I Am a Killer

This is a fascinating, and at times unnerving series. I binge watched the whole of series one in a day, and have series two to look forward to.

I'll start by saying, I am British, so understanding some of the legal system in the US has been challenging, but this has informed me of a lot of things.

You have to appreciate the variety of people they interview, they chat to a range of people, different crimes, different personalities, even different intelligence levels.

Some are genuinely unnerving, and you will leave feeling happy they're locked up, one really did get to me though, Kevin Foster, that one stuck with me, he's the one so far I've had a degree of sympathy with.

These are well produced, well edited, and punchy, they don't drag, they certainly don't bore you, these are instructive and fact based.

A chilling watch, these are binge worthy. 9/10.

I skipped over it many times because why would I want to hear from death row inmates? But its now my current favorite show. Very well made with equal time given to each side of the story so that the viewers fully understand what happened. This isn't a show about some liar criminal pleading innocence in the face of evidence proving guilt, they know they are guilty - its often the full story that wasn't told or isn't widely known that will pull you in and that makes it such a good show. As someone else said and I will agree with, prepare for a roller coaster of emotions - and yes, you'll likely shed tears more than a few times.

By that, I mean, as you watch each episode, more and more layers of the onion are revealed. Incredible study of human nature. Drug abuse, manipulation, desperation, criminality all leading to murder. I was mesmerized watching this series. If you're a fan of Lockup, Cops, Live PD or any crime dramas, do yourself a favor and watch the first episode. I guarantee you you'll end up binging this series.

For over a decade I have an interest in anything having to do with true crime. And this with an empasis on jails, prisons, the justice system and court trials. This has led me to read numerous books like prison diaries, forensic science and even autopies. Apart from that, I have seen many of the available prison shows from "MSNBC Lockup", "Locked Up Abroad", "Hard Time", Werner Herzog's "On Death Row", "Behind Bars" and off course the many shows available on Netflix... Finally, I am follow a lot of murder trials on e.g. "Law & Crime Network".

So it probably doesn't come as a surprise that I watched "I am a Killer" with a big interest.

What I really like about this show is that it goes beyond showing or reenacting the acts. It is completely based on interviews with not only the inmate, direct family, counsel, prosecutor, victim's family and even the judge. So far as I know it is the only show that even goes back to the inmate allowing him/her to hear all the opinions of those parties.

Not seldom we see tears of anger or regret. The latter could be fake, but it exactly these emotions that make this show special.

The sentenced inmates are also ones with very violent crimes - often murder - whereby the facts took place several decades ago. The inmates interviewed therefore have already been in prison for quite an extensive period. And regularly these inmates are even on death row. This whereby those inmates will be likely in the last stages of their appeal's process, thereby coming close to the point where an execution date will be set.

What makes the third season of "I am a Killer" very interesting is that it tries to challenge the viewer in thinking of what exactly is justice. And whether there even may be situations that certain inmates are not guilty or are serving a too big a sentence. Especially in episodes 1-4 from season 3, you will start to think of this "what is justice"-question...

I was a bit disappointed that the third season only contained 6 episodes instead of the regular 10. But since Netflix nowadays seems to come with some "surpise releases" of additional episodes - like they have done with e.g. "Stranger Things" and "The Sandman" - I still hope that we may get some additional episodes of "I am a Killer" in the next few weeks or months.

From reading the above, you may have already understood my enthousiasm for this show. I think it clearly deserves a rating of 8.1, rounded down to 8 stars. I most certainly hope that Netflix will keep releasing new seasons, whereby I also hope that in the future we will again get the usual 10 episodes per season.

A great binge-worthy show that discusses the motives and circumstances behind selected death-sentence cases. Some reviewers seem angry because "nobody should be interested in a killer's side of the story; they're killers" but I think that's where they're wrong. In almost every episode this documentary tells the story behind both sides of the party, the prosecution and the killer, and leaves the viewer to make up his own mind about the case and the punishement.

You will not get bored.