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Reviews
Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey (2024)
How To Destroy A Crime Scene
And an investigation.
Our so-called media just loves to paint people into corners, especially when the people are wealthy, famous, and/or can be perceived as 'controversial'. The Ramsey family were certainly wealthy, and some viewed the pageant circuit as controversial. It could also be argued that the family was somewhat famous, at least in the immediate area, so check, check and check.
Given Joel Berlingers diving into other cases, I went in hoping for a documentary that explored all aspects, and not just the popular narrative driven by legacy media. I was not disappointed.
Given the perspective of The West Memphis Three, and how his and one other doc managed to overturn the insanity of 'Satanic Panic' and ultimately free three completely innocent young men, I'm hopeful that we may someday be able to say that Jon Benet wasn't harmed by Patsy, by Jon, or (the worst accusation I've heard) her brother, Burke.
The ultimate failure ultimate goes to the ridiculous handling of the crime scene and that of the police. I've never seen such a mismanaged cluster by so many, who jumped to immediate conclusions, yet made absolutely zero effort to explore all options, and not just one.
OF COURSE any investigation should and usually does center on the small inner circle, HOWEVER, you must simultaneously and methodically gather as much evidence as humanly possible, retain the integrity of the scene (remove all family immediately) and perform extensive and thorough forensic searches AND NOT TELL THE FAMILY TO DO SO, and CERTAINLY not alone. It's nothing short of a miracle that none of the family were charged- but they've certainly endured an ugly cloud of suspicion and ludicrous accusations since that day, and due to the complete and utter ineptitude of numerous law enforcement representatives, nothing of any substance was ever found.
One hopes that, much the same as the Memphis Three case, if no one is arrested, maybe innocent people are able to prove their innocence. Which is directly contrary to how our justice system is structured to work- INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY- not the other way around.
20/20: Meet the Other Me (2024)
Quinones Is Just Awful At This
My God, he asks the most cringe questions and I get they're trying to stretch it for time fill but make the episode an hour instead of dragging this into two hours! He's done this long enough that he knows exactly how weird he sounds asking the interviewer really insipid questions like 'how did that make feeeeeellllll?' Just stop it.
My next, and much more important point would be, IF YOU KNEW HE WAS LIVING IN YOUR SOFA, IT gave you creeped out vibes, you knew he was stalking you and told you as much, WHY ON EARTH WOULDN'T YOU REPORT THIS TO POLICE?! There's three deceased women (possibly more) that could be alive today had you done the right thing. Do not tell me that you can't believe he'd do something like this when you absolutely know he was doing things to you that you didn't know until he told you!
Women have got to learn to listen to their intuition- that voice in your head is there for a reason and I can promise you, I'd rather have someone call me obnoxious and rude than a victim.
Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy (2024)
Are We This Narcissistic?
Is it Amazons fault? Is it Shein? How about temu? Maybe it's our ISP! Oh maybe it's UPS/USPS/FexEx/DHL?
At what point does it fall into our purview to be more responsible consumers? When is it enough 'stuff'?
Why do we allow companies to use planned obsolescence? If you needed a shiny cartoon/documentary to tell you what this is, you aren't paying attention. When the 'oldsters' tell you things don't last like they used to, they're not screaming at clouds, they're right. Refrigerators used to last many decades, that's why there was an entire population that repaired them and made a good living doing so. Now if you can get five years out of an appliance, you consider yourself lucky. TVs, washer/dryers, stoves, you name it, all would be repaired before you'd go spend money on new. Giant TVs are so insanely cheap that you'll easily buy a new one before considering repairing the old.
We've allowed ourselves to be manipulated into an 'I want it all right now' mentality, mostly on the backs of social media and this weird parasocial relationship to what others have. We have no thought placed into if someone was a paid influencer, if they're sponsored, if they're selling, etc. Along with this ridiculous need to keep up with neighbors, coworkers, and family to see who can accumulate the most useless stuff.
At what point do we finally acknowledge this as a fruitless endeavor, remove apps from our phones, kick influencers to the curb, start saving money and begin behaving like adults? Acknowledge that this recycling fever dream is just that, and demand better? We're being constantly asked to pay more for less and all based on some sustainability nonsense that DOES NOT EXIST. If we can ever get to an honest conversation regarding the climate and the effects consumption really has, that would be ideal, however, the real issue is what does all this do to our collective health/quality of life?
I'm not buying these do-gooders and their 'oh I quit my job because guilt!', it's a cop out to avoid blame, and ease a guilty conscience. They're obviously still making money, and the whole industry around recycling is another cottage industry that makes a lot of people a lot of money. It's time we get honest with ourselves.
Also worth noting- what's with the nonsensical audio commentary? It's distracting and adds absolutely nothing to the content other than pointless filler.
The Day of the Jackal (2024)
Forsyth Should Sue
Except it's not really a copy if it bares absolutely no semblance to the original writing or film, does it? Maybe sue for attaching his name to it in any way because is just awful press and should definitely be grounds for suit.
I love a good MI6 thriller- I truly do. This is not that. THE ORIGINAL is absolutely excellent, the book is obviously the most compelling but whoever greenlit this and paid good money to a casting director needs to have serious consequences for this monumental waste of time and money.
Eddie isn't 'bad' per se, but he's just not believable in the role. Does England not have a serious actor with an obvious swagger available any longer? I suppose it was name recognition but that can only carry a project so far. At some point your chosen lead must be able to pull off the role- he does not.
Now for the obvious hire that makes absolutely not a lick of sense, Lashana, I think that's her name? Whoever she is this is definitely the finest example of why these nonsensical demands based on aspects that have nothing to do with talent need abolished. Exactly how many times is it required of this obvious failure of a choice going to put a writing tool in or around her mouth? Is she trying to convince us of her intelligence, or herself? Because either way, she is in way over her head. She's so awful it's distracting to the final product and just forces you to look in awe at the hideousness of her casting.
England is supposed to know this genre better than anyone, but given this giant pile of excrement, I have serious doubts.
Rich & Shameless: Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker (2023)
Couldn't Happen To A Better Outlet
Gawker, BuzzFeed, Deadspin, etc., all perfectly exemplify the grotesque underbelly of media, and aren't all too far from their siblings in legacy media, and Nick was one of the trashiest garbage heaps of them all.
All of the people associated with the Gawker aspect of this suit are absolute dumpster fires and deserved every bit of public dragging they received and still receive to this day.
In no fan of Terry 'Hulk Hogan', but no one deserves this type of defamation. John Cook defending this nonsense only reinforces the judgement and ultimate takedown of an horrific and irredeemable group of people with no morals whatsoever.
It's a fitting takedown of a group of people that deserve to live in abject poverty for life.
Rich & Shameless: Rodman's Stolen Millions (2023)
Elkin Walks Free?!
That this absolute garbage human being isn't sitting in a federal prison right next door to his disgusting pig of a mother is the real travesty- he was all in for whatever he could get, didn't care how it came about, had to have been completely aware of the scams Peggy was running up the flag pole, and always sat with his hand out whenever the opportunity arose.
Peggy using mental illness as some type of excuse for her abhorrent behavior is top level narcissism and shows how unwilling she is to accept any responsibility for any of her obscene actions and should be there for life; top tier athletes being entirely reliant on the people who worked their way into the inner circle because they lack financial literacy and these two preyed upon them.
I'm completely aghast at the sheer audacity of these two monsters- neither accepting any form of responsibility for reprehensible behavior, and I've no doubt that once this piece of excrement is released, she'll be finding her leech of a sin and diving right back into old ways.
We need to make more of an effort to reach out to these kids in high school and teaching them financial responsibility, how finances work; calculating compound interest, how to fill out FAFSA, how loans work, how much to save and where, ask things parents absolutely need to teach their children but most times their parents aren't much more literate than their prodigy and it's imperative we get kids the information they need to be able to succeed and not fall prey to the scum that just waits for a new sucker to come along.
Ricky and Dennis are perfect examples that show explicitly why this is imperative, especially high profile athletes need even more education in this arena.
20/20: Fire & Vice (2024)
Far Too Many Pick-Me's Here
Becky is just an absolute abomination and eventually her son may figure it out, but not likely. She's so desperate for attention that she's convinced her now-deceased husband to spend money hand over fist, stop accusing her of an affair (that she's been having, but still denies), lies more than a sidewalk, but can't manage to be honest.
Becky's sister, Mandy, also a desperate pick-me who brings literal trash into her home, around her young children, who was tried and convicted of murder, but she convinced herself that he was some saintly do-gooder and everything is wonderful. Except he's having an affair with her sister, and Mandy has the audacity to blame her sister more than the garbage human being who's been living with her. Her daughter is as clueless as Becky's son, and I'm sure they'll both have horrific experiences with partners as a result of both their mothers actions.
Please, for the love of God, stop trying to fill some void in your life with prisoners who promise you the world; I promise you that you'll regret it in the end. They're using you for a place to land, once they're out, you're done, if they don't do serious damage to you/your family, first.
Beck is, for some reason, given the opportunity to obfuscate, outright lie and manipulate the murder of a man who wanted nothing more than to keep her happy, but she couldn't bring herself to ask for a divorce and instead decided that murder was a far better conclusion. She deserves to rot in prison the rest of her life, and i sincerely hope she is punished every single day in prison- what a miserable excuse for a wife- she is right where she deserves to be.
The only reason this is rated as high as it is by me is because we finally get an episode that seems to be new and not copied from another show and airing it on the same night.
Dateline: The Menendez Brothers: Chance at Freedom (2024)
Bye Gascon.
The ONLY reason he took a second look at this case because he was convinced that Gen Z would get him re-elected, and that's the ONLY reason. I'm sure there's a good amount of his employees that have nothing but animosity for Gascon and these murderers.
There's so much that Ryan Murphy constantly gets wrong, and this sideshow is another one. All that happened was it riled up an entire subset of the community that had absolutely very little to do with factual evidence.
For those of us who watched this travesty unfold, and the monster that is Leslie Abrahamson concoct this tale of lies, it's blatantly apparent that Lyle and Erik are brutal murderers, who deserve to remain exactly where they are. The Menudo man is nothing but a washed up has-been who's battled many addictions his entire life, the supposed letter was 'discovered' by a supporter who offers no proof as to date of writing, and conveniently the person who supposedly received it has since passed away. Of COURSE the killers have convincing stories- they've had nothing to focus on for thirty plus years.
I'm so ecstatic that the people of Los Angeles finally came to their sense and removed that piece of trash from office. Gascon has all but destroyed LA County, and he learned what many others could have told him- Gen Z has the attention span of a fruit fly and no loyalty whatsoever. He fully expected these morons to get him back in office, no matter what he claims today.
These two middle aged med are grotesque murderers that deserve to rot- I don't care how 'model' they are, they're in prison, of course they're behaved.
Early release for violent criminals is part of the problem with California, and hopefully the next to go is Newsom.
The Beauty Queen Killer: 9 Days of Terror (2024)
You Can Be Both
Tina is a victim but she's also a criminal. What she did is absolutely vile and there's absolutely no way she couldn't have escaped at least a thousand times. Or warned Dawn to run the other direction, told her she was in danger, anything to keep another girl from becoming a victim. She was following him in a completely different car and NEVER ONCE had even a fleeting thought that she should drive away, run him over, drive away, anything.
And then suddenly, he just magically puts her on a plane, gives her money, and she's just randomly traversing Los Angeles, including to a lingerie shop, then her boyfriend's, then reluctantly submits to interrogation and is ultimately seen as a victim but I believe that, in her own words, became incredibly street wise and has a sort of criminal mentality, but supposedly never has thoughts of escape or even self preservation.
She seriously needs to thank God that.she didn't receive accomplice charges or even conspiracy. It's absolutely disgusting that she's so indignant and self-righteous. She owes Dawn and Mrs. Dodges family a multitude of apologies.
Where Is Baby Gabriel? (2023)
Absolute Nonsense With Monsters Everywhere
So many people pulling all the same speculation with all the typical nonsense surrounding the case.
First- Tammi Peters Smith.
Her and Jack are the most reprehensible, vile monsters with not a redeeming quality between them. Leader portrays her as some saintly second coming with only pure intentions involved. With absolutely nothing to validate the insanity claimed by Elizabeth and has nothing but the intention of stealing a child she has no rights to and a vindictive attitude towards everyone but herself. Her adopted daughter needs serious psychiatric help
Second- Elizabeth is a reprehensible, vile, disgusting murderer and as much as I'd love to hope for the best, and that I'm very wrong, but at the heart of this I'm absolutely sure she committed infanticide. She's an abomination who blames everyone but herself for everything wrong in her life. She's an evil, corrupt monster who happened upon a like-minded monster in Tammi in a pairing best described as made in hell that was intent on destroying Gabriel's dad Logan, with no ones interest but their own. I find it hysterical that Tammi is so dismayed at how she was perceived by the public because she's incapable of conning most people like she did the dupe Elizabeth.
The 'journalists'- aside from the gentleman who covered it from the beginning, the rest are morally bankrupt and somehow convinced Elizabeth couldn't possibly be the monster she truly is.
Law enforcement- it's funny that this case is so eerily reminiscent of Charles Vallow and what he experienced with law enforcement and how they treat men trying to get help from abusive partners. Not once do they listen to him, same as with Charles, and conveniently both happened in Arizona. I sincerely hope agencies are paying attention to these cases, and will start taking men more seriously.
Noble in Australia- what in the world kind of huckster is this guy? That he was allowed to portray himself as some sort of investigator when we know he was trying to extort money from people and he fled like his life depended on it.
This is just a complete travesty and that there are so many people portrayed here as upright citizens is a gross misrepresentation.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare (2024)
Absolutely Insane Gullibility
So you see someone you have supposedly chatted with, but who has NO IDEA WHO YOU ARE- and you brush it off that he's intoxicated and busy so there's nothing wrong, AND YOU PROCEED TO FABRICATE A NINE YEAR IMAGINARY RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE YOU DO NOT KNOW?!?!
This is the most garbage documentary I've ever seen in my life- this woman is a complete psychopath that's insanely unhinged and because she's unable to fathom reverse image searches she was duped for a DECADE and then drug the husband and wife into the middle of this mess because she's so delusional that she can't see how ridiculous she's being, and her incredible lack of sense and insatiable need to have any type of boyfriend led her down a path of nonsense that could have easily been solved with a simple search of social media.
What's lacking here is the countless opportunities laid before her to use COMMON SENSE- when you're so controlled you can't use the restroom? When there's myriad excuses for not meeting, or someone just randomly says 'I love you' and asks you to marry them AND YOU HAVE NEVER TALKED IN PERSON? This is a painful watch because it is so hard to fathom this level of naivety.
Save yourself the time. I watched it so you don't have to.
I'm Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders: Part One (2024)
Nothing But Excuses....
Oh poor, poor Lois!! This woman has somehow convinced an awful lot of people that due to her supposedly horrible upbringing, her supposedly abusive husband (who conveniently can't defend himself), her supposed laughable lack of knowledge regarding finances, her self martyrdom, and her narcissism to the point where she's constantly throwing herself on a cross by caring for others and it seems that she's constantly trying to exclaim to others that she's SUCH a selfless person!!
She stole thousands upon thousands of dollars, was caught red handed and Lois does nothing but lie on top of lie on top of lie, stealing left and right, all the while she's hiding behind her gambling, with an 'addiction specialist' to give her all kinds of excuses for her outright felony thefts, her friend who's nothing but an enabler, small town reporters who can't fathom what an abhorrent abomination Lois is so they also make constant excuses, and not one person will push back even a little bit on her behemoth falsehoods, when it's blatantly obvious she's lying through her teeth.
If I didn't know any better I'd think Lois directed this nonsensical comedy they somehow claim is a documentary. Absolutely infuriating, disgusting and gross. These people defending her should be ashamed of themselves.
Forty Eight Hours: Where is Jermain Charlo? (2024)
Racism Of Course
Why must the media constantly play up the crazy race angle, when it's entirely their decision to play it up in the first place? When you screech incessantly about people supposedly ignoring native Americans going missing, it doesn't exactly endear the cases to the general public.
There's many aspects of this case that seem incredibly problematic- why didn't she have an attorney for a custody case? Why was she seen on camera that night she disappeared with the guy who was abusive to her and what looks to be a friendly, open manner? Why weren't her family reporting her missing immediately instead of many days later? Why was she not parented away from such an abusive, insulting partner? Why are red hands being painted across peoples faces when we have been constantly barraged with a steady beat of NOT associating native Americans with 'red' skin? Is t that, in and of itself, a racist act?
Gabby Petito's case caught fire because THE MEDIA played it up. Why are there billboards without Jermaine's face when she's the one missing? And this woman claims she doesn't want it to be about her?
My God. Perhaps the tribal council should be employing better police officers that can actually do their jobs? Maybe Jermaine's aunt needs to stop making it about her and spend more time looking for Jermaine.
How (Not) to Get Rid of a Body: Needles in a Mineshaft (2024)
Horrible Story Telling By Too Many
STOP LETTING TALENTLESS 'PODCASTERS' PRETEND THEY ARE PART OF THE FAMILY AND/OR INVESTIGATION!!
Whoever this podcaster is, cannot tell a story to save her soul, and she keeps saying 'we' when referring to family and then referring to investigators like she was right along side them. She keeps taking these long, drawn out pauses, like she's trying to fill an hour, but can't seem to grasp that her cadence should slow and not accentuate the pregnant pauses between words.
You have plenty of family and law enforcement that seem capable to tell the story, there's no need to bring some random third party in to narrate the story.
Podcasts are (thankfully) dying a quick death, and everyone and their brother thinks true crime is their path to financial freedom. Stop giving them credit for reading (poorly) from a script.
Jailbreak: Love on the Run (2024)
Dishonest Portrayal
Vicky was certainly experienced enough in her position- having worked there for over seventeen years- portraying her as some simpleton that was merely looking for love and fell for the wrong guy is disingenuous, at best. There's a lot of excusing of stupidity here, and if the roles were reversed i sincerely doubt we would see a male guard portrayed so sympathetically or as an innocent who was merely led astray by a predator. Casey is definitely preying on her vulnerability, but as an employee surrounded by men every second of her working day (50-60 hours her WEEK) one would think the need for fortifications and reinforcements in place to ensure this was not even a possibility. There should never be any vulnerability to exploit, and one should never be acting as some sort of 'surrogate' of a mother or worse, a lover, for inmates with nothing to lose and everything to gain by exploiting these employees. I understand sympathy, or even empathy, but that's what those incarcerated are looking for- a way in. Even if there isn't ill-intent on behalf of the inmate, you're becoming a loophole for them. Just as the inmate interviewed talked about trying to ferret out those who threatened to out the affair, he expressed anger over her not being able to be his 'mommy figure'. That is absolutely not her job, and that should never be something expressed to these inmates. That she was constantly going out of her way for her favorite inmates or that of her 'boyfriend' says everything wrong with this entire debacle.
One has to wonder in what type insanity would you ever have an opposite sex employee that oversees so much of the daily goings on? The entire reason she was able to escape the view of her coworkers and/or superiors is because she was responsible for so much of every facet of the facility. Even if opposing sexes are needed, more oversight is absolutely necessary and should be mandatory; the checks and balances didn't even exist here and nobody could see past their own duties to even consider this a vague possibility. There's absolutely no way Vicky wasn't just as culpable, and maybe even more so. Someone has to be the adult in the room or we're looking at mass chaos of the highest order.
It wasn't an unbearable watch, but there were portions far too incredulous to digest. Far too many people placed far too much confidence in someone who was, what seems to be, merely abflattering compliment away from an incredibly felonious act with zero regard for the path of wreckage left in her wake.
Live from the Other Side with Tyler Henry (2024)
Fraudulent Narcissism On Display
Netflix needs to fire whoever is in charge of new programming because this type of pablum, after increasing rates AGAIN, is leading to the downfall of a once perfect system.
Parading this fraud out because Hollywood narcissists have completely fallen for this phony is akin to pressuring these trained seals to endorse political candidates- nobody cares what their egotistical, selfish brains fall for, and nobody with a lick of sense believes in anyone who claims to contact the dead when there's so much obvious data mining and guessing involved in these cold reads.
For anyone daring defend these snake oil salesmen/women, answer this: if anyone is capable of contacting loved ones 'on the other side' why is it that there's never anything solidly offered? Why is it so hard to have a name rather than some broadly asked 'oh I have a woman standing behind you' or 'you lost someone who was a man that's telling me...' how do you not have names? Wouldn't loved ones know their own name? Wouldn't they know exactly what the circumstances of their demise was? Couldn't they relay their connections to the person? Why is it there's never definitive evidence of the actual person 'coming through'? You're actually willing to suspend disbelief because when these frauds go fishing, they occasionally get a bite but for some reason never seem to completely connect on all fronts? Despite claims of 'oh they're helping these people move forward in their grief', there's no way to know what these monsters are saying are of anything remotely resembling healing; what likely happens is the trauma becomes deeper and these victims have more trauma from the charlatan exploiting their pain FOR MONEY.
Ken and Barbie Killers: The Lost Murder Tapes (2021)
Too Long Too Moronic
These people are truly delusional in their belief that karma is not equally as monstrous as Paul- she was an absolute monster who went in for her interviews trying to look as demure and innocent as possible, pulling the wool over these people's eyes. She was a willing participant in the horrendous acts, and the tapes are proof of that.
Stating some insipid comment about 'this is Canada, this type of thing doesn't happen here!', yet it does and still does. Making excuses for Leslie's mother LOCKING HER CHILD OUT OF THE HOUSE, excusing the Homulka parents for allowing this monster to live in the house when their child was under 18, when he was far older than her, 'oh he was so motivated and ambitious!!', yet he is living in your home with no job and no potential fora career ? Then allowing their 15 year old child to become so intoxicated, and what Paul AND KARLA did to her is blatantly evident on the tapes, while he was a welcome addition to the family?
Karla and Paul should have been thrown in the prison and left to rot. There's no rehabilitation for demonstrably evil people such as them- how these officers could have allowed this to continue unabated for so long, and having no clue how to go about an arrest. Given their atrocities in the Barry and Honey Sherman case, this should come as no surprise to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
This retelling is insane- portraying Karla as some innocent with no clue is a travesty to the victims she readily participated in destroying, and these filmmakers should be ashamed.
Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior (2024)
Why Michael Bay?
Of all the goofball people to tell this story what in the world makes Bay believe he's the chosen one?
All we are missing here is some extraneous explosions and it definitely gives that 'Bay' feeling, and I mean that in the most profoundly ridiculous way. It's so disjointed, nonsensical, and incredibly obnoxious and I had hope, despite the incredibly obnoxious trailer, that this would be a meaningful story told in a thoughtful, intelligent manner, but yikes. I clung to hope through the first episode, despite the jumpy, shaken angles, despite portraying these LEOs like some sort of heroes/heroines, despite trying to eek out remote sympathies for the victims in the most insanely minuscule manner. But midway through the second episode that was the end.
I'm not sure what audience Bay thought he would appeal to, but given our very visceral reaction to this drivel, it absolutely does not feel like it was for anyone interested in the true crime genre, documentary genre or psychology genre.
What we witnessed was something like a grift, of sorts. Someone trying to capitalize on the genre(s) thinking he had a clearly better way to tell a provocative story but wound up with some weirdly macabre, morose and despicable portrayal.
The people you should feel empathy for are completely secondary, victims aren't important anyway, amirite? The family/friends seem oddly distant and more like a comic book rendition of what Bay told them to be (Hadden's brother wants so desperately to have so much attention and it's all we could do to keep from FF through his interviews) and then there are law enforcement. Good God almighty. The travesty these abominations perpetrated should be implicitly taught in academies as solid 'how-not-to-interrogate' material. That they pled him out to get the remains located tells you how well this nonsense worked and all four should have been immediately fired and barred from being in LEO ever again. But I'm sure they found employ until retirement, since God knows these idiots always fail upward. It was completely horrific to watch, and as grotesque as you think it could be, multiply that by 200.
What a waste, and the fact that this lunacy is drawn out for eight pointless episodes is the epitome of Bay's career- long past its shelf life and needs to be disposed of immediately. Stop funding these vapid vanity projects.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (2024)
My Heart Is Completely Broken
So much sadness and tragedy in two episodes- this horrific story is one of sorrow, absolute horror, anger and grief, but yet I found myself filled with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction, pride and gratitude for so many people, but most of all an immense sense of love for people like Kathleen's family, but most for. Cathy. I cannot fathom the depths of hell one must descend to in order to give your flesh and blood for adoption, but we're always assured it's 'for The best' and the child will have a much better life.
Having been born in '66, and raised at a time where children were still to be more seen than heard, children were absolutely not believed, and any child making claims generally was considered 'a problem' and most often would be acting out, but now we know these children who are behaving in such ways likely are that way due to the trauma. We've come so far in the psychological field since then, but there are so many children who've been failed from then and earlier.
Watching this was so painful, yet leaves the viewer with so much satisfaction and, more importantly, answers in three cases that were in desperate need of closing. Dennis is an abhorrent, evil man who should never have seen the light of the outside world again, and I truly believe Brenda deserves a seat in the women's penitentiary. I'm so relieved for these families to finally see an end to this unbelievable nightmare and I hope Cathy can find some small solace in knowing the excrement is where he belongs and her tenacity is admirable. She did what she did because she truly believed she had her daughter's best interests at heart.
Evil Lives Here: Three-and-A-half Hours of Hell (2023)
What Is This Nonsense?
So many red flags it's like the Rose Bowl Parade but despite his own mother telling her vehemently to RUN, a pre-marriage counselor telling her not to marry the guy, the possessive attitude, the self harm, the countless other examples, she doesn't think he's going to do anything bad? I and many other grew up in dysfunctional families, suffered abuse from our parents, and never would I ever use that as some half-baked excuse to justify this type of behavior. You may be able to fool yourself into passing off plausible deniability, but you are not convincing anyone else.
You stayed and waited for your abuser to inflict countless abuses on you, until you finally had no choice but to leave because he almost killed you, OR YOU WOULD STILL BE THERE. Good lord, this is insanity personified. And to have the nerve to sit there claiming 'oh poor me!'
Evil Lives Here (2016)
So Incredible
But not in the way you think- there's absolutely no way these 'victims' are completely innocent; absolutely no one deserves to be beaten/tortured/murdered, but there's a point where they have to hear themselves and the absolutely insane statements that tumble from their mouth and not put it all together. There's no plausible deniability whatsoever, when these red flags present themselves there's a clear and concise explanation for this and it's abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, love-bombing, or all these combined.
It's incredibly frustrating to watch story after story (I could only make it through 3) of these people making countless excuses for behavior that should have sent them fleeing for the exit, yet they hang around. Believing the abuser didn't mean it, they can fix them, if they love them more the behavior will surely change. Yes, being raised in an abusive environment as a child can certainly skew your point of view but there's never any excuse, reason, rationale that can ever override your own self preservation. And for the love of all things holy, stop having children to feed your overweening ego. Bringing another generation into a cycle of abuse won't fix your 'need to feel loved' when you're dead.
It Ends with Us (2024)
Having A Dyson Moment Here.....
Because WOW did this suck mightily. I'd like both my money AND my time back.
I've not been a fan of Colleen's writing so I guess I should have lowered my expectations- especially after learning Blake and Colleen are 'NOMG besties!!' and that Ryan was helping her rewrite scripts without bothering to mention the fact to the writer or director.
Like the 'I thought you were a crypto bro!!' line, it's something that's so ungodly cringe and showcases how incredibly out of touch these people are with the real world machinations and how people normally interact with one another.
The script itself was tedious and labored- like having a root canal without the pleasure of novocaine. The acting (by Lively especially) was just so forced and felt insincere, I'm not sure who thought McKidd was the guy for that role, but the casting director should have been fired for that alone. The main characters are meant to be portrayed as mid-20s, and instead we see someone pushing mid 40s? It makes absolutely no sense, and I (stupidly) thought that maybe this could salvage Colleen's novel, but alas, I may have just as well tossed a $50 into the fountain and made a wish- because neither of my thoughts would have a snowballs chance of coming close to expectations.
Save your money, and maybe wait for it to be released on an app you already subscribe to, on a cold winter's night when you're bored to tears. At least this will help you fall asleep.
Nothing Lasts Forever (2022)
DeBeers Lasts Forever Thanks To Gullibility
A somewhat interesting take on a topic many of us already knew- synthetic diamonds/lab created diamonds are awash in the market and the entire apple cart is not only upset but completely upended and in tatters. Yet, despite voluminous evidence that shows us how corrupt, sinister and unethical these members are, how destructive the industry is, and how manipulative they've been, people fall for the ridiculous marketing campaigns. Thankfully the insane tactic of trying to use gender equality as a marketing scheme to prey upon women's egos absolutely fell flat. They've largely operated on incredibly lucky marketing tactics that people bought into, like the three months salary lie.
Every player in this Greek tragedy, barring a scant few, are just slimy; they're all so completely up their own behinds so far that they're unable to see how wrapped up in their own lies and willingness to sell their souls to keep the money train coming into the station.
What's lost here is, while the DB president (or whatever he is) wants to talk about 'oh look how awesome Botswana is!!', there's still crippling poverty and it includes employees of their own company. DB is very similar to Phillip-Morris, in that, when a product came along that they were unable to squash, (synthetic diamonds/vaping) they decided to try and become a part of what they claimed was just so appalling five minutes ago.
These people are terrified for the future that inevitably awaits and it cannot come soon enough.
The Price of Glee (2023)
Stunningly Horrific
This was absolutely horrendous for a multitude of ways- it's awful for all of obvious reasons: the people in this series feel so icky and gross. Especially someone like Justin, who becomes an apparent leech almost immediately. And what a shocker, there's a headshot and an IMDb profile for the guy. Or the hairdresser who says 'oh I feel like I shouldn't even say this!' Okay then DO NOT SAY IT.
There's the issue of Co.ry's OD- and what is glaringly apparent yet not a single person will say, IT LIES COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY IN HIS HANDS. Period. I don't care who told him it was okay, or who pushed him to work hard, or the myriad excuses poured out- it is absolutely on him to take his sobriety seriously, and he didn't.
Then the crux of the discussion- Ryan Murphy. I don't know if he's the new and improved Harvey of Hollywood, bot you won't hear anyone on camera saying what an absolute monster he is. You'll hear it whispered, credited to anonymous sources, and people constantly dropping over that are associated with his productions, but he's constantly elevated to deity status when it can be sussed out. Behind the scenes? There's constant turmoil where he's concerned. Even in this salacious nonsense, there's barely any negativity around this absolute narcissist, and is the worst kept secret sans Harvey.
This is horrifically bad, just skip it.
Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion (2024)
1 Because 0 Isn't An Option-
~*INCLUSIVITY! BODY POSITIVE! NO SHAME GAME!*~
I should have known. Except I don't have preteen/teen girls, so the brand has flown under the radar for me. Never heard of them, never have seen a brick and mortar store front, seen an ad, nothing. So I was initially intrigued by a doc about a clothing brand and came in, open mind, ready to view.
Despite the insane number of negative reviews, I still wanted to give it a fair chance- and I usually will casually see what kind of a rating something gets before viewing- not because I will/won't watch, but I try and temper expectations.
Started off with a bad taste immediately. These girls/women seems so obtuse- like they're paid stans for the brand. Yammering and stammering, tripping all over each other to gush all over this brand and practically wax philosophical on it. So I get it- you want the viewer immediately smacked in the face with the feeling of cultish, syndromic programming. Then in swoops the 'journalist'. Just in case you are one of the cult members, or maybe you think 'huh this brand is cute, looks affordable and seems like my kinda vibe, she's here to tell you they ARE NOT politically correct and their target audience is unfair!!
I'll let you in on a few secrets and hopefully future filmmakers are paying attention: most people are absolutely disgusted with 'cancel culture' and are now going out of their way to support decent companies/people who do nothing wrong but for some reason, some of the people in the outrage mob were offended. So this machine starts to roll along, except now it's getting incredibly cumbersome. What used to evoke fear and cowering by people has slowly switched over to anger/outrage, and companies who choose not to 'bend the knee' are beginning to be rewarded with even more business if they stand their ground and refuse to apologize.
The economy is an horrific train wreck- nobody has money, can barely swing rent/house payments, grocery prices have increased by triple, and inflation is like an overinflated balloon that ready to pop at any moment. If there's clothing brands that offer us an option that looks good, is affordable and ships directly? Not even a seconds delay deciding whether or not there's a purchase to be made. There's brands available anymore for every body type, size and shape. So this brand happens to cater to a demo of thin teens, there's other brands doing so for big gals, big guys, small guys, muscular guys and gals, etc.
If this doc was meant to repel, it's having the opposite effect- look at the BM stans on IMDb smacking any negative review down and you'll see what I mean. I couldn't even get past halfway before I finally turned it off. There's got to be much better products out there for documentarians to take on and streamers to fund.