I'll Be Gone in the Dark

While I don't share the frustration of those who expected a documentary focused primarily on the Golden State Killer, I do think "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" has problems, despite the many strengths of the series. Liz Garbus is an exceptionally talented filmmaker who has directed several superior documentaries. This is not her best work.

Michelle McNamara is the lead story. As the episodes accumulate it becomes increasingly clear that while smart, passionate and dedicated, she is not especially interesting. We learn about her family, upbringing, blogging, fact gathering, obsession, and drug abuse. Great care is taken not to judge her or question the decisions that led to her death.

Her husband comes across as a well-intentioned enabler, woefully out of touch with changes in McNamara's health. Viewers are left to wonder how much child rearing was left to a nanny we never meet. When McNamara's sister shares that she ordered a full toxicology, which revealed fentanyl from black market drugs, the implications are left hanging.

We never learn what shape the incomplete draft of the book was in, or the extent of the revisions and additions. Much more interesting are the interviews with survivors of the GSK. The honest reflections and painful revelations say more about the vast harm done by the murderer/rapist than anything we learn about McNamara. They were brave to share. Their stories are chilling. They live with pain that never really goes away.

McNamara did not solve the case. In some ways, she became another victim of the GSK. The film casts her in as favorable a light as is possible, yet the real heroes are the dedicated law enforcement officers (some retired), and the courageous survivors. The advancement of DNA testing, along with a growing database, was essential to bringing long delayed justice to become a reality. There were many victims of the GSK. The brave survivors are the true heart of the series. Tragically, McNamara was a victim of her own making.

Disappointing. The last person I want to see in a serial killer crime documentary is Patton Oswald. Lol.

Sorry for the passing of McNamara but should've focused more on the crimes, the victims and the perpetrator. Stopped in the first episode.

This series is advertised as being a true cime story about the Golden State Killer. Very quickly in the first episode, you feel like it's rather an advert for Michelle McNamarra's blog, podcast and book. The blog's URL is repeated multiple times like these bad adverts for car insurance and we're told by various people how great Michelle is and how great her book is going to be. A lot of time is spent explaining how Michelle got interested in the case, how she investigated it, how she got access to evidence and sources, her thoughts and theories and how she wrote about it all. Is this just a badly disguised tribute to Michelle from her family and friends? If you stick with it, you do end up hearing from the victims and their story, and how the GSK operated but it does take a while. The episodes though are often a jumble of bits which don't seem to have a particular order or flow to them. You don't feel like you are progressing through time or through an investigation. It's more like listening to someone remembering parts of Michelle's life story in random order until you reach the point when the crimes themselves are discussed. This makes it difficult to get into and at times quite boring. Had they stuck to talking about the crimes, victims and investigations/evidence, it would have been a 2 (perhaps 3) episodes series but interesting throughout.

As others have noted, this series is as much about Michelle McNamara as it is about the California rapes and murders. McNamara's story --- a sad but unremarkable descent into obsession and addiction --- is simply not interesting enough to justify the extended treatment it gets. The series is on surer footing when its focus shifts to the crimes and, in particular, to the victims of those crimes.

Interesting, thrilling documentary which glues one to the screen. Having said, details and ideas keep being repeated with lengthy and sometimes irrelevant interviews. Could have easily cut down into four-five episodes.