By: Henry J. Fromage –
Here we go again- diving deep into the most salacious streaming documentaries out there while pounding the keyboard.
226. An Update on Our Family
This Max docuseries tells the story of family influencers the Stauffers, who have become personae non grata in their surprisingly large and lucrative Youtuber community when it came out that they gave up the young boy they adopted very publicly and profitably due to his special needs. While there’s likely something to unpack there (not that anyone commenting here has anywhere near the full story it soon becomes clear), the bigger takeaway is how insanely toxic life online truly is. If you choose to live at the whims of the comments boards, you’re assuredly already fucked. Three Beers.
227. American Murder: Gabby Petito
This Netflix documentary delves into the tragic case of travel blogger Gabby Petito, the search for whom captivated the nation before her body was found and attention shifted to a manhunt for her boyfriend Brian Laundrie. So much of the events preceding her disappearance and the ensuing search are caught on camera, with Laundrie’s parents, who were clearly disinterested in aiding in the search due to the high likelihood they already knew what happened to her at the hands of the son they raised, coming off worst. Two Beers.
228. Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke
The internet has brought with it the boundless potential for psychos to document their damage in real time. One such person was Ruby Franke, a mommy blogger who at first seemed innocently aspirational until her cruel discipline methods started to creep into her videos. When her emaciated son escaped to ask for help from the neighbors, anyone following the situation were unsurprised. The presence of a parenting coach turned live-in cult leader and true craziness driving her actions may, though. Two Beers.
229. The Hunt for the Chameleon Killer
This docuseries on AMC + tracks a bit of a rarity- a female serial murderer who blazed a 12-year trail of terror from Florida to London, in large part due to her uncanny ability to steal the identities of those she killed, even changing her appearance to pose as them until she moved on to the next victim. This isn’t the most energetic documentary even as it does lay out the essential facts of Elaine Parent’s crime spree and the hunt to track her down. Three Beers.
230. The Flight Attendant Murders
Yeah, another AMC + serial murder documentary, this time about the parallels between four murders of flight attendants from Braniff International, an only-in-that-era off-kilter airline in the 70s and 80s. It makes a strong case that the wrong man was arrested for the crimes, while still indicating the likely serial nature of the crime. Intriguing both for the investigatory work on the crimes and detailing a era you’d hardly recognize today. Three Beers.
231. Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas
This AMC+ documentary is about the rise and criminal dissolution of the Hare Krishnas, a Hindu-adjacent cult that was once so omnipresent that it showed up all over pop culture of the 80s and 90s, like in the Airplane franchise. It’s success laid the foundation for a lot of the New Age-y cults that survive to this day (as do they, although in a much diminished form), but part of its fracturing was due to the sex and drug-fueled crimes that pretty much inevitably arise from humans having this degree of influence and power over others. Three Beers.
232. No One Saw a Thing
One last AMC+ documentary, this time about the extremely curious case of the murder of “town bully” Ken Rex McElroy, who was shot dead in front of almost 60 of his fellow townspeople. When police investigate, though, “no one saw a thing”, and amazingly that secret has been kept for over 40 years. This series doesn’t get to the bottom of it, either, but it certainly has some theories, as well as drawing a line between that fateful day and the several horrific acts of violence that have wracked this small town in the decades since- not directly related, but perhaps psychically. Two Beers.
