Enlèvement extraterrestre à Manhattan

This is not an investigative piece of documentary filmmaking. At most, there are presented 2 sides of a story that was thin on details even when new 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the only sane voice in the series - that of Carol Rainey - cannot be encouraged to speak more on the matter because she has died. The only voices left to speak to this are those of the alleged abductee and her son, whose face never appears on camera. There is no evidence provided by the filmmakers to support the assertion that the "Johnathon" that appears on camera is even the son of Linda, who is the main subject of the story.

The filmmakers missed every opportunity to support or refute the claims made by the participants in the series. Was there a city wide blackout in 1989 on the alleged date of the abduction? Are any of the alleged witnesses still alive? What are the opinions of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (the former UN Sec-Gen who is named-checked throughout the series)? What happened to the alleged implant in Linda's nose? What are the well-known issues with hypnotic regression therapy? I don't know, because the filmmakers don't provide the simplest form of fact checking.

If you watch this, understand that the series is not an attempt at journalism. At least I hope that wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. What is presented is exactly what the title of this review states: an interesting subject with no legs on which to stand.

I'm going to start this review by saying that I do believe that we aren't alone in the universe. There being other civilizations in the universe is far more likely than that we're all alone. BUT... Just because other civilizations exists, doesn't mean that they have found their way to us, or even know about our existence.

I went into this documentary with an open mind. The real skepticism started already in part 1 of the documentary when Linda claimed to be scared, Budd told her to come to him, and she said she was going to do her makeup first.. like.. girl, what!? If you truly were scared you'd leave the apartment as soon as possible.

Part 3 of the documentary was a big clownfest that even ended with Linda openly threatening Carol.. Will Linda face any consequences for that?.. probably not. Linda also claimed that nobody believes Carol, but nah.. I, and probably many others, believe in Carol's theory. I'm not sure if Budd was in on it all, but he most certainly did cherry pick among the information that was given, because he wanted to believe Linda sooo bad.

I kind of feel like I've wasted my time watching this. Do I recommend it? Meh.. I feel like it's up to you if you want to waste time learning about this hoax or not.

A lot more intelligently done than it has any right to be, given the subject matter.

I'm a skeptic in every possible sense of the word, to the extent that it's arguably been a detriment to my life in some ways - and I absolutely wouldn't say I've been convinced of the existence of aliens after watching this series. If anything - it indicates to me at least that even your average person is, in theory, capable of convincing anyone of anything.

And yet - it's so pragmatically well-made, so even-handed and balanced, I can't help but have questions. Yes, Linda strikes me and probably anyone with common sense as fame-hungry and maybe prone to deceit, but look at how she's living - this isn't the life of someone riding off the riches of a lifelong con, this is someone who sincerely believes this happened to her. And honestly - I'm open to it.

At first glance, this is a simple documentary that may or may have not been exaggerated and has a solid foundation due to over a dozen witnesses.

It all gets weird when Carol Rainey , wife of Budd Hopkins, the wife of the main filmmaker that was platforming the original story gets all in her feelings, clearly jealous and starts questioning any and everything that would come their way. It didn't take her any reason or even logical thinking to question any of the claims, witnesses or setups, it was baseless hatred and jealousy from top to bottom. I would have much preferred to have someone who was truly neutral that would question everything and look deeper into it.

A fun watch nonetheless.

Simply put, I don't really remember seeing a worse ufo or mystery documentary.

• The show is spread into 3 parts for no reason since what you see or hear is extremely repetitive. The whole first part feels just like a trailer, and the following parts don't get much better. The show doesn't respect your time and just wastes it with repetition
• Many very basic questions that pop into your mind get unanswered and the show does very little to pursue them. Something like involved characters at least trying to explain what exact effort was done to explain some of the phenomena.

I feel it just wasted my time.