Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders

If I learned anything while watching Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders, it was just how simple it was to get away with multiple crimes before the Internet was invented. There's one episode of this docu-series where they say the main suspect's wife is "only guilty" of having a false Social Security card. Stealing someone's identity must have been a walk in the park, since her husband committed multiple acts of fraud and extortion by simply moving from state and state and may very well be a serial killer.

I was a small child when the Tylenol murders happened so I don't remember them but I remember the whole thing surrounding pill bottles and contaminated Halloween candy in the 1980s, it's totally crazy that as late as 1982 Tylenol was mass-produced by a major corporation and didn't have a safety seal or even tape on the box, let alone a hard-to-open "child safety" lid. Yeah "child safety" not "crazed cyanide killer proof lid." I guess it just doesn't have the same ring to it for the people in Tyelnol marketing.

Ostensibly, this is a hol'atta nuttin boiga EXCEPT a lovely video that could shown to prospective jurors (and future criminals) on the sciences they need to (or should) understand when hearing a case - - I'm only gonna address the first episode here but post it to the show rating cause I have seen it, however my issues are inherent throughout - and though I don't fault a Feebee for being poor at public speaking but the special agent in charge of task force two, well... I hole his investigative prowess exceeds his command of the spoken word - nonetheless it for me it boils down to the lack of anything but methodology (unrelated to the specific case, oddly enough) and denials of interviews from authorities - frankly it's a wonder this was completed.

It's a great subject for a documentary. This was such a tragic, scary, and massively impactful event in history. It changed so many things - and it's a very interesting story. The documentary itself is a little cheesy - but the subject matter is so good, that over powers the weaknesses in its execution. The reporter guy they bring in later in the documentary is completely over dramatic - and he seems fairly fake. But again - the actual news footage and the details of the event are phenomenal. It's a very interesting subject - and it's definitely worth a watch. It's NOT unwatchable - it's okay - but the subject is what really makes this documentary good!

Watching the first episode, I was interested in the subject matter and actual news reels from 1982. It wasn't great, but I had hopes it would get better. It didn't.

This "documentary" was much more focused on skewing the actual fear of that event into some sort of manufactured drama. It substituted or embellished the facts of the story with conjecture.

The entire 4th episode was focused completely on the "journalist" making this pile of compost. We are forced to follow him from place to place as he tries to track down the houses where ancillary characters, long deceased, used to live. We are treated to his frustration at being foiled in his noble efforts. It reeks of ego and desperation for relevance. You can almost smell his hair products and Drakkar Noir.

If you must watch this limited series, be sure to count the number of times the interviewees are asked irrelevant, repetitive, asinine, or insulting questions.

The ONLY saving grace is the genuine likability of the victims' family members.

Not sure who story edited this documentary, but it is all over the place and is trying hard to stretch itself out over 5 episodes. In episode 4, we meet this reporter, Brad for the first time and are expected to understand who he is and follow his journey - we never saw him in the the previous 3 episodes. Each interview seems to have been directed, interviewed and filmed by different people - so it looks very disjointed. For those people that love true crime documentaries...this one is sub par, as we are expecting a much better story line. Bad storytelling, bad editing. Shame, as the subject matter is compelling.