By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week gets us back to streaming documentaries, plus an undersung and unnerving true crime drama.
324. Dahmer
There was a lot of ink spilled criticizing this Ryan Murphy dramatization of the unspeakable and inexplicable life and crimes of veritable monster Jeffrey Dahmer, but by my count this is among Murphy’s finest work. This is a story of incredible complexity, one that could so easily slide into exploitation, but this threads the needle of showing Dahmer’s troubled childhood without ever pointing a finger at it (millions have had it worse, but there’s only ever been one Dahmer), of showing the unimaginable pain and suffering of the families of his victims (less so that of the victims themselves- the show smartly avoids depicting his crimes outright), and the societal rot that allowed a frankly unintelligent and shockingly uncareful man such as him to brashly commit these crimes and fatal mistakes in nearly equal measure and keep on killing well after he should have been caught (preying on minorities and homosexuals insulated him like so many other killers from consequences for far too long). Two Beers.
325. The Bakersfield 3: A Tale of Murder and Motherhood
This Max true crime series recounts the tireless efforts of three Bakersfield, California mothers to find the truth behind the disappearance of two their children and the senseless shooting of the other. As they continue it becomes apparent that there’s some degree of entanglement in what happened to them, and not always in the ways you’d expect. Two Beers.
326. Twitter: Breaking the Bird
This CNN documentary series examines the rise and fall of Twitter, surprisingly getting interviews from basically all involved besides Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk (Dorsey declined, Musk doesn’t appear have been asked, because fuck that guy). It’s an all-too-common story of tech whizzes with chutzpah and hubris that outstrips their ability to control the implications of their creation, although the rare one where all that doesn’t lead them to failure and/or prison (basically everyone gets their turn to be fired as CEO, though). Two Beers.
327. American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden
This Netflix documentary series documents the manhunt for Osama bin Laden from the first realizations of the world-shattering events of 9/11 until Obama’s announcement that they’d gotten the bastard. A staggering lineup of interviewees combine to tell the story- basically everyone involved south of Bush and Obama themselves, and in often surprisingly candid ways. Two Beers.
328. Jessica Chambers
This Investigation Discovery special report details the hunt for the killers of Jessica Chambers, a young woman who was discovered staggering away from a burning vehicle, who tragically succumbed to her burns later in the hospital. It appears she said the name of her killer to emergency responders, but the case that develops from there puts that in doubt. A decade later, her loved ones are still waiting for justice. Three Beers.
329. A Deadly American Marriage
This Netflix series examines the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of Irish national Jason Corbett by his American wife and her father. They claimed self-defense, but the extent and nature of his wounds suggest something very different. Basically all survivors are interviewed here, from his children (from a previous marriage) to the two likely killers themselves, which leave a strange taste in the mouth. Three Beers.
330. Firefighters
For something perhaps thankfully different, this Korean thriller follows a firefighting team as they contend with poor funding, woefully inadequate equipment, and a lack of institutional support (like laws that allow for the expedient clearing of vehicles illegally parked in fire lanes). While the character drama is a bit too boilerplate, it culminates in a disaster that really happened, and helped bring about too tardy change to the heroic profession. Three Beers.
