Signs of a Psychopath

What helps this show stand out from all of the other true crime shows out there is the honest sometimes shocking "diagnosis" the doctors give us as the crimes of the psychopath unfold. The show portrays the crimes of a psychopath while it cuts to various doctors who explain the reasoning behind the act. While the doctors may give insight into the crime there's really no understanding them. After all, can anyone, other than another psychopath, understand the reasoning behind the crimes of the psychopath? But the doctors really give that insight in terms that we all can understand. The only negative I can think of is that they sometimes don't go deep enough into some of the criminals portrayed. I'd love to see an hour long episode on some of the criminals.

Most Murder Shows (what I call true crime shows) are superficially shallow in terms of the people involved, victims and perpetrators. This show gets a little deeper into the mind, psychology, behaviors, and motivations of psychopaths. I feel that after watching most if not all of the episodes, I could spot a psychopath a mile away. And yes, I've come across a few. Ask me about the 8 year old psychopathic kid I came across, who almost caused my son to quit hockey. I felt bad for the parents, who actually seemed like pretty good people. They just had a kid who was evil to his core. Fun fact about psychopaths: they make good CEOs. No empathy, they just care about the company making money for the shareholders. No empathy, let's layoff another few hundred or few thousand employees ...

Although I watched every episode, one season would have been enough to tell me all I needed to know: suss out the psychopaths and stay out of reach. These killers put to shame all the videos I have watched on narcissism. What I found surreal was the way someone who had just killed a whole family or a pregnant girlfriend could shrug their shoulders and laugh, then try to wriggle out of the charges. I subtracted 2 stars from a possible 10 because a couple of the female experts seemed not to have watched the actual interviews of the killers and were just talking off the tops of their heads. Instead of addressing individual psychopathy they would just toss off the exact same "observations" each episode -- "this guy is devoid of emotion" or "this person treats people like objects" or "they are trying to hint at an insanity defense." I would have liked more in-depth analysis of particular cases. It was too facile and repetitive in many instances. I started feeling sorry for the cops who have to put up with these murderous, lazy, self-indulgent criminals every day who sit there and lie.

The most interesting parts of this series are the interrogation clips. Most of them using outdated and non scientific interrogation techniques.

A set of experts try to explain how every suspect in the series are psycopats, only based on transcripts and interrogations audio/video. Even if the experts sometimes agree that the suspects only have a degree of psycopathic behavior, the series miss an opposing view, with someone like professor Gisli Gudjonson and his work on false confessions and interrogations.

False confessions and interrogation methods would be another great tv series if you are more into documentaries based on facts than entertainment.

This insightful, fascinating series gives you an insight into psychopathic behaviour. It makes for some uncomfortable viewing, especially when watching a psychopath explain his behavior like he's just been taking a stroll. It's exceptionally creepy, but definitely compulsive viewing. Experts talk you through what kind of behaviors psychopaths can display, which I find extremely helpful. At the start of the series you're asked 'would you see the signs'? The point is, psychopaths adapt and blend in, adjust their behavior to suit their needs - so that question is chilling. Each episode focuses on a different psychopath - be warned, some of the details are not for the faint of heart, as psychopaths have no empathy, relishing reliving their crimes to an extraordinary level.