Night stalker
I’ve always been a sucker for true crime ever since crushing Making a Murdered, binging on Don’t F**K With Cats, and devouring Tiger King. I even got hooked on podcasts such as Man In The Window and In The Dark. If you have’t watched or listened to any of these then you are in for a content crime treat.
So, this brings me to the latest in a true crime saga, Netflix’s Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. In this limited series, 4 episodes long, you will get to know one of the most savage serial killers that ever existed.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer tells the spellbinding true story of how one of the most notorious serial killers in American history was hunted down and brought to justice. In the sweltering summer of 1985, a record-breaking heatwave hit Los Angeles, along with a series of murders and sexual assaults that at first seemed disconnected. The victims were men, women, and children. They ranged in age from six to 82. They came from different neighborhoods, racial backgrounds and socioeconomic levels. Never before in criminal history had a single killer been responsible for such a grisly array of crimes. Racing against the clock to stop this nocturnal monster were a young detective named Gil Carrillo from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the legendary homicide investigator Frank Salerno. As they worked tirelessly to solve the case, the media hounded their tracks, and panic gripped California.
Told through harrowing first-person interviews, gripping archival footage and spectacular original photography, this four-part series represents the definitive telling of this iconic L.A. real-life horror story, painting a portrait of how it felt to live in fear at a time when absolutely anyone could be the Night Stalker’s next victim.
Valley Of Tears
Sometimes you have very little expectation when you press play on a screener site. With so much content coming out from around the world it’s very hard to prioritize what you watch, especially if it has subtitles. But, when you get a call from a friend asking you to watch and provide some feedback, sometimes that goes to the top of the list.
10 episodes, running approximately 1hr each was an investment. I also needed to turn off my phone and pay attention given the entire series is mostly in Hebrew. So, reluctantly i pressed play and never hit stop. I ran through all 10 episodes in less than 2 days!
Thank you David at Hollywood Suite for pushing me into what has become my favourite viewing experience of the year! Valley Of Tears has definitely earned the number one spot on my must watch drama list.
While there is much debate about how accurate the story is, and some controversy, if you can put this aside, its compelling tv. The battle scenes are gritty, in your face, but imperfect as you can imagine it would be to be at war.
The series is inspired by the true events of the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel. Leading up to the ultimate battle, the series follows young combatants thrust into a war that was later revealed could have been avoided by leaders they blindly trusted. Shot at the actual location of the war, these intimate portraitures highlight the tension, anxieties and sentiments of the country’s people through a magnified lens, with the unprecedented outcome of an unlikely victory.
Tune into Hollywood Suite (Canada) at 9pm on Saturday December 19th to watch the first two episodes. You won’t regret it! Then tune in weekly or watch on demand. If you are in the US, catch up on demand through HBO Max.
Trial 4 on Netflix
With all the amazing content coming to your screen it might have been easy to miss Trial 4. But, the good news is now you are aware of what is one of the best crime documentaries of the year.
Yes it will make you angry. Yes it will make you sad. But….it reinforces that there is something really wrong with the justice system when prosecutors and police would rather a win vs. the truth. Trail 4 tells the story of a Boston man, Sean Ellis, facing his 4th trial for murdering a police officer fighting to prove his innocence and exposing the police corruption that unjustly put him away for 22 years.
This is not a new story, but it’s important for stories like these to be told in order to change the narrative of the system that continues to do this over and over again. From Curtis Flowers (tried 6 times for a murder he didn’t commit) to the unforgettable story of “The Central Park Five”, Trial 4 does a fantastic job at telling the story of police corruption mixed into an entire system that trades in fast outcomes vs putting the right person/people behind bars.
Stream now on Netflix