Killer Sally

Killer Sally (2022) is a Netflix series my wife and I watched today. The storyline follows two married body builders with two kids as they met and rose to body building stardom. They lived unique lifestyles because of opportunities presented to body builders during that time and ultimately their relationship ends tragically. We uncover clues on what and why things unfolded the way they did.

This series was fascinating not only due to the characters and lifestyles but also due to the fetishes that were revealed. People often forget that before "Only Fans" and the internet there were limitations to how you could access certain content. It was fascinating to me to see that side of the boy building world. The story itself was thorough and did a great job of getting multiple perspectives from all sides and unveiling clues in the most dramatic way possible. Also the flashes to "Hard Copy" gave me a nostalgic feel for the 90s when Hard Copy and Unsolved Mysteries were must see TV. The story also gives you space to have your own opinion on exactly how things happened.

Overall, this is a creative and well done docuseries that is definitely worth a viewing. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

Killer Sally is another true crime story like we are bombarded with on television lately. This case is well explained, with good interviews of both sides of the story, from killer to children, from best friends to attorneys. Everybody will have an opinion about the case and so did I. I think Sally McNeil was a battered woman but still she shouldn't have killed him. Leaving him was the only correct solution, like it always should be in these cases. I am sure he wasn't an easy man to live with but she had for sure a violent temper as well so these two should never have met each other or ar least not stayed together. I didn't found her a heartless or irritating woman. The only real cockroach of society in this well made documentary is Dan Goldstein, the former district attorney. A nasty narcist that enjoys being in the spotlights, that feeds on the misery of others. He's the only one that made me sick to the stomach.

I walked into this series not sure what to expect. So many other true crime docs recently have been so bad. Over dramatized. Slow. Etc. But I'm glad I took the chance with this one. The pacing was great. The interviews were not over sentualized. The doc maker definitely had an opinion and made it clear. I think people will walk away thinking this is about her being innocent. I disagree. Sally made some bad decisions, but I have a lot of empathy for her situation. I think the film is about how women are driven to a point of breaking from a lifetime of abuse. Nobody would talk about it. Excuses were made. The man's side is automatically taken. The BS just swept under the rug. Thru continued recognition that domestic abuse is real and that we should not turn a blind eye to it, hopefully more people can get out of the toxic relationship earlier before another life or lives are destroyed. On a side note. I found the exploration into the subculture of body building and muscle worshipping very interesting.

This documentary was well made. The first episode I laughed out loud and it was quite lighthearted and interesting, and then I posits 2 became darker.

They did it in a way in that lost of the story was from Sally herself, however they did present the other side which had you wondering what you'd do if you were on the jury.

I really feel for her children the most, the poor things were so young and entered into a life of violence afterwards too.

Being only 3 episodes this was a perfect amount of time - anything over 4 episodes is too long for a documentary.

Recommend to all true crime doco lovers out there. You'll learn something about bodybuilding too!

And child abuse are really the underlying themes of Killer Sally. Without those, people would not get into or stay in clearly toxic relationships. What is apparent is that Sally and Ray both had dysfunctional childhoods, which led them to the perfect storm that was their six-year relationship. No one with healthy boundaries and a strong sense of self would marry a lover after a mere two months of courtship. That was the first red flag.

The maltreatment of Sally by her stepfather caused her to believe that she was flawed, undeserving and never good enough for anyone. She learnt to base her worth on what she did for other people. Ray, on the other hand, had to fend for himself after being abandoned by his parents; this led him to view people only as utility or an extension of himself as his young psyche sought to protect itself from obliteration. In other words, through opposite adaptation to emotional trauma, one became a giver and the other a taker.

There is a concept called repetition compulsion where we replay dynamics of previous significant relationships in current ones. Sally was unconsciously repeating her relationship with her stepfather with Ray. She could not step away from her marriage to Ray, even to protect her children, because she was determined for it to succeed in order to make up for the approval she could never gain from her stepfather. Ray became a substitute for Sally's stepfather; in shooting him, Sally was really trying to silence the crushing disapproval that she felt from the male figures in her life. There are no villains here, only children who deserved better parents and happier childhoods.