Excellent. Only 4 episodes but it delivers perfectly. The deeper down the rabbit hole this takes you the more it twists. Another Netflix success. Much appreciated keep em coming!!
10 Reviews
This documentary hooks you early
darrylc-9477512 May 2018
Another fascinating Netflix hit
plmillernc-970-18968215 May 2018
Note to self: form production company and make docuseries for Netflix. Focus on crimes, scandals, riveting mysteries and strange events from two or three decades ago. Characters should be engaging: weird, driven, frightening. Pose mysteries and offer conflicting narratives that force viewer to choose whom to believe or trust. Resolve some puzzles but leave alone those that have no resolution. Provide alternative explanations and perspectives so a covey of home viewers binging together can argue their conclusions. Audiences should say at end: "I can't believe I never heard about that.." For guidance on Netflix signature style, see The Keepers, Wild, Wild Country and the latest:Evil Genius. The latter grabs your interest in the first five minutes, leads you through one bizarre crime and aftermath, a oouple of very smart and very dangerous characters, some very likeable agents and police and your usual cast of low lives and margin dwellers. And in the end, abiding amazement how really smart people can do really evil things.
Absolutely had no idea.....
treydrier15 May 2018
I remember when this happened in 2003 but never realized what had conspired and who was responsible. This is how all docuseries should be...4 episodes, instead of dragging it out for 10 hours. There are so many twists and turns that you are left thinking "this can't be true", but it is.
Imagine having a bomb locked around your neck and the cops trapping you and there is no way it can be removed. This shows depicts just how evil and deranged people can be. Something that I continue to think about is how this poor guy goes into the bank with a collar bomb around his neck and yet he grabs a free sucker in a bowl on bank counter, unwraps it and puts it in his mouth and walks out of the bank like he's strolling in the park. Like nothing was wrong. Weird. Anyway, it's bizarre and disturbing but well done and worth the time to watch it.
Imagine having a bomb locked around your neck and the cops trapping you and there is no way it can be removed. This shows depicts just how evil and deranged people can be. Something that I continue to think about is how this poor guy goes into the bank with a collar bomb around his neck and yet he grabs a free sucker in a bowl on bank counter, unwraps it and puts it in his mouth and walks out of the bank like he's strolling in the park. Like nothing was wrong. Weird. Anyway, it's bizarre and disturbing but well done and worth the time to watch it.
Very Captivating
normdokis15 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Doesn't drag on, pretty well written when introducing the characters. An important question though that nobody focusses on: why would Bill Rothstein turn in Marjorie when it threatens them all being caught.? They would have all gotten away with it!!
Brilliant and tragic true crime story
RussHog17 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
First off, this documentary evokes my deepest sympathy for the family of Brian Wells and the pain they were put through by not only the criminals involved in the crime but also the way they were treated by the investigators who handled the case. Second, this film tells the tale of a pathological liar and super criminal who repeatedly slipped through the cracks of the justice system until it was too late. It was hard for me not to watch this and have some sympathy for her. Mental illness, genius, and probably head trauma or sexual abuse as a child. This film maybe just a glimpse into evil...but what a sight it shows!
Nice But Not Great
MogwaiMovieReviews23 May 2018
Nice but not great 'True Crime' Netflix documentary miniseries, definitely watchable but falling some ways short of the standard set by 'The Jinx', 'The Staircase' or 'West Of Memphis' because there is no great mystery to it: we know pretty much from the start who the filmmakers think 'did it', and that's precisely how it turns out, almost four hours later. Besides the initial bizarre and gruesome facts of the case, as a story it doesn't really have a lot going for it, no enormous revelations or fantastical developments.
There IS one small 'twist' near the end when one of the people involved adds a little more key information that clears one matter up, but really there is no reason this could not have easily been half the length.
There IS one small 'twist' near the end when one of the people involved adds a little more key information that clears one matter up, but really there is no reason this could not have easily been half the length.
underrated and misunderstood
imdbmoviereviews20 August 2020
First of al.. do not confuse with :Evil Genius The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist
second of al not great but well put a clasical "just dump a few interesting crime stories and oversimplify them" sort's of a series nothing very uniqe or.. just nice u know
idk if deserves a 8 but definatly too under rated
some amazing stories of people mostly being lucky (but u know calling the series lucky criminals isn't as catchy)
should u watch it... yeah it's nice some stories are more interesting then others and u know it's nice over all not much other then that to say
second of al not great but well put a clasical "just dump a few interesting crime stories and oversimplify them" sort's of a series nothing very uniqe or.. just nice u know
idk if deserves a 8 but definatly too under rated
some amazing stories of people mostly being lucky (but u know calling the series lucky criminals isn't as catchy)
should u watch it... yeah it's nice some stories are more interesting then others and u know it's nice over all not much other then that to say
Fairly Well Done, But These Mentally...
Mehki_Girl28 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Ill idiots were hardly geniuses. They made poor decisions and lived in squalor. I could practically smell the stench of them and those filthy living quarters.
The plot to murder was absolutely ridiculous and the plot of madmen, not geniuses. These types of actions on the part of so-called smart people just illustrate that smart people don't necessarily have critical thinking skills.
Perhaps if they all weren't so mentally ill they would have made better choices; however, the constant hammering on how genius they were was simply annoying and ignored the fact that they were obviously also mentally incompetent.
I have a master's degree too and can spout a few random sentences in French. Neither of those things make me a genius. And I'm certainly not making ridiculous plots to kill people.
They may have had promise in life; but, sadly, mental illness took over their lives and made them quite dangerous.
Sad...
The plot to murder was absolutely ridiculous and the plot of madmen, not geniuses. These types of actions on the part of so-called smart people just illustrate that smart people don't necessarily have critical thinking skills.
Perhaps if they all weren't so mentally ill they would have made better choices; however, the constant hammering on how genius they were was simply annoying and ignored the fact that they were obviously also mentally incompetent.
I have a master's degree too and can spout a few random sentences in French. Neither of those things make me a genius. And I'm certainly not making ridiculous plots to kill people.
They may have had promise in life; but, sadly, mental illness took over their lives and made them quite dangerous.
Sad...
Mis-understands and exploits mental illness, barely even about a "bank heist" -- below-average.
etmachina23 May 2018
Currently hot on Netflix, starts promising -- 1st episode is disturbing and compelling and about a bank robbery as described in the blurb. Then the pacing goes to hell.
This "bank heist" documentary is not so much about that bank heist, which is well-explored in the 1st episode (and a Hollywood movie). That becomes a side-story and three more episodes are spent exploiting a woman who is severely mentally ill (and psychotic) and barely in touch with reality, trying to paint her as some sort of Femme Fatale. It's at least vaguely sexist, but moreover the severe mental illness renders it utterly pointless and becomes increasingly tone-deaf the longer it drags on.
The mental illness is acute and obvious enough I find it hard to call anyone here "Evil". More like a couple dangerously mentally ill people had access to weapons and enabled each other. As for "Genius" -- well the crazy people praise each other's intelligence, while they spout make-believe French swear-words and engage in completely irrational rants. The makers of the film eat it up and milk it for all it's worth. They acknowledge the mental illness issues right-off-the-bat, so obvious it would be impossible not to, but then proceed to make hey of their "stars" unhinged and un-medicated ramblings. Crazy talk is just not that interesting or compelling and the filmmakers seem rather "dense" to be so fascinated by it.
The filmmakers either don't understand mental illness, or are pretending not to, but either way it gets stale somewhere in the third episode, with well-over an episode to go.
I much prefered series such as The Making Of A Murderer, The Staircase, Wormwood...Those are great. This is not.
This "bank heist" documentary is not so much about that bank heist, which is well-explored in the 1st episode (and a Hollywood movie). That becomes a side-story and three more episodes are spent exploiting a woman who is severely mentally ill (and psychotic) and barely in touch with reality, trying to paint her as some sort of Femme Fatale. It's at least vaguely sexist, but moreover the severe mental illness renders it utterly pointless and becomes increasingly tone-deaf the longer it drags on.
The mental illness is acute and obvious enough I find it hard to call anyone here "Evil". More like a couple dangerously mentally ill people had access to weapons and enabled each other. As for "Genius" -- well the crazy people praise each other's intelligence, while they spout make-believe French swear-words and engage in completely irrational rants. The makers of the film eat it up and milk it for all it's worth. They acknowledge the mental illness issues right-off-the-bat, so obvious it would be impossible not to, but then proceed to make hey of their "stars" unhinged and un-medicated ramblings. Crazy talk is just not that interesting or compelling and the filmmakers seem rather "dense" to be so fascinated by it.
The filmmakers either don't understand mental illness, or are pretending not to, but either way it gets stale somewhere in the third episode, with well-over an episode to go.
I much prefered series such as The Making Of A Murderer, The Staircase, Wormwood...Those are great. This is not.
Most of the Reviews are for the wrong series-this is not the Netflix documentary
atleverton19 March 2023
This is a bizarre show to stream. It's clear that it was designed to be playing in the background when you're doing something else like cooking or cleaning. They repeat the same stories about the same criminals a few times. Most of these stories I was aware of, there were some that were genuinely surprising and interesting to know. For example, the description of how a Canadian burglar robbed one of the most valuable jewels in Europe I had never heard about, but it's an interesting story. I think the conceit of this series, that there are some criminals that are evil geniuses, is stretched a little bit. There are a few criminals in the series who maybe not were geniuses, but they just had great ideas or a lot of money to accomplish their goal, in the case of some of the drug dealers they talk about. A few I would say were legitimately quite intelligent, but then I think the downfall of many of them is the downfall of many an intelligent person-that they think because they are intelligent in one area that they are intelligent in all areas.
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