Rapimento alieno a Manhattan

A lot more intelligently done than it has any right to be, given the subject matter.

I'm a skeptic in every possible sense of the word, to the extent that it's arguably been a detriment to my life in some ways - and I absolutely wouldn't say I've been convinced of the existence of aliens after watching this series. If anything - it indicates to me at least that even your average person is, in theory, capable of convincing anyone of anything.

And yet - it's so pragmatically well-made, so even-handed and balanced, I can't help but have questions. Yes, Linda strikes me and probably anyone with common sense as fame-hungry and maybe prone to deceit, but look at how she's living - this isn't the life of someone riding off the riches of a lifelong con, this is someone who sincerely believes this happened to her. And honestly - I'm open to it.

Simply put, I don't really remember seeing a worse ufo or mystery documentary.

• The show is spread into 3 parts for no reason since what you see or hear is extremely repetitive. The whole first part feels just like a trailer, and the following parts don't get much better. The show doesn't respect your time and just wastes it with repetition
• Many very basic questions that pop into your mind get unanswered and the show does very little to pursue them. Something like involved characters at least trying to explain what exact effort was done to explain some of the phenomena.

I feel it just wasted my time.

I am still a UFO enthusiast, but after reading this story a long, long time ago, I think I was skeptical of it. The whole truth henges on the truth of the 23 witnesses, but not a thing was given about them (maybe one person who couldn't remember well). In the case of Communion with Whitley Strieber, he had an implant in his ear and had proof of that. In this case, we don't have the solid proof that Strieber provided the skeptics. I agree with Carol that Bud was probably overzealous in his protection of Linda, but I don't think he would have been deceptive. I think he had the wool pulled over his eyes. The ONLY way I would believe Linda is for the 23 witnesses to step forward. They would have had to be living totally separate lives at the time and had no relations with Linda at all.

This is not an investigative piece of documentary filmmaking. At most, there are presented 2 sides of a story that was thin on details even when new 25 years ago. Unfortunately, the only sane voice in the series - that of Carol Rainey - cannot be encouraged to speak more on the matter because she has died. The only voices left to speak to this are those of the alleged abductee and her son, whose face never appears on camera. There is no evidence provided by the filmmakers to support the assertion that the "Johnathon" that appears on camera is even the son of Linda, who is the main subject of the story.

The filmmakers missed every opportunity to support or refute the claims made by the participants in the series. Was there a city wide blackout in 1989 on the alleged date of the abduction? Are any of the alleged witnesses still alive? What are the opinions of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (the former UN Sec-Gen who is named-checked throughout the series)? What happened to the alleged implant in Linda's nose? What are the well-known issues with hypnotic regression therapy? I don't know, because the filmmakers don't provide the simplest form of fact checking.

If you watch this, understand that the series is not an attempt at journalism. At least I hope that wasn't the intent of the filmmakers. What is presented is exactly what the title of this review states: an interesting subject with no legs on which to stand.

And owing to spoilers I can't say exactly why - I can say that I'm unbiased on which way I want for this to be proven true - although granted the romantic in me wants for the abduction to be proven sound and valid - but the scientist in me can't help but to applaud this women's doggedness and dedication to methodically and meticulous pursuit of the truth, however damaging to her relationships that may be - I can not express the admiration I have for someone to be this stalworth and true to one's ideals and principles ideals - what an absolute pleasure to have been able to see this thoughtful documentary take shape over three episodes into its inevitable conclusion

Brava.