Reviews

If it was some crime show and the person being interviewed was an a-hole and annoying, perhaps, I would give this episode one star as some type of retribution for infuriating me. But, what can I do when it is a dog - okay, a painted wolf - that has pissed me off? I love painted wolves. Undoubtedly my favorite African animal and up until this episode, I adored their social structure: one for all and all for one. But, this matriarch has besmirched the name of painted wolves throughout Africa for centuries to come: Blacktip, you call yourself a leader? Of what? I took pause when you chased your Mom, Tait, from her homelands. But even after her exile - because you had her scent - you chased her even further out. Lands that you knew nothing about only to have two of your dogs killed? Both were lost in a horrific and senseless manner. Be warned: this is a very hard episode to watch and there is not much that I have not seen on safari-type documentaries. I screamed and cried for naught. I love you, Tait. You are a beautiful matriarch, for always.

This woman is deluded. There were so many red flags with which he could have beaten her over the head. At 19:45 in the video, they show a photo of him from his Most Wanted listing and, then, the video shows him when he was with her. They are clearly the identical man. She wants to downplay how needy and desperate she was rather than the gullible woman she was who put herself, her children and the entire community at risk all because she really needed to have a man in her life - saying and doing all the right things. Multiple flags up until they married but she caves in each time he returns because - let's face it - up until that point in her life, one year (since she divorced her previous husband) was the greatest alone time she could stand. Then, surprise surprise, he shows his true colors after she marries him. "You could be a murderer," she confronts him (but the police are not an option.) Di. Very distinctive eyebrows, bone structure, too.

If anyone you are interested in has a criminal record - KNOW IT. Completely. As completely as you possibly can. Murder? Let them get a second chance - somewhere else. NOT when you already have two kids whom you owe your protection to. One of the reviewers stated that she already knew fully his crime previously because she went with her father to his parole hearing to advocate for the release. Is that true? They did not provide a source. The story that the producers of this series allowed her to tell was that she had not seen him for over a decade and that she heard distantly that he had been in prison. She even said that he accepted "it was an accident...or self defense as his explanation." Lots of contrary things going on here...but, as everyone said...there were WAY too many signs of his potential for her to have stuck around, left and then returned even. I kept thinking while I looked at her and listened to her - what a beautiful well-spoken woman. She did not need to have all four of her children killed. REGARDLESS of what her father said or didn't say. INDEPENDENT of what her father did helping him to come back into the community, there was more than enough reasons to run from this man without looking back. She can be angry at her father all she wants....it's misdirected anger. She should only be angry with herself. GORGEOUS children, btw. Absolutely gorgeous. If anyone is considering becoming intimate with someone who actually has a history of murder - do not just settle for their version of the story. Pay for a private detective if need be. Money very well spent I am sure. Possibly he has bipolar, undiagnosed.

I cannot believe that I am the only one to write a review of this episode. At the time of my review this episode had aired 18 months ago. Sarita Anderson is a hero. God bless her for taking such a high road. I would have been devastated. I am 66 years old so it is a long time ago that I was tested for HIV but if I remember correctly, it was that way way back when - circa 1990 - that if it was negative you were not contacted or nothing formal was printed. I had a teacher in India and to be in the ashram, I need to have documentation that I was HIV negative to enter the ashram. That took a little extra. You trusted him. There were not that many red flags either that he was a sociopath. The mark that he wanted to make on you and other women was his HIV. He didn't want you to have a child but he wanted you to have his HIV. He was an angry, miserable person. No different than a mass shooter who goes to the shopping mall when all he really wants to do is die because he is so miserable. Can't just go home an blow his own brains out but, rather, wants to make an infamous name for himself. Your father and mother were very lovely, too. God bless you for standing up to him and rising out of the ashes. KUDOS!

...amongst many in this series. Just 9 minutes into this episode and I have zero respect nor sympathy for the narrator. Oh, right. She has a name: Jennifer. But how can anyone possibly have respect for a dormat? To give up your - most likely - affordable apartment to live with someone you've only known for a couple of months...just after your last boyfriend was sent to prison. Oy-vey. She obviously walks around with a "feed me" sign on her. Then, to allow anyone to bully her into relinquishing her cats soon into that preposterous arrangement. He had a taser in his hand forcryingoutloud. You should have take the cat in your arms and walked out then and there. But, no, you left the cat(s) in the woods? YOU should absolutely never ever own another animal again. In fact, your tubes should be tied.

...to review a "you've-got-to-be-f'ing-kidding-me" episode. Yes, I concur with the "How very odd indeed review" but what about the elephant in the room? How in the HECK did he not know that she was pregnant? I know all women carry differently but there was no mistaking it on me. I've read of young girls living at home who carried their term to birth without detection but even that is rare. But with all the red flags - the conversation with the Mom, the birth control pills, hiding herself in the dark so that he could not see her and, then, the complete disinterest in sex - how did he not know that she was pregnant? He was still having sex with her. Laid hands on her body. Partook of her "intimately." (Apparently, you can be absent during "intimacy".) After all those red flags that he dutifully swept under the rug, then to stand in a hospital & repeatedly tell the doctor that they are wrong is dumbfounding. I am not one of those people who are afraid to mince words with a doctor or any professional if I think there is a mistake but - forget a light bulb going off - a damn sledgehammer should have hit him at that point. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Incredibly sad that any baby should die in such a manner. Babies who are not wanted can safely and humanely be delivered to a fire station, a hospital. He talked about his "son" and his "daughter." People like that do not deserve to speak of sons and daughters. He did not have enough intelligence to put 2 + 2 together. I am NOT saying that these sweet babies deserved to die but he is definitely not bright enough (I am not talking about school smarts here) to raise a child. His blind ignorance lost him his children not some "evil" woman. At the end, he talks about her monotone voice. How long has she been interrogated? I am not defending what she did. It was heinous. Who wouldn't be wrung out? BUT he wants to blame her totally. He kept his mouth shut, never wanted to argue with her and was just happy to put his penis somewhere other than his hand at all costs. Passively deluded he was. Criminal negligence. YOU SIR are equally despicable. It takes two. She is not a "monster." She definitely has mental health issues. She sounds genuinely remorseful to me during the interview. This man is loathsome. He's making money off this episode and for his stupidity. He thinks with his penis. I feel very sorry for her two girls. THEY are the ONLY ones whom I feel sorry for in this episode. He is obnoxious at the end.

I read a few of the other reviews and, yes, he seems to be a bit dry on all his public shows of emotions. A few reviewers intimated that he was part of the murder which completely does not make sense. If he had been at all in on the murder, Vicki would have let the prosecutors know about that. There is absolutely no way that this sociopath would have let Vernon get away with his part in the crime. I am completely nonplussed that these relatively unattractive people - Vicki and Vernon - unattractive inside and out - bounced around in relationships and had so much pull on each other. Perhaps, it was their sociopathic similarities that attracted each other and were the glue of their "relationship." That he just disappeared and - worse yet - did not even respond to Jade's attempt(s) to reach out to him is despicable and his response on camera is pathetic and disingenuous. That the producers chose him as an episode shows that they were milking this low-budget series for all they could get because there are some really worthwhile stories out there and they did capture a few of these. This episode was just revenue-generating filler and completely boring and a waste of time and resources on everyone's part. Jade looks like a lovely young woman. Vernon's loss of having a nice person in his life. I wouldn't give him another thought if I were her.

...not the episode. It is interesting in this entire series to follow each episodes review because, basically, you can see how many-to-most people received the episodes. Often when there's a really whining, complacent woman, the star count goes down dramatically. Then when there's someone who is admirable or understandable or genuinely unfortunate, the rating goes up. 7/10 being the fulcrum in this IMDb star gauge. This episode was at 6.3 as I write my two-cents worth. A LOT of reviews for such a poorly rated episode. The audience has a lot to say and it is, basically, all the same thing: Sam sucks. He's a coward. But take a closer look and each review only has about half of the voters thinking that these reviews are "relevant." Uh-oh. We've got a somewhat silent minority that thinks that you reviewers are being a little hard on Sam. So, here I am playing "devil's advocate." Sam's advocate. Thus far not one review in his favor. I would like to preface my advocacy of Sam with the fact that I left home when I was 17-year old girl so I kinda wonder why he did not just leave. My family was dysfunctional but not violent. My father loved my mother in his own hapless way but, certainly never murdered her or touched her inappropriately. Sam lived with a KILLER. He was very young at the time and, definitely, subconsciously, he knew his dad killed her. His own life had been threatened multiple times when he was still very young. Bare with me, I trained in child psychiatry. There are many deeper factors that no one is considering in these anti-Sam reviews. At a minimum, we have some level of Stockholm syndrome here. Out on a limb here - but, none of you went through what Sam went through with his father who was a beast of a human being. Giving this episdoe a 10 star rating...not that it was that outstanding but rather to offset the heavy-handedness of the audience who are quick to judge Sam even though they have no experience of the oppressive early childhood he had.

I had to look up the actor who played Patrick. Why? Just to remind myself that he was an actor and that he was not really this guy Patrick. He did an excellent job of playing a sociopath/psychopath. The story is harrowing and frustrating at the same time. I completely understand that she got set up - that woman who referred her to Patrick should burn in hell if there is one...to do that to another woman...with a child is despicable. I hope that karma gets her. I was a single mom and with no family support as well. I feel that she could have/should have extricated herself much sooner before the really bad stuff started happening. Like, when he laid hands on her the very first time or made her feel she could not breathe or have a moment's privacy. I am sorry to see her suffer so severely from panic attacks. But, what failed her the most was that prosecutor. If she had been from a well-off family, there is no way that prosecutor would have allowed such a generous plea deal happen to such egregious repeat offender. A decent prosecutor (Sounds like an oxymoron, eh? But there are really good, dedicated prosecutors out there.) A DECENT prosecutor would have spoken to the victim before offering the perpetrator a plea deal. Shame on this prosecutor.

After reading everyone else's review - uh, yeah. That's right. The story is very one-sided and, on some level, Cindy is not a credible witness. There is a malignant undercurrent with this "storyteller" that is palpable. Clearly the levels that Cammie was willing to go to as a child - the gun, the knife - was a clear and unmistakable sign of sociopathy if not psychopathy. Something malignant is within the older sister as well. She is not owning it in her narration. Just from the little things she described - water rolling off her sisters arm while she was washing up in the bathroom - comes off as overbearing as an older sister. My older brother by 4 years was a real miserable A-hole but I cannot remember him bossing me around like that. He was more simply not there and dismissive of me as his "pesky" (in his eyes) little sister. But, Cammie's hate for her elder sister is not borne out of thin air. Contrarily. Cindy, the eldest, earned Cammie's hate. Even as adults, her reaction to Cammie's poor choice of conversation in front of the kids in the car was heavy-handed. Totalitarian, actually. She could just have let it role off her back like water on a duck's. But, she polices each moment between them, repeatedly. There is so much not said that surely happened in this trajectory of events between them. Cindy is culpable. Unlikeable in my book. Not a trustworthy narrator of this obviously much more complex story.

I started out watching this episode thinking within the first 10 minutes that I was not going to make it through this one. Yet, another "weak" gullible - whatever you want to call her - woman. I'm on Season 10 and there's only one episode I gave up on in spite of me "losing it" with a number of these women. But, gradually, something changed. This episode is very poignant. No need to go on some rampage about vocal fry as one interviewer has done. She was weak - and yet - very strong. In the last few minutes of the episode she shows incredible remorse for defending him. A monster. But she did love him. Life is complex. What is right? Or wrong? I am not talking about murder but rather who you love and why. She says towards the very end: "I always wonder, did he really love me, or was I just somebody to be there that he could count on and depend on?" Who is to say that the latter is not love? Our whole society is built on this concept: family, community, marriage: someone whom you can depend on and count on. Is it not? The lightbulb went off for me when he sent her the box full of his case files for the 3 murders. One, he is relinquishing something very important (to him) - to her. Perhaps, he is giving up trying to make himself "innocent" of what he did. Dropping his con with her. Importantly, he is telling her - with that box - that he did do the crimes. She states that he never said to her that he was guilty. He mailed her the box. He told her. He knew what he was doing. He lacked empathy, morals - not intelligence. I believe that he loved her. The best he could love her for who he is. Do serial killers love? Yes, perhaps they do. He wanted her to be free. Sociopathy is a spectrum as much as autism or any other disorder. We are all flawed. Just go to the grocery store or a coffee shop if you're tired of looking at your own flaws. I hope that she finds peace. She did nothing wrong.

The ending got to me when he stated that he has relatives who tell him that he's a bad father and should support him. WHY? He supported him his entire life and he was arrogant in his right to make one bad decision after another. Even faced with consequences - when he stole Cindy's car and severely damaged her car - he complained about restitution and responsibility. He gravitated to low lifes and was incredibly ungrateful. Wanted to be free of his father's rules but did not hesitate to use his father for free Sunday dinners and access to their valuables. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this human being. He deserves the hell on earth that he sought so vigorously to cultivate all his life. Shame on those mealy-mouthed relatives of Jon Easton who say that he's not being a good father. I am against the death penalty - in circumstantial cases. Dylan Easton earned it.

In the beginning she states that everyone says "why didn't you just leave" and then continues on trying to explain why she didn't leave...the critical word here is SHE. Why did SHE not leave because almost any other woman would have left this guy long before she did. She is incredibly articulate about exactly what he did to her - objectification and so forth. However, did she really have those words when all this was going on? I am a few-to-several years older than her and highly educated. Although I would not have, perhaps, formulated this word in my mind (objectification) in my early 20s - I would not have needed it. The words YUCK and this SUCKS would have been enough for me to have left without a dime in my pocket. She wanted her motorbike before she left. She finally leaves when she can get another man who will pick her up and, basically, take care of her. Let us be clear: she objectified herself, too. I am not sure what type of relationship she had with her parents but I am absolutely sure they would rather she had walked away from the dehumanization she experienced with this psychopath. I left home when I was 17 years old. Raised a kid and got an MD degree all on my own. Life for me has not been easy on many levels but I have never stuck around for someone to mistreat me for days on end let alone years on end. She passed away in 2020 before this particular episode aired. Her ex remains on death row. Women, if there is someone who comes even a fraction close to this level of abuse: LEAVE. You absolutely can do it. I am 110% sure of it.

Can you imagine what this mother feels like? I cannot. There are so many of these shows that leave the victim somewhat annoying or lacking in - what? Common sense? Backbone? - but this was not the case for this woman. I really believed that she was an incredibly upright woman who put 100% into her family, marriage and children. I do not know how she got out of bed after this happened. I consider myself to be a strong woman who has faced all kinds of adversity in my life. This was a devastating blow beyond my wildest nightmare or imagination. What I wanted to hear Larry say - but he had fooled himself many, many years ago and therefore never approached it - was to simply disown the black magic mumbo jumbo BS and tell it like it was. He wanted to sexually assault two prepubescent virgins because he is just a run of the mill maniacal, self-serving, self-aggrandizing POS. Witchcraft had absolutely nothing to do with it. If I was into witchcraft, I would be angry and insulted by this man discussing "spells" relative to what he did.

Oh geez. I feel as if I have been given a reprieve. No whining. A victim turned survivor due to her intelligence and.fortitude. This woman did not F around. No mealy-mouthed rendition of what happened to her. Given their age when the BS first started, it was understandable that she gave him a second chance. They were sixteen years old. His transition happened when she was pregnant with his child...all because he could not have sex. His blood circulation stopped feeding his brain cells. When he finally egregiously crossed the line, it was over. Strong, intelligent woman. No shame in giving a creep a chance. The first sign of malignancy...especially if they're already in their 20s...walk away.

An "accident" (not) waiting to happen. The kid is being set up for an Armageddon-level disaster. There were too many signs when he was a child living at home to start him on a gun collection. Need something mechanical? Get him a train set. By the time that he is seeking mental health intervention, he's an adult man who is nearly 40 years old...unless I missed some earlier intervention. The father seems like a very nice man. Someone whom I would enjoy as a friend or a neighbor. He was definitely a decent parent; but, there were allowances that should not have been made for Ian. For example, moving camp without a word of explanation. It was almost as if he was too worried about being invasive. Ian needed to be probed decades before the shootings happened. It's not clear to me if his brother was younger or older but there is something - someone - whom Ian can be compared to with regards to red flags or developmental concerns. I completely get that he is his son and, of course, he still loves him tremendously. But, EVERYONE, if you have a child - especially male with access to guns - they need to be driven toward mental health help like, uh, yesterday.

Again, I will say that there are some very good - even outstanding - episodes. This is not one of them. This one, thus far, is the worst. Thinking further, this entire series is very cost effective to produce. Just interview someone and edit. Pay some low budget actors to play out a few scenes. Basically, a plug-and-chug recipe for huge monetary rewards as crime drama is probably one of the best selling genres prevalent on YouTube and all streaming services. One must merely look at the rating of each episode to see the episodes that are outrageously bad...they dip well-below 7/10 stars because many outraged people will call out the shows that are bad. This particular one is well-under 5 stars...need I say more? Most often, they are bad because of the "protagonist" woman who has the audacity to label herself a victim when she is actually the perpetrator. The producers will give her these resources to paint this fabricated picture while omitting key elements of the story. This woman (alongside any such male counterpart) is a poster child for mandatory sterilization. She is a sociopath if not psychopath. A license is legally required to drive a car. People should require education, mental evaluations and, then, licensing before they spread their legs to drop a baby on this planet. How many has she thus far dropped? Four? Five? Any more since 2019? I shudder to think.

I was a single parent all my life. Tried dating a few-to-several times but there was always one criteria that no one seemed to fulfill - beyond truly caring about me - and that was whether or not they were really into my kid or not. Unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky ones because I know that there are great stories - true stories - of beautiful men who have taken on raising a child or children who were not theirs but had the capacity and grit to do it. Parenting can suck (at times) even when they're your own - biological - children. But, I could clearly see within a matter of a few weeks (tops) someone who was not going to be good for the long haul...by the time my son had reached puberty, I had been alone with him all those years and, basically, stopped trying. I get so FRICKIN' angry at these dumb bunnies who cannot use their cognitive abilities to figure out what the heck is really happening. Their need to have a man in their lives consistently overrides basic intelligence. Basic intelligence. Not exceptional. Just basic. Stupid women of the world like the woman in this episode: please, stop shaming us. Lori McLeod died in 2019. RIP.

I really have trouble with this episode - so much so that I went to look at other reviews already posted to see if anyone else is seeing what I am seeing. Bingo. Second review that I read from "katepassman" is spot on. The man had undiagnosed schizophrenia. Too late for my diagnosis and her diagnosis because, basically, his wife ALLOWED him to kill her sons and Reggie was executed. WTF does she need to wake herself up? A stick of dynamite? Everything that she witnesses her husband experience she seems to just shrug her shoulders. ANY REASONABLE person would direct this person to psychiatric care/help. Heck, she would have done him a FAVOR by committing him against his will rather than allowing paranoid schizophrenia to go unmedicated and untreated. Shame on her. She does not have a drop of sympathy from me nor am I impressed by her "level-headedness" - otherwise known as not giving a damn. This show has had some great episodes. But airing this one and making him "evil" while she sings herself praises is a travesty. She allowed her husband and her 3 sons to be killed so she could, basically, not bother. Her "savoir-faire" attitude was the most evil aspect of this heartbreaking story.

Definitely EVIL lives at this house. That's all that does live there..that and stupidity. The stepmother is beyond scary. The father should have been sterilized before engaging in sexual activity as a younger man. Then none of this would have happened. I cannot believe that either of them would want to show their faces in filming this because they are so incredibly horrible and guilty of the mass shooting that did eventually occur. WHO grabs their son's backpack like that? Not even myself - as a biological mother to my son - would I grab the backpack in such a manner. I mow a large lawn and I have never asked anyone to get me something to drink either. You stop mowing, you go inside and you get what you want or need. Yes, I have had drinks brought out to me but I would not dream of ordering someone to do it. She is a piece of work. Undoubtedly, they both show their faces for the money that they were paid to do this episode. The father is completely supportive or enabling of his son's bad behavior and of his wife's bad behavior. And what a disconnected bunch of people. The biological mother sees that a gun is missing and that's all that she did? She thought that, perhaps, her son sold it for cash? With his drawings? Was she completely unaware of his propensity to threaten and draw violence? AND what the heck was his father doing with an ASSAULT rifle? Look at him. Who does he think he is? JOHN J RAMBO? Instead of the overweight, clueless middle-aged man that he is?

I came back years later to watch this movie again. I remember being nonplussed at the rating way back then and I am still gobsmacked at how and why this film has an average score of 6.7/10 stars. The acting is phenomenal. The plot is compelling with other layers of plot running through it. Deep and complex. Gritty, realistic setting. Christian Bale is phenomenal. Casey Affleck, too. Willem Dafoe and Woody Harrelson are outstanding as well. Forest Whitaker and Sam Shepard, too. Incredible cinematography in the rust belt, no less. Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio produced. Zoe Saldaña adds a lovely genuine performance. Don't miss an opportunity to see this movie. Absolutely one of my favorites.

That, in a name, is the horrific error of this season. She's way to thin to be Princess Diana. Even at her thinnest, in real life, Princess Diana was never as gaunt and sickly looking as Elizabeth Debicki. She does a much better job of portraying Princess Diana vocally than she does physically. I will say that every actress who has portrayed Princess Diana in this series up until Elizabeth Debicki has done a much, much better job than her. I am completely nonplussed by the people in this series audience that goes on and on about her. Do they not have eyes? Are they completely stripped of memory of how beautiful and healthy Princess Diana looked even when she was at her thinnest? Even at her thinnest she was not this gaunt and austere looking. Poor casting choices in this season. And Debicki is the most egregious. As an aside note: Princess Diana with all her faults and failings got royally screwed. Both King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles behaved horribly and despicably.

A bit nonplussed at the mediocre score for this series on IMDb. Outstanding series with an extremely interesting subject matter. Add excellent writing and some exceptionally fine acting and you've got a series that is impossible to stop watching. Like potato chips: betcha can't just watch just one!