The stories of Allison Rivera, Pistol Black, the Brooks' family, and Lena Chapin's elder sisters are heartbreaking and scary as heck, but I'm concentrating on the "French episode." I want to demonstrate what Unsolved Mysteries *must* address next season (other reviews here seem to agree). Disclaimer: I might watch Unsolved Mysteries even if the Second Coming were broadcast on a competing network.
First, the use of drones. It is to this decade's cinematography what shaky-cam was to the last. Overuse kills the immediacy Robert Stack brought to the series. Some actors are irreplaceable, and Stack, who appears in homage in silhouette in the credits, is one. Drones make this rebooted Unsolved Mysteries TOO S-L-O-W. Stack's "Untouchables" aura and appeals for tips to the 800 number gave the original series an urgency lacking in this. Mystery is destroyed by dreaminess. "God-shots" from drones and slow-motion cinematography work at cross-purposes to why Unsolved Mysteries fanatics watch. We wanted to feel that just maybe, we could do something *right now.*
Second: the wildly popular French series Non Elucide has done at least one episode on XDDL (as the psychotic father is known in his country). Another wildly popular French series, Faites Entrer L'Accuse, also has covered this story. As with Robert Stack, two charismatic presenters narrate the story with the agitation this horrific story requires. Yet "House of Terror," Unsolved Mysteries' take on a John List-style family annihilator, flows at the pace of a Jane Austen romance. In addition to wasting time, concentration on cinematography works to the detriment of the story by forcing the omission of elements essential to solving this mystery. De Ligonnes' mother's and sister practiced cult-like Christianity; Tomas had to be drugged miles away *in an Angers restaurant* for his father to bring him back to Nantes; above all, there's a very real possibility De Ligonnes' good looks and reputation as a womanizer (well-established before the family annihilation) make it likely some deranged mistress has been hiding him out for the last decade.
In 2018 and 2019, first in a monastery in southeastern France, and then in Scotland, "breaking news stories" announced De Ligonnes' capture. The saddest was of the French monk, a dead-ringer for De Ligonnes, whom several sincere locals believed was the killer taking refuge in a monastery, a possibility anyone who *really* knows the story will recognize as eminently probable.
But Unsolved Mysteries 2020 doesn't seem to "get it." Possibly drone footage is cheaper these days than other kinds. The Netflix generation of viewers will always demand faster, higher, more intense everything--which Netflix better watch, if it wishes to maintain a consistent audience over the age of 16. I am older and subscribe when "grown-up" material appears, because I have no interest in a streaming service devoted to superhero teens who travel through time. I rated this first season of Unsolved Mysteries "10" because I'm a diehard fan. I hope Cosgrove-Meurer, the fantastic production company whose call-center created a kind of internet before the internet, will bring back a tough old guy in a trenchcoat and a faster pace next year. Maybe even a French one.
First, the use of drones. It is to this decade's cinematography what shaky-cam was to the last. Overuse kills the immediacy Robert Stack brought to the series. Some actors are irreplaceable, and Stack, who appears in homage in silhouette in the credits, is one. Drones make this rebooted Unsolved Mysteries TOO S-L-O-W. Stack's "Untouchables" aura and appeals for tips to the 800 number gave the original series an urgency lacking in this. Mystery is destroyed by dreaminess. "God-shots" from drones and slow-motion cinematography work at cross-purposes to why Unsolved Mysteries fanatics watch. We wanted to feel that just maybe, we could do something *right now.*
Second: the wildly popular French series Non Elucide has done at least one episode on XDDL (as the psychotic father is known in his country). Another wildly popular French series, Faites Entrer L'Accuse, also has covered this story. As with Robert Stack, two charismatic presenters narrate the story with the agitation this horrific story requires. Yet "House of Terror," Unsolved Mysteries' take on a John List-style family annihilator, flows at the pace of a Jane Austen romance. In addition to wasting time, concentration on cinematography works to the detriment of the story by forcing the omission of elements essential to solving this mystery. De Ligonnes' mother's and sister practiced cult-like Christianity; Tomas had to be drugged miles away *in an Angers restaurant* for his father to bring him back to Nantes; above all, there's a very real possibility De Ligonnes' good looks and reputation as a womanizer (well-established before the family annihilation) make it likely some deranged mistress has been hiding him out for the last decade.
In 2018 and 2019, first in a monastery in southeastern France, and then in Scotland, "breaking news stories" announced De Ligonnes' capture. The saddest was of the French monk, a dead-ringer for De Ligonnes, whom several sincere locals believed was the killer taking refuge in a monastery, a possibility anyone who *really* knows the story will recognize as eminently probable.
But Unsolved Mysteries 2020 doesn't seem to "get it." Possibly drone footage is cheaper these days than other kinds. The Netflix generation of viewers will always demand faster, higher, more intense everything--which Netflix better watch, if it wishes to maintain a consistent audience over the age of 16. I am older and subscribe when "grown-up" material appears, because I have no interest in a streaming service devoted to superhero teens who travel through time. I rated this first season of Unsolved Mysteries "10" because I'm a diehard fan. I hope Cosgrove-Meurer, the fantastic production company whose call-center created a kind of internet before the internet, will bring back a tough old guy in a trenchcoat and a faster pace next year. Maybe even a French one.