Hollywood Demons

7/10 - Solid but not Earth-Shattering Investigation Discovery's Hollywood Demons is snackable true crime served with a Hollywood glaze - equal parts scandal, nostalgia, and "yep, that tracks." The Stephen Collins and Von Erich episodes are the strongest; others feel a bit like a chaos sampler platter.

No narrator, solid pacing, and decent reenactments that don't insult your intelligence - always a welcome surprise.

Dr. Drew offers the usual pop psychology commentary, and Sccachi Koul brings solid insight without being condescending.

Biggest gripe? PLEASE label your interviewees every time. Some of us are watching while folding laundry, okay?

Overall: it's sleek, it's bingeable, and you'll enjoy the ride... even if you forget it ten minutes later.

It's popcorn true crime: light, crunchy, and gone before you realize it.

The Emerald Sleuth has logged off - but the full case file is out there if you know where to look.

Every minute detail is given equal weight in this mess of a show. The editing is just horrendous. The pacing and whiplash between segments is awful. The music doesn't match the subject matter. I'm sure there were quality interviews done for this show, but the people who made these documentary episodes clearly didn't know what they were doing. Many YouTubers make better content than this with far fewer resources.

Dr. Drew's participation in this show also seems so slimy to me. He is not adding any knowledge of these cases or personal experience to these stories. He's just speculating from a distance.

The idea that Drew Pinsky has any room to judge Hollywood's sins is absolutely ludicrous, and his presence as one of two pseudo-expert host/narrators undermines this series from the very start. Pinsky, of course, spearheaded VH1's noxious "Celebrity Rehab," "Sober House," and "Sex Rehab," exploiting addicted and mentally ill people, at least ten of whom have since died. Actual addiction counselors use clips from "Celebrity Rehab" as examples of what not to do in addiction treatment. There is *no* ethical way to televise a rehab clinic. None. And yet, here he is, moralizing and speculating wildly about situations he has nothing to do with. This hypocrisy is actually a blessing, as it immediately sets the tone for the rest of the show: sleazy and exploitative, hurling stone after stone out of its glass house without a nanosecond of reflection, pretending to moral superiority while actually just being another parasite feeding on victims.

After watching several more episodes my opinion on the series has changed somewhat. It's a bit better than I initially thought and I'll upgrade my rating from a 1 to a 3. Scaachi Koul is still grating with her know-it-all tone but she's a bit more restrained in later episodes. However, Dr Drew is still extremely difficult to listen to. As someone from outside the U. S. I find his commentary shallow and often packed with empty speculation and constant attempts to force conclusions from little or no evidence. Lines like "It makes me wonder if..." followed by a unfounded negative assumptions is just a cheap speculative narration that really drags the series down.

Aside from the episode on Collins the rest of the series is quite weak imo. The episode on the wrestling family was occasionally interesting from a family dynamics perspective but it wasn't really Hollywood-related. The Power Rangers episode felt completely irrelevant to me since I never followed the show and the actors involved are barely recognizable (even within the U. S?). And the episode on violent child actors made me fall asleep.

The production itself is another low point. Editing is choppy and at times outright disorienting. The pacing is poor and the episodes feel like they drag on endlessly. Altogether, it's a struggle to stay engaged.

This show has become my guilty pleasure. I love anything that is Hollywood and true crime or biographies! I hope there is a season 2 because only 6 episodes is just not enough. I am currently on the episode of Hollywood stalkers and it is so interesting. I'm not a huge Dr Drew fan but having him as a guest in each episode to explain his thoughts and the psychology behind the thinking is great.

I'm glad that this show focuses on not so much heard things, example the Melendez brothers, but rather less known crimes such as Stephen Collins.

Keep up the great work and keep these episodes coming please!