Unusual Suspects

I watch everything True Crime, and I can't stand the shows where the narrator talks in an exaggeratedly dramatic, whispy voice. He is also super disrespectful and keeps referring to sex workers as hookers and prostitutes like it's 1999. I was recommended this show because I liked Your Worst Nightmare - which is 1000x better - and was hugely disappointed.

Like most other shows on Investigation Discovery, this one draws you in right from the start. It's a real life "who done it?" Some of the cases, I never would've expected that the killer was the person it was, but others were somewhat obvious based on the narrative, however this show is definitely worth watching. It's also a reminder that even decades later, cases can still be solved and often are thanks to new technology and information.

I've literally binge-watched every season of this and I'm looking forward to another one because like most other true crime junkies out there, knowing that these are real stories are precisely what draw me in and get addicted to the show.

This show covers so many different murder cases but it also gets extremely repetitive over time. Literally 9 out of 10 times, you get the same story. Cops try for years to solve the case but they can't. They come to a dead end. No one knows who murdered our victim....and then years later cops get an unexpected phone call and they receive a tip.

Then this leads to case being solved and it turns out that the killer is someone completely random or someone they haven't mentioned at all up until the last 5 minutes of the episode. Literally 9 out of 10 times cases aren't solved with evidence or police work but an anonymous tip that comes years later after the case is closed with introduction of a whole new person in the last 5 minutes. Then the killer just confesses everything and goes to jail.

It would have been much better if they actually picked cases where the case is solved by evidence and police work instead of random anonymous tips that come years after case is closed.

"God pointed the killer" - I like very much these series. But I want to highlight this particular episode. On June 1991, 23- years-old Denise vanishes when a flat tire forces her to pull over in a highway at night. Her car was found on the side of the road, but there was no trace of Denise. Detectives assumed that she left her car and walked to the nearest pay phone to ask for help. They found no signs of fight, no blood, Denise's car was clean, no evidence whatsoever. Second detective's assumption was that "someone" pulled over and offered Denise a ride. But who? And where did they go? Hundreds of cars passed by that freeway of Orange County, could be anyone, could go anywhere. Soon detectives had no leads to investigate, they were clueless and the case went cold. I can't tell you anymore, I invite you to watch it. Next thing was an incredible twist of destiny. All began in 1994, when a mature couple wanted to buy cheap wall painting...

Aside from Unsolved Mysteries, Unusual Suspects is one of my favorite true crime TV shows. Production-wise, the show looked cheap in its debut season. But when the show returned for its second season in 2011, it looked much better. One may see Unusual Suspects as something of a throwback to the 1980s. That might sound unfair, but I can see why it can be viewed as such. In fact, there are moments in the show where reenactments remind me of reenactments from the early seasons of Unsolved Mysteries, due to the look and feel. Unusual Suspects has nice production values.

If Unusual Suspects can teach us anything, it is that even your quiet and seemingly harmless neighbor can be a cold-blooded murderer. Sometimes, a person's public persona can be a stark contrast to who they truly are behind closed doors.