The long-awaited docuseries about the late Michelle MacNamara‘s hunt for the Golden State Killer has finally landed on Aussie screens via Binge, and it’s truly a golden piece of true crime television. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark has come in at the perfect time when we’re all probably feeling like we’ve exhausted all our binge-watching options, and it’s sent shivers down the spines of everyone who’s already watched.
Even if you haven’t read the 2018 book detailing Michelle’s tracking of the notorious East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker from the 70s and 80s, diving in headfirst to see an obsession with solving a cold case using the power of online communities and amateur sleuthing is stunning and chilling.
Watching interviews with Michelle about her processes, piecing together this decades-old unsolved puzzle with the help of online novice detectives, actual cops, journalists, and other crime writers brings a real feeling that anything is possible if you’re passionate enough.
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All of “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark” was great, but a finale that focused so much on the victims was especially moving. It felt like re-setting the entire “true crime” narrative.
— Eliza Skinner #wgastrong (@elizaskinner) August 10, 2020
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Almost done with the docuseries I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. Can’t shake the feeling of relating intensely to how Michelle McNamara’s brain worked, being weighed down by the world’s pain and damage, consumed by the need to work through it. Sad to think how it ended for her. RIP.
— Nadia Bulkin (@nadiabulkin) August 6, 2020
But, unlike other more clinical true crime docos, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark feels larger than Michelle, than her widowed husband Patton Oswalt, than the incredible stories of resilience and strength from the GSK’s survivors, than the eventual arrest and charging of Joseph James DeAngelo and the closure that carried.
There’s a collective heaviness, the processing of grief in all its forms, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness while exploring the nuances and intricacies of one of America’s most notorious serial rapists and killers, and how it affected everyone in his wake.
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HBO’s ‘I’ll Be Gone In The Dark’ isn’t just about true crime and Michelle McNamara’s efforts to identify the Golden State Killer. It’s not about her as a person or her untimely death.
It’s so big I don’t feel like I can articulate it.
But I will say, cheers to @pattonoswalt.
— Dave Mistich (@davemistich) August 3, 2020
The entire six-parter docuseries is up now on Binge, if you want to completely destroy your emotions and watch it all in one go, or give yourself time to chew through it slowly. It’s engrossing and compelling television and a gold class example of how true crime docos should be presented and explored.
And last but not least, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark has brought Paul Holes back into the front of my mind, which I will never be upset about. My Favourite Murder fans know what I mean.
Can’t stop thinking about police investigator Paul Holes on HBO’s I’ll Be Gone In The Dark
— jay (@listenupnerds) August 10, 2020
You can sign up for Binge over here, see you on the other side.
