Catching Killers Season 2 review: Show continues to sing paeans for detectives in big serial killer cases

3/5

Story: The second season of the Netflix true-crime series is here and yet again it introduces us to the detectives who painstakingly brought three serial killers to justice. The months and years of investigation, the time away from family, the toll these cases took on the mental and physical well-being of the investigators – it’s all there.

Review: Every time I sit down to watch a true-crime docu-drama, I am horrified by the depravity involved in some of the crimes. It’s worse with a show like Catching Killers that focuses on serial killers. But I also get why it’s a popular topic with stand-up comics these days – serial killers, and how only white men make the cut.

Anyway, back to Catching Killers ; Season 1, which came out in November last year, was about the investigation in three particular cases – the Green River Killer (a man who killed 49 women over several decades), Aileen Wuornos (the inspiration behind the Charlize Theron movie, Monster) and the Happy Face Killer. Three stories crammed into four episodes, felt rushed and it does in Season 2, too. Yet again, one case gets the benefit of two episodes, but the other two are not as lucky. I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Why not dedicate a season of, say, three episodes to one case?

Like, for instance, the first one on Season 2, about the serial killer known as BTK, who would bind, torture and kill his victims, many of who were children. A man who had been killing over three decades and was caught only when science and technology had advanced enough to enable investigators to nail him. Dennis Rader, who was identified as BTK, was a married man with kids, president of the church council and someone you’d think was looking out for everyone in the community. Over several decades he not only tortured and killed 10 people, but even proudly wrote about his deeds to the press and the police. Now, this is something, I wish was detailed a bit more.

Catching Killers has been established as a series that only delves into the investigation of particular cases. The who is announced early on, so the rest of the episode is devoted to how the culprit is eventually apprehended. A series like this would really benefit from a little more effort into establishing the why also, because it can get a tad boring watching a set of three our four former detectives talk about their approach to the investigation and the satisfaction in a job well done in the end. Kudos to you for taking a bunch of dangerous men off the streets, but hey, the real appeal of true-crime drama is understanding the psyche of these criminals.

The first thing I did after watching Catching Killers Season 2 was look up BTK. I had done this after the first season too, reading up on the Green River Killer. It’s the details that make a story more interesting and why it was so important to apprehend these men. BTK, for instance, harboured sadistic sexual fantasies about torturing trapped and helpless women, and was into autoerotic asphyxiation too. He would cross-dress to spy on the women in the neighbourhood and steal their underwear.

The second case about the Phoenix Serial shooter, who would shoot random pedestrians with a shotgun, in what was termed thrill killing, is, again the weak link this season. Last time it was the Aileen Wuornos case that had been subject of other documentaries and a film too. The third, The Toronto Village Killer, started as an investigation into missing gay men, took on a possible cannibalism angle and ended as a serial killer case. Given that so much time was spent on the cannibalism track, despite the benefit of two episodes, the actual killer is revealed and apprehended in, maybe, 15 minutes. Details, people!

Verdict: So, I was not a big fan of Catching Killers Season 1, but think that Season 2 is a smidgen better. That’s not to say this is a great show or an absolute must watch. Maybe it’s down the chosen cases. Can’t really put my finger on it, but I was a lot more invested this time than I was the last time around. Having said that, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will repeat that hardcore true-crime aficionados will spend a lot of time on the internet researching these cases to get a better understanding of the criminals and the investigations. It would have been so much better if the series makers did that for us.