Murder in the Heartland

This series is pretty typical of the true crime format: You hear the details from loved ones of the victims while police fill in the rest. Unlike some series of this type there is very little recreation of the events that are being described, probably due to a relatively small budget.

Drone photography has made way more of these shows possible, because even with a small budget you can get sweeping, dramatic landscape shots without much money spent. And the landscape shots in this show are impressive.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of recreations and the small budget, it's all the other non-drone photography that falls short in this series. There are so so many shots, weird random shots of the subjects being interviewed. There must be some directive from the producers that they get a lingering slow motion shot of everyone's backside. There are also tons of random shots of people doing their jobs. Feeding cows. Cutting the grass. Making biscuits. Just a lot of whatever camera work while someone talks in the background.

The production itself is also sloppy in that some of the details are just wrong. Incorrect dates displayed on the screen. Typos. Kind of amateur hour.

The stories themselves are okay, most are easy to follow and tell a concise narrative.

But with so many true crime shows out there, this one is among the sloppiest I've seen.

Fascinating, in-depth true crime stories; however, I have seen several episodes with careless typos in the screen title cards ("supect" instead of "suspect," "tounge" instead of "tongue"). The show needs a proofreader!

Very well done! Each episode has some resolution eventually. Sometimes it's 10+ years later. But it feels good to know these murders were caught. The stories are told in a tasteful and compassionate way, with all the family and friends being a part of the story, you get to know the people. It also makes it terribly sad but as someone with a horribly murdered loved one, it resonates with me very much. I think they're cathartic for me. Def one of the best of true crime that I've watched.

Oh what this show COULD be! But it isn't! I am a crime show buff, and I always love seeing how they end up figuring out who did it. That's why we watch them right? Well, this show is big on filler, and short on interesting information. It has a hard time getting to the point and instead repeats information continually throughout each episode. Furthermore it drags it out more by taking a 30 second pause between seemingly every sentence someone says to show scenery or something else. Again, just dragging it out.

Compare this to Heartland Homicide. That show is big on information and goes at a much better pace. This series should have 30 minute episodes, or they should put more into the time they have. Heartland Homicide is one of my favorite crime series, and I had high hopes for this one, but I was left severely disappointed. Stop milking the show, and make it good!

I watched the first 4 episodes of this, the narration is good and it features in depth assesment of the killer and the victim with good directing specially in the end..

If you like 48 hours and other crime reality shows, this is up your alley too...

8/10 stars