Siebert_Tenseven

I'm a big fan of survival stories so this series really grabbed me. The format is very methodical and works well. There are two stories per episode featuring the actual survivors being interviewed along with a dramatized version of the events played by actors, accompanied by numerous interviews with the scientists who study animal behavior. I always feel grateful after hearing about others' challenges, so every episode lifted my spirits quite a bit. It's surprising that the production staff were able to find so many survivors of animal attacks, and I'm not sure there could be a second season with quite the same impact. It would be a bummer if they had to go with "Something Bit Me And I Died" which is the actual outcome of less positive situations. As I noted, survival stories rock my world.

I enjoyed Jon Krakauer's book quite a bit. It's written in the third person, so I was intrigued by the inclusion of Jeb Pyre, the Mormon detective who uncovers the truth of the murders. He is not a real person and did not appear in Jon Krakauer's book.

The adaptation of this book is stunning because it introduces the struggles of a man of Mormon faith coming to terms with the murder inflicted by other believers in his community. Andrew Garfield embodies the role very deeply and the viewer gets the impression that he is torn apart and thoroughly tested in his faith. Garfield's role is a first rate acting assignment.

The glitchy video flashback and title techniques used in this documentary have been imitated to death since Fincher's "Se7en" in 1995. At this point it's tiresome and almost comical, to say nothing of the sudden twangy clangy overdone stress music. It's too bad, because there are some interesting stories here that would have felt more authentic if the production company wasn't trying so hard to simulate the "scary" styles from the last millennium.