Les génies du mal

SPOILER: In recent years Netflix has really been building out a niche for itself creating solid, interesting documentaries. 'Evil Genius' continues that trend with a truly haunting story of murder and betrayal that leaves you breathless, with a spotlight on how far a human soul can sink.

In 2003 a man robbed a bank while wearing a bomb collared around his neck. He was stopped outside the bank by police and gave himself up without a fight, claiming that he had been assaulted and forced into the robbery by unknown black assailants.

The story was, to say the least, sketchy. Police didn't believe him, thinking that his story and the supposed bomb were part of a ruse to escape punishment if he got caught, right up until the collar started beeping and exploded, killing him. Investigation revealed bizarre scavenger hunt style notes in his car giving him instructions for dropping off the money and retrieving keys to unlock his collar, which seemed to support his claims.

Suspects were identified and interviewed, but via a chain of police and FBI screw-ups, no one was charged for the crime for many years. However, a frozen body, seemingly unrelated to the "pizza bomber heist", put the spotlight back on a group of suspects. Gradually, over years, investigations and confessions revealed the deeper story surrounding the crime.

At the center of all of this is a woman named Marjorie emerges as a central figure in numerous deaths and murders. She is smart, beautiful (when she was younger), manipulative and conniving, and about as close to the definition of evil as you can get.

This story is simply depressing as layer after layer is peeled back to reveal aspects of human nature most of us don't want to admit are possible. The final confessions of one of the tangentially connected conspirators, revealed in the last minutes of the final episode, is really just heartbreaking.

This story won't leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Justice is often incomplete or absent altogether, and sometimes bad things just happen to people who don't deserve it. How sad the ending is will kind of depend on how you interpret all of the evidence; the series really prefers to present the information and leave the conclusions to the audience. But it's a fascinating, if unhappy, journey of discovery, and one I think is well worth the 3 hours or so it will take to watch all of the episodes.

It's no secret that I admire the quality Netflix has been bringing out concerning docu-series. In fact this is were my love started for this whole new reinvented genre. The biggest gems in my opinion are: "Making a Murderder", "Wild Wild Country", "The Keepers", "Flint Town",... I do believe this one had the potential to make it right in that row. But just failed in doing all things perfect. Nevertheless this is a good documentary, you do need to watch, if you are in love with this genre.

The beginning is quite spot on, and really powerful. Especially the scene where you witness the bombing of the hostage. It was raw, and portrayed in that way that immediately made you feel sick to your stomach. From that point on the story starts. Episode one is quality wise the best episode. You feel that the director is building up to some things. But the following episodes he fails on delivering, in my opinion. It has all to do with the pacing, which is so important in this genre. It's actually the building up that is not always right. It is as if the director knows what he wants to tell you, but got lost in all the details, and doesn't really know which parts of the story deliver suspense, and which just slow down the story in general. Generally this make the plots not as powerful and as surprising as they could have been made.

The second thing where it fails on delivering is really getting an understanding of the persons involved in this. The two lead criminals in this story are obviously Diehl-Armstrong and Rothstein. Every episode consists of a lot of footage of Diehl-Armstrong, who is obviously a wounded narcissist woman, talking gibberish. What's the value of this footage? It's quite clear this is a very sick woman. But it doesn't provide any added value, unless it could show another side of this person. The same goes to Rothstein. I do feel the personal relationship with Diehl-Armstrong and the director got in the way. As he believed she was the key to the truth in this story. Because of his time investment in this relationship, a big part of the story is only told by her. Without adding any more value to the story that must be told.

Because of this the plot, and the building up to the end - which should have been a real climax - goes way to fast. And all te discoveries the director make, don't feel as important as they should have felt. Nevertheless, this is a great documentary with a story full of plots that may really surprise you. And I'm happy this story got told.

I've been struggling to get into shows of late, so was happy to find myself hooked on this documentary series, watching it all in just over a day.

Its just mind-blowing. Each episode has its own strong stories that would work well as a stand-alone event, except that they are all related in complex ways and tell this insane over-arching plot. The mystery that unfolds from the bizarre SAW-like first episode is so unpredictable and twisty, right up to the very last moments.

Its fascinating watching interviews, hearing bits of pieces of information, and finding your mind folding in on itself as you try to suss people out, think about motives, all the 'what ifs' etc. There is something always eerie and atmospheric about seeing evidence, street footage of locations, news footage, tying it all together like you're a voyeuristic detective.

I thought it was brilliantly researched and edited, and never a dull moment. I'd have loved for a body language expert like Paul Ekman (or someone like his fictional protege Cal Lightman from Lie to Me) to analyse the interviews for 'tells' as they were plentiful.

With incredible true-stories like this, brilliantly told, I struggle to justify why I'd want to watch a made-up story with self-conscious actors and gimmicky direction. There's so much more to learn, and substantial food for thought from real life.

A perfect storm of doc-making. You have a researcher who's spent 15 years of his life getting close to every character, you have a compelling edit that never drags and creates more twists and suspense then 99.8% documentaries, and last of all you have one of the weirdest and most dumbfounding crimes ever undertaken. Blown away by this series and a huge congrats to everyone who worked on it.

The thing is true yet is filled with twists, the ending is surprising, and it's never slow or dull. I don't understand how anyone can rate this thing below 9. In my opinion, a lot of Netflix content is subpar, but this is outstanding.