Highly recommend for viewers who are not familiar with documentaries but really interested in TRUE stories.
Disclaimer: No spoilers !!!
I have always enjoyed watching the detective/police series since I was little. I watched CSI with my older sister when I was in elementary school, and later on, Sherlock. Recently, I am obsessed with all kinds of detective series on Netflix (Unforgotten, Hinterland, Marcella, Voice, Stranger, Signal, etc.). I get so excited about the suspense, the plot twists, and sometimes the realness of the series. If you also enjoy this genre, probably you know what I mean.
What I want to address here is that I enjoy the realness that television series offer. Although they are obviously not ‘real’ (because they are only fictional stories), they still give you the chilliness or backdrops telling you anything might happen.
For me, docuseries/documentaries bring this feeling to another level, because they are things that really happened in this world.
I started watching docuseries when I couldn’t find any detective series to my taste last year. Undoubtedly, my first option was detective/police related docuseries. I started off with Conversations with A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.
This is probably one of the most haunting docuseries for me to date. Ted Bundy was once the most notorious serial killer in the U.S. Back then, there was no DNA testing in the forensic field, so it was really hard for the police and prosecutors to locate the criminals and prosecute them. Ted Bundy was the type of person that you probably will see in any kinds of romantic dramas. He was charming, highly educated, and had a promising future as a lawyer. And yet, the chilling fact is that he killed numerous young and pretty women across the United States.
The series unveiled this monstrous serial killer. The story literally went under my skin because the facts are that Ted Bundy was almost unstoppable back then when there were not enough resources to locate him. Also, he was just a good-looking guy who was hard to link him to this monstrous and brutal serial killer.
He reminds me of a phrase, ‘the banality of evil.’ There are no forms of evil. Evil can be anything that one could not think of unless one sees it with one’s eyes. This is the most chilling fact of evil, and Ted Bundy is the devil incarnate who happens to be a good-looking, charming, and young guy. His story surprises me but at the same time disgusts me, because of seeing how evil a human being can be.
What I learn from Ted Bundy Tapes is that do not think ‘evil’ just as an adjective describing things or people that I think I won’t be involved in or far away from me, but instead, it can be anything that I possibly could not think of. Ted Bundy Tapes is almost like a haunting backdrop for me now. I won’t think of his story every day, but it is there somewhere in my brain, reminding me of what the real evilness looks like.
Next one is The Keepers.
The Keepers is the series that breaks my heart and makes me really sad for a while after finishing it. It’s a story about the death of Sister Cathy, which is still a mystery, and two of Sister Cathy’s students are trying to solve this cold case to date. As they delved into the mystery in the series, the case became more complicated because it involved the corruption of higher power in the chaplaincy and also events related to child abused in a catholic school in the U.S.
The scale and depth of this series basically surprise me because I have never thought of how human beings, especially those who are supposed to be committed to the God and guide the youngsters, can disgust me in this unimaginable way. They misused their power and manipulated underaged students to experience what they were not meant to experience in their lives. I was in a rage when I watched this series but also feel so useless of myself.
Yes, this is how emotional this series can let me be and probably you as well.
After watching this series, I find myself too naïve in the sense that I underestimate the trauma of being abused as a child and how toxic it will be growing up with these traumatic memories. The series touched on the post-abuse life stories of the survivors, and they literally tore my heart. It is almost like an epiphany for me to realise child abuse is not merely a ‘terrible’ event in a child’s life, but the continuous torture and life-time nightmares for people being abused. I can’t imagine how those victims live through all these years, and there is still no one takes the responsibility.
I highly recommend The Keepers. It is an eye-opening experience to learn what truly is like living as victims of child abuse and feel more compassionate towards the victims.
The last one is the famous Making A Murderer.
Unlike the other two docuseries, Making A Murderer is in its own league.
I even attended one of the talks about false imprisonment and confessions based on this series that was delivered by one of the attorneys in this series.
Making A Murderer is a story about Steven Avery, who spends almost all his life in prison with a crime that there is no physical evidence linked to him but only false confessions. The miscarriage of justice and corruption of the police power are also the main themes in this series.
Indeed, it is really intense.
The series unveiled the story of Steven Avery, how he was falsely imprisoned and fought for his justice. The scale of this story is unimaginable, everything I thought I knew and I believed was twisted after watching this series. I don’t want to spoil too much here, but I think it is important to watch this series not only for the suspenseful excitement but also for the knowledge that might protect us as citizens when we face any injustice in the future. The story is really suspenseful and even more exciting when you know it truly is a real and ongoing story on earth. Along with Steven Avery’s story, I also get to understand the toxic justice system in the U.S. and also start to be aware of the miscarriage of justice overall in the world.
Everything can happen and be prepared. I know it sounds a bit exaggerated, but I think it is important to understand how the justice system works and how might innocent people get harmed because of the corrupted justice system. I’m not implying every justice system on earth is evil, but what I to say is that stay alert and be conscious about how people in powerful positions might affect our rights and daily lives.
These three docuseries are really worth watching, and I probably didn’t do much justice for them with these brief introductions. But still, I learn a lot from watching these series, and I think I grow a little bit more because of knowing these things happen in our world.
