A solid crime doco, a must watch for crime doco buffs especially those into Australian crime.
7 Reviews
Must watch for Crime buffs
tomlawler-9961016 December 2020
Trauma begets trauma
edwin-wks1 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is the story of man, born with facial deformities, to an abusive drunk of a father, turned into a sociopath who enacted his revenge on society by terrorising a peaceful city through a series of random and violent crimes spanning over a period of 5 years. The first two episodes focuses on the crimes, the victims, and the apprehension and subsequent execution of the perpetrator. They are well-crafted with brief re-enactments of the events and commentary from surviving members of that era.
The docuseries starts to lose its focus in the third and fourth episode which cover the wrongful convictions of two men and the continued reverberations of these crimes into the present. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is the Estelle Blackburn show as the series puts her firmly in the centre of the story post-execution of the serial killer. It is without question that she was instrumental in securing the exoneration of the two wrongfully convicted men, but the focus should have remained on the victims and survivors.
Instead we get repetitive scenes of Estelle retelling salient points of her book to her guests in a tired auditorium. There are also overly sentimental scenes which add little value: John Button's daughter at Fremantle Prison with her husband and child, and the meeting of Estelle and Mark Berkman at the airport. Too much airtime was assigned to John Button and his relationship with Rosemary Anderson; the series would have benefitted from greater coverage of Darryl Beamish, the families of the other seven victims who perished, and other survivors of Cooke.
The docuseries starts to lose its focus in the third and fourth episode which cover the wrongful convictions of two men and the continued reverberations of these crimes into the present. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is the Estelle Blackburn show as the series puts her firmly in the centre of the story post-execution of the serial killer. It is without question that she was instrumental in securing the exoneration of the two wrongfully convicted men, but the focus should have remained on the victims and survivors.
Instead we get repetitive scenes of Estelle retelling salient points of her book to her guests in a tired auditorium. There are also overly sentimental scenes which add little value: John Button's daughter at Fremantle Prison with her husband and child, and the meeting of Estelle and Mark Berkman at the airport. Too much airtime was assigned to John Button and his relationship with Rosemary Anderson; the series would have benefitted from greater coverage of Darryl Beamish, the families of the other seven victims who perished, and other survivors of Cooke.
Brilliant and absorbing documentary
anthonydg-4644311 December 2020
An absolutely riveting and involving documentary from writer/director Thomas Meadmore.
It is centred on Perth in Western Australia but is so engrossing that it is an absorbing watch for everybody.
Slowly the documentary unfolds with some remarkable research of the period (the sixties) and how the people of that city were affected. As one writer wrote, "it made Perth a city."
It reaches the conclusion that will leave a gulp for one marvellous person at the centre of all the horror.
A stunning atmospheric documentary I highly recommend.
Fantastic!
joshwallinger19 December 2020
Very good true crime with the community involved
heiditalk14 February 2021
Annoyingly slow and not well put together
randymcbeast15 January 2022
I love a good true crime documentary. This was not even close to making that list. It could not have moved any slower and kept running off on moronic tangents to fill time. This could have easily been edited down to one or two episodes. They kept repeating previous accounts over and over as well. I was like, "yes, we know that already because five minutes prior you just told us that", and then they would do this over and over again.
This should be used by future true crime documentary filmmakers as a reference on how not to make a documentary. Do yourself a favor and just read an article on the subject. You will save a good three hours of your life.
This should be used by future true crime documentary filmmakers as a reference on how not to make a documentary. Do yourself a favor and just read an article on the subject. You will save a good three hours of your life.
An entertaining if not very convincing true crime documentary
nathanhogan-5865119 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Once you eliminate the sinister or uplifting music placed in key moments you can start to see the lack of concrete proof in either guilt or innocence of those involved. The fact that a killer is forensicly linked to one crime doesnt link them to all the others but in this case it seems proof of one was used to disprove others.
Having finished watching the show I dont believe John Button was proven innocent convincingly I also find myself thinking of Henry Lee Lucas when I hear of the confessions and crimes linked to Eric Edgar Cooke, if you watch this and come to a different conclusion then it just shows how divisive the case is but I remain unconvinced of the purported innocence of the two men exonerated.
And I agree with the other reviews that feel Estelles appearances in the show took away from the story rather then adding to it.
Having finished watching the show I dont believe John Button was proven innocent convincingly I also find myself thinking of Henry Lee Lucas when I hear of the confessions and crimes linked to Eric Edgar Cooke, if you watch this and come to a different conclusion then it just shows how divisive the case is but I remain unconvinced of the purported innocence of the two men exonerated.
And I agree with the other reviews that feel Estelles appearances in the show took away from the story rather then adding to it.
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