Cruise Ship Killers

Very vague glossing over of real murders at sea with fake names, last names aren't even mentioned and neither are the ships. One episode "Shelley" tells the story of a woman named Shelley that was supposedly murdered by her ex-husband Will off the coast of Vancouver but with some detective work, it turns out the real case is about a Chinese woman named Yang Wenjuan and the location was off the Coast of Hong Kong on a gambling boat, not even a cruise ship.

Why the producers couldn't tell the true stories of these crimes is the real mystery.

This is not a documentary in a true sense, it's more like a story told like a rumor spreads after its been passed along by 20 people where all the real info got butchered.

My wife and I love this show because it's so terrible.

As others have said, it's questionable whether many of the stories are actually true, though a couple of them did turn up internet hits. But that's the least bad thing about it.

From the actors pretending to be real friends or relatives (with no indication that they're being portrayed by actors other than the terrible acting), to the fact that *everything* except the talking heads is shown in slow motion, to the experts talking in such generic terms that it's clear they're not even talking about the case of the week, to the voiceover scripts that sounds like they've been written by someone who's never spoken English before**... it's all just weird. (And that's disregarding the fact that half the cases don't even seem to involve a killer at all... they're just disappearances that may or may not have involved foul play.)

We can't take our eyes off it!

** Most recent example: today a passenger was found "drowned to death". In an earlier episode, there was a piece of crucial evidence that "cracked the case wide open". Which was it, did it crack the case or blow it wide open?!

Horribly produced shows with very little real content. After commercials, they follow with long recaps and feed you another tiny teaspoon. Probably about 5 minutes of real information provided in a 60 minute slot. Also it seems you cannot tie at least most of the plots to real Cases or people, so not 'reality' but essentially poorly contrived fiction, perhaps to protect the cruise lines. 99% formulaic filler for advertising. At the end, only frustration knowing you've been had.

I thought it would be intriguing to hear about such stories but the droning narration with zero emotion and the ridiculous plausibility attributed to the suspects is a test in patience. Along with the slow pace and redundancy of description, I can't say this is a well-done series. However, it's very eye-opening. It makes me realize that cruise ships are ripe with people who are criminals and con artists looking for their next prey, almost protected by the fact that Maritime law &/or being in another country can make any crime hard to bring to justice.

These shows are totally twisted from truth some I think are completely made up. I can only find less than 10 that are partly true:

Example:

Sadie is the story of Lynn Kaufman who was murdered in 1959 by her lover who worked on the ship. He was a radio operator and the show says he was a chef. He was eventually acquitted even though he had confessed. I like how they interview her friend on the show and she seems to be a woman in her 20s. This woman would not have even been born at the time this murder occurred.