Worst Ex Ever

This is well put together series, expertly edited with a strong narrative to each episode. It's easy to binge these shows not just because they are so concisely edited and filmed but the stories are compelling.

However, it should be noted that the victims, their families and friends, demonstrate a naivete that borders on stupidity. Each victim, and most of their friends and families had all the clues about their perpetrators behavior but look the other way. In a country where millions voted for a president who is abusive and a criminal, it comes at no surprise that these victims have been so easily manipulated.

Anybody with early insight into the true nature of these abusers are dismissed. It's not just a story of people being misled and abused but of a country too often allowing themselves to be misled and abused.

It's a finely made documentary series, with quite eerie and disturbing topic.

There's just one problem with it, and it's how producers of this documentary reasoned; if you have 30 minutes worth of a story, and you have a contract for a one hour episode, then by any sanity, you should just tell TWO of such stories to fill the time.

What did producers do? Create 30 minutes of cartoons to simply waste viewer's time.

Now, if the 30-minute story is not very good, and it's 30 minutes long, typical person would go, "meh, it was just 30 minutes, anyway". But if it's dragged out to a hour, not only did the person watch a poor story, but they also lost entire hour of their lifetime for no good reason.

So, while it's a fine documentary, everything's dragged out about twice the length it should be. Which is just utterly annoying.

I do not know why people who work for Netflix do this. One would assume that if you get a contract from major streaming platform, you'd try your best to be sane and reasonable and deliver a top product.

Guess I don't know something.

The horror of being close to a truly bad person must be just nightmarish. Episode 1 conveys this sense very strongly and by the end of the episode, an emotionally exhausting narrative has been laid out.

However, the rest of the series falls far short of the series opener. Not that those other stories aren't stunning, but they're simply poorly constructed and drag on in ways that seem more focused on squeezing every detail, however unnecessary, out of the interviews.

With no intention to diminish those stories, it must be said that they're poorly presented and simply are not compelling. At a time when criminal reality shows abound on streaming platforms, there's much better content out there.

Watching this program will make you want to scream at your television. Not to sound too judgmental, but some of the women in these episodes are just far too trusting and just horrible judges of character. How many times do you need to get abused or beaten before you realize a guy is bad news?

The first episode in particular also shines a terrible spotlight on law enforcement in Nevada and Oregon. The utter incompetence is just enraging. The fact that Ben Foster was able to threaten and abuse women over and over again is a disgraceful failure by the legal system. And watching the almost slapstick antics of the cops in Oregon trying to apprehend Foster was just theater of the absurd.

As far as thrills and adrenaline rushes go, I think that Worst Ex Ever was much more effective than Worst Roommate Ever. These stories were horrifying because of both the ongoing DV, but also at how pathetic the police has been through time. It should NOT have to get the point of assault happening for these people to get some level of protection against their former partners!!! "Killing for Custody" was right out of a horror movie, but I was grateful for such a striking example of men being victims of DV as well. It's necessary representation, and I hope that others who watch this show leave with a better understanding of DV, DV warning signs, and the lasting impact these experiences have on survivors.