Sasquatch

With some of the garbage docs that Netflix has been churning out recently Hulu decided they can play the game too. They hook you in with the title and get you thinking maybe this might be a fun romp down the old Big Foot trail, but nooooooope, this is almost all about weed and hippies and paranoia. If they had just said that up front with an appropriate title I might have watched anyways.

Starts off with some good Bigfoot tails and that's where it ends with Bigfoot. After they get into the 3 murders. You can kind of just say yeah it may be Bigfoot or it was really just some dope growers taking out some Mexicans that were on or near their crop or they were the competition. It's not a bad documentary, it's just titled wrong. So much so they did it on purpose so they would hopefully real you in. From the looks of it, it did. I would have watched this anyways as it's just another murder Mountain mystery. Just wouldn't have been as eager as I was when I seen the Sasquatch title. I might have gave it a 7-8ish if they would gone with a more truthful Title.

...so it's a little weird that people are complaining about this show not being "about Bigfoot." Another show about someone looking for something they absolutely aren't going to find would be redundant and boring. This is an incredible true crime story with an ending you won't be expecting. Just do yourself a favor and watch it-unless for some reason you'd rather watch people spend 8 episodes in the woods chasing prerecorded Bigfoot noises.

If you're expecting to see and hear mostly about Bigfoot you'll be disappointed. It's more about the craziness and lawlessness of the north California pot farming communities and urban legends. It's not great but I thought was interesting. The ending (if true) is a really good tactic and impressive for the time it would have happened.

A fascinating dab of investigative documentary-making centered on journo David Holthouse trying to find the truth behind a supernatural encounter he'd witnessed whilst working on a Californian drug farm in the early 1990s. The doc becomes a bit of a shaggy-dog story after that, encompassing both the history of bigfoot sightings in the area, the drug trade, the exploitation of illegal workers and everything in between. It likely didn't need to be over three parts and long sections of it feel drawn out or unnecessary - but Holthouse is a charismatic narrator and his "weaponized dissociative behavior" makes him appear wildly fearless amongst the cast of the strange and dangerous interviewees he encounters along the way. A meandering but atmospheric tale, this, with a surprising amount of depth and empathy. I hope this isn't the last we see of him.