kind of takes your breath away
SPOILER: In recent years Netflix has really been building out a niche for itself creating solid, interesting documentaries. 'Evil Genius' continues that trend with a truly haunting story of murder and betrayal that leaves you breathless, with a spotlight on how far a human soul can sink.In 2003 a man robbed a bank while wearing a bomb collared around his neck. He was stopped outside the bank by police and gave himself up without a fight, claiming that he had been assaulted and forced into the robbery by unknown black assailants.
The story was, to say the least, sketchy. Police didn't believe him, thinking that his story and the supposed bomb were part of a ruse to escape punishment if he got caught, right up until the collar started beeping and exploded, killing him. Investigation revealed bizarre scavenger hunt style notes in his car giving him instructions for dropping off the money and retrieving keys to unlock his collar, which seemed to support his claims.
Suspects were identified and interviewed, but via a chain of police and FBI screw-ups, no one was charged for the crime for many years. However, a frozen body, seemingly unrelated to the "pizza bomber heist", put the spotlight back on a group of suspects. Gradually, over years, investigations and confessions revealed the deeper story surrounding the crime.
At the center of all of this is a woman named Marjorie emerges as a central figure in numerous deaths and murders. She is smart, beautiful (when she was younger), manipulative and conniving, and about as close to the definition of evil as you can get.
This story is simply depressing as layer after layer is peeled back to reveal aspects of human nature most of us don't want to admit are possible. The final confessions of one of the tangentially connected conspirators, revealed in the last minutes of the final episode, is really just heartbreaking.
This story won't leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Justice is often incomplete or absent altogether, and sometimes bad things just happen to people who don't deserve it. How sad the ending is will kind of depend on how you interpret all of the evidence; the series really prefers to present the information and leave the conclusions to the audience. But it's a fascinating, if unhappy, journey of discovery, and one I think is well worth the 3 hours or so it will take to watch all of the episodes.
score 8/10
ivko 15 May 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4166664/14693
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