Buried in the Backyard

The narrator is either a very good robot or a very bad actor. No, take it back. Not even a good robot.

Due to the horrible narration and the disjointed story line .. this program which should have been terrific is awful.. that's the kindest choice of words I can use to describe this .. yawn . .. show. I have never be subjected to a barrage of disjointed and idiotic interviews.. fini!

It hardly qualifies as So Nearly Perfect but, the narrative oddments aside - & where are these people on the subject of those crappy nbc/cbs/abc programs & the now-ruined Snapped in that regard? - BITB does air crimes that, lucky for them, escaped the clutches of that metastatic "dateline" or are not so well-known, given its focused subject. Several episodes are even eyepopping gasp-inducing terrors. My chief gripe with this production, which has become a staple of this now nbc dump site Oxygen - touting itself as "true crime 24/7" while farting out marathon hours of scripted network junk e.g. "Chicago PD - is its upper-lefthand corner information "banner" displays such as ACTUAL POLICE PHOTO/VIDEO or showing date/place, that get run over by that channel's idiotically oversized "tv 14" blocks that linger like anchovy breath (too long). The strange (& thankfully unique) asynchronicity of, e.g., SOMEONE'S NAME sliding in followed by "who they are" below it half a second later is an extremely annoying visual, but there's worse to beat crime documentary followers' eyes across the spectrum. But the pros of BITB outweigh its cons - something that cannot be said about the nbc/cbs/abc programs - & Miss Sadie is not so repulsive to the ear as for example that N. Morales; her hollering I can't tolerate for more than a few seconds! When it comes to delivering the goods (so to speak) on its dedicated subject, BITB holds its own - just like right now in this ACTUAL POLICE PHOTO of a recovered skull in a gloved hand. Chilling as an old icebox every time. When Oxygen dumps ALL that scripted trash & lives up literally to that self labeled "24/7" regarding the crime documentary genre, they'll be all the better for it - & its audience, the boobirds included, greater in numbers. "(T)hat's the kind of program I like!"

It's funny that so many people here have complained about the narrator. I loved her voice and thought it fit the theme of the show perfectly. Her voice as the common thread through each story separated Buried in the Backyard from the million other murder shows out there. I found her to be clear and expressive without being silly, conveying both the highs and lows of the subjects' lives. The new season (6) uses no narrator - it's much harder to follow, doesn't paint as clear a picture of the people involved, and has lost the relatability that made the stories so compelling. Now it's just another murder show.

It's obvious these are slightly smaller budgeted shows, but the interviews are well done and the editing is high level. My biggest gripes are the robotic, canned female narrator and the cheesy music over the "happy times" segments. Seems like the producers at Oxygen think their audience can't stomach darker music and darker imagery. But the true crime fans are much savvier now and used to dark content on HBO, Netflix etc. The reenactments are poorly directed, but they're well edited. The stories are generally good, but you can tell they're really pushing the "buried in the backyard" theme to crimes where nobody was buried in the backyard at all. The series has potential. Some episodes are better than others, definitely a much watch for true crime fans.