Murder Comes to Town

The stories are interesting, but the acting is terrible.

Granted, the actors are given some pretty cheesy dialogue to work with, so they're probably doing their best. It's like a bunch of 5th graders wrote a play. It takes away from the story, unfortunately, and can make it unbearable at times.

Other than the ridiculous acting, the show covers a lot of ground. I do think it's hilarious when they talk like a town is in the middle of nowhere, even though it's maybe 15 minutes from a major city. I understand it's for dramatic effect, so I give that a pass. I do enjoy learning a bit about small towns I haven't heard of before.

This is a well produced show (I personally think the re-enactments are fine) but it falls short for two reasons: neglecting the evidence and the narrator.

For example, in the last episode I watched, S3 E9, a woman is found raped and stabbed to death in her home. They point out that a strange stain is found on her shirt and they show them in the reenactment meticulously cutting it out of her shirt and bagging it. Fast forward to the end of the show, they find the culprit and he actually eventually confesses, but they NEVER addressed the stain! In an earlier episode where someone was shot to death, they never once talked about the murder weapon other than it being a rifle. Was it found, etc? Instead of spending more time on the evidence and forensics, they focus more on interviewing people saying things like "I never thought this could happen in OUR little town!".

And, the narration is just terrible. The writing and the narrator's voice is infuriatingly over the top melodramatic. It's insulting to the audience.

I liked this for the most part. The cases are interesting and the vast majority of them were new to me.

The re-enactment's can be a little cheezie, but aren't they always? They mostly didn't bother me, and don't dominate the show. Those are offset by interviews with people who were there at the time; primarily family members of the victims, and of course, the law enforcement who worked on the cases.

A lot of reviewers seem to have a problem with the narrator. I didn't. His voice seems to fit the subject matter, and he sounds similar to the original City Confidential narrator, Paul Winfield. I've heard much worse.

For myself, these shows are all about the cases and how they were solved, and this series brings that. Overall, I think it's a solid who-done-it? Most of the cases are quite intriguing with plenty of twists to keep you guessing till the end.

With what is approaching a glut of true crime shows it pays to be different. Different in focusing on small town crimes that other shows have passed by is a start. The other difference is in the telling, particularly the narration. Sounding very much like the late Paul Winfield the narrator adds a heaviness matching the horrific crimes. It may, or may not, be one's cup of tea as such. It mostly works to make the dark atmosphere however. What works the most is the way we our introduced to the persons of interest keeping one wondering into the final act without falsely creating "red herrings". The reenactments using actors is a mixed bag, but the stories are sadly compelling using some of the victims friends and family to add a element of real unease and loss.

The show is great. It tells the stories which are very interesting, but man! That "background" music is overbearing. It's definitely not in the background, it's front and center stage. The people being interviewed and the music plays loudly over the voices. It has loud dramatic points where it's absolutely jarring.

I love putting crime shows on when I'm trying to relax or sleep. This is the only show I can't sleep to because of the music.

I doubt anyone from the show checks out these reviews, but I hope they get enough complaints and see it and tone the music down until it really is background.