true crime documentary Warning: The following contains spoilers and is provided as a recap of The Vanishing Women. Read at your own peril. The Vanishing Women is a six-part series about, conveniently, six different women who may or may not be connected by more than their zip code. Our... Continue Reading →
Practically Trouble 