This was mentioned in the Netflix thread but it's a solid enough reboot to deserve its own thread.

Part 1 of the 1st season had some highlights:

"No Ride Home" - the obviously race-related murder of Alonzo Brooks in some podunk town in Kansas. I don't actually hold his buddies accountable or responsible necessarily for his death, because they were too young to appreciate the gravity of the situation. Someone knows something...and there has to be answers. The manner of his death is so suspicious and strange, he couldn't have died the way the narrative has said it. I think he let his friends go home because he thought he was going to get a hookup...and it went sideways from there.

"13 Minutes" - felt like the old show, in just how bizarre and yet conventional the story is. could have been a random killing, but it is one of those stories you want to see solved.

"Mystery on the Rooftop" - my favorite of the new season. this has so much intrigue in it, especially with the documents that are either rambling or precisely coded. i definitely do not believe this was a suicide. his business partner knows something, or was involved.

"House of Terror" - like Brad Bishop or Robert Fisher, this is a familicide case that involves the patriarch murdering his entire family and then disappearing. This is unsolved as far as finding him, but we already know he did it. Poor family...

"Missing Witness" - another one that we know who the killer is, but she hasn't been apprehended. what a fucked up family situation this was.

"Berkshire UFO" - dressed up as best they can, but this was a real dud. UFO stories have to be at the Betty & Barney level of credibility and this was all over the place.

The UFO episode was a waste of time but the rest were really good, and deserved the extra run-time. However, i think the show was just as powerful and helpful with the 8-10 minute segments that filled a 48-minute show.

I do love the new theme, and the "ghostly" face of Robert Stack at the end (but i think people forget Dennis Farina was also good as the host that replaced him in the early 2000's).

I've watched the first half of the new episodes:

"Washington Insider Murder" - this happened days after i had just left Old New Castle to come back here from the holidays. I remember i had to stay an extra day because of a blizzard that was going on. Jack Wheeler had an interesting life and that's what makes this death really intriguing. They harp on the bipolar thing but I honestly don't think that has anything to do with his murder; he may have been suffering a PTSD-related breakdown at some point though.

"A Death in Oslo" - another one that has a lot of intrigue due to the nature of this woman's death...definitely looks like a cover-up of a suicide (much like Chris Busch in the child murders cases in Michigan, featured in "Children of the Snow"). She was possibly a secret agent, which like the Wheeler case, gives this huge implications and could be very far-reaching.

"Death Row Fugitive" - really short episode because again, this is pretty much an open-shut case as far as the story is. it's just about finding the guy. his father's words about "letting it go" and it "wasn't going to bring the girl back" is insidiously cold-hearted. this guy deserves to be brought to justice.

i've still got "Tsunami Sprits", "Lady in the Lake" and "Stolen Kids" to get to.

This has been pretty good overall, though, and the lack of narration isn't a distraction. It does make it feel more "ordinary" like a typical Netflix doc. But it's still well done.

This feels more like a Probably Should Be Solved Mystery. The husband did it

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

How come nobody is b1tching why he started another thread in this since it’s already being discussed in the Netflix thread? That he posted this to seek attention????

Hypocrites.


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Back on topic - saw a few and didn’t like. The original ones are far better.

I have not found the second installment to be as interesting.

The episode of the “lady of the lake” or some shit. The one where the cops ruled it a suicide 10 minutes into the investigation. I couldn’t stop laughing at how fat one of the daughters were compared to how relatively attractive the other daughter is—despite her terrible accent.

It was hilarious when they’d show pictures of the family throughout the years and the one daughter was like 80-100lbs overweight from childhood and the other sister was thin and attractive. Musta been rough lol.

They frame the husband as the perpetrator but it’s not like there’s a police hunt for him like some of the other open shut cases.

He’s definitely a creep though.

now that i think about it, FF is right...the more i remember that episode, the more that husband came off as guilty as possible. again, could just be the framing of the episode but it really looked bad. if anything those producers are sending a message to look to him again.

i just watched "tsunami spirits" and i really want to put this in a different category. while it is technically mysterious because it's about ghosts, that might turn some people off.

this episode is extremely special. it's very moving to watch, especially since we didn't get a lot of coverage of the Japan tsunami of 2011. we know it was a horrible tragedy and it killed thousands...but this episode gives you a really deep reflection on what it did to the people of the Tohoku region, specifically Ishinomaki. It's extremely heartbreaking. But it also shows the resilience of human beings in crisis as well.

one of the most touching aspects were the taxi drivers that paid for "ghost fares". sounds silly without context, but when you watch the episode you'll see.

That's the only one I haven't seen yet. I figured it was all in Japanese with subtitles so I figured I'd wait until I actually wanted to devote my attention to it

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Best episode of the bunch.

The Boxing Day Tsunami has always fascinated me.

I was flying the day after it happened. Had a long layover along the trip and remember watching all the reports and images. It was crazy. Still watch clips of it and read articles about it from time to time.

The sheer scale of its impact not just loss of life or economically, but the science of the geology is incredible

Shit, it’s not about the Boxing Day Tsunami. Must not have read the subtitles closely enough.

Oh well, still a good episode

finished the series last night;

"lady in the lake" - i had to lol at what crick ramp said about the daughter, and i feel terrible about it. this family is one that really stretches your empathy because without this bizarre murder (?) they would be the type of family you'd might...want to see a tragedy befall them. it is an intriguing case, though, and from what i read after the episode, UM inexplicably left some things out about the family squabbles that would have made it even more convincing that this was no suicide. i mean, it's pretty obvious from the beginning that it wasn't possible for her to kill herself in the manner the police said. but UM buries the lead with the fact that her cousin was a *cop*. shoddy detective work was quite possibly on purpose.

"stolen kids" - i thought there would be more to this episode. there are certainly coincidences in the two kids' disappearances. i can't believe there weren't any leads or suspects that seemed viable. though they made the parallel about a possible child kidnapping to raise themselves, the baby story they chose was someone who was 19 days old, not a 2-year-old toddler. typically when women steal babies, they steal newborns. a 2-year-old would know his/her mother pretty well and possibly fight you or cause a ruckus. i liked the touch at the end with the list of missing children and the composite sketches of what they'd look like now. but for the most part, this one really didn't have much to it except for a very sad story for these mothers. and a dwindling sense of hope.

New season just dropped...looks like they're staggering the release of all 9 episodes, 3 each week, starting with today.

i've watched 2 of the 3. the UFO episode can wait...those were always kinda my least favorite of the old series and the episode from the reboot bored me.

"Mystery at Mile Marker 45" - this episode was pretty riveting, even though it's incredibly Jersey. i believe the family that this couldn't have been a suicide. nothing about the scene makes any sense except a homicide; but since she was cremated (why did they do that?) there's no way they'll get any physical evidence that could help. this most likely will never be solved, which is a shame because it seems pretty obvious that this was a murder. the guy's son is a DB for eastern michigan, a junior on the roster.

"Body in Bags" - body is found mutilated in several bags, first being a sleeping bag. it's the body of a 39-year-old dad and it is eventually revealed his psycho girlfriend did it. she was able to benefit from a slow investigation that allowed her to be released from custody within the 72 hour period, and she fled. she's been on the run for 4 years, and is a bit of a chameleon with her appearance. i think this one can be solved but the longer it goes, the harder it will be to find her.

looking forward to the new episodes in the next few weeks.

Thought this was going to be about the Oklahoma dudes who went for a bike ride and wound up shot and dismembered in a river.

They was on their way to hit a lick big enough for all of them.

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

I watched MM 45 and the UFO episode. Both were very interesting. Agree with you that it sure seemed like murder in MM 45 episode. She supposedly walked 1.5 miles barefoot through the woods and along railroad tracks? No way. She was killed and laid on the tracks to cover up the murder. Cool that the UFO story was right along the western part of Michigan where most of have traveled to. If everything they said was factual, it had to be intelligent lifeforms not from this Earth. No way our government had that kind of technology nearly 30 years ago without it surfacing since then.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

i'm caught up now except for the paranormal ep...again, saving that one for now. but watched the UFO episode.

"something in the sky" - much better than their previous UFO ep. this felt like some of the previous UM alien-related episodes that dealt with credible witnesses and people who dealt with adversity just for going through the event. rather than trying to make a name for themselves over it, they seemed to want to get away from it. it certainly felt like those were alien spacecraft. the upside-down waterfall spectacle that the unnamed couple witnessed must've been amazing.

"what happened to josh?" - no way this will ever get solved. it's a real corker. college kid in minnesota going to a catholic university goes missing during a poker party, and he's never been found. no witnesses that can say he was with anyone; no clues, no blood, and no body. a lot of theories...many of them are credible. i can't even begin to guess what actually happened. but it's a shame, he seemed like a bright kid, and had a future ahead of him.

"death in a vegas motel" - this one i wasn't sure i'd like, but the story unfolded in a way that made it intriguing. bigger than life vegas personality "buffalo jim" runs an auto shop and a wrestling house next to a prominent strip club owned by a shady mob-type guido. jim is found dead in a motel with what looks to be cocaine on his beard, and his toxicology report reveals high ingestion of cocaine. according to his (pretty hot) daughters, he was a former addict who didn't do it anymore. confirmed by friends of his as well.

of course, no way to know for sure it was murder but it definitely feels like it. the guy seemed pretty cool, and had a legitimate gripe with the strip club owner. the official story was that he had an accidental overdose. there's some trick he was with who won't talk. but it definitely looked like he was set up.

this has been a great volume so far. every story has been well done.

i have 2 left, probably will get through them tomorrow. to catch up:

"paranormal rangers" - not of the mighty morphin kind...or maybe...they are. told mostly from the perspective of two former rangers on the navajo nation reservation, this is an overview that could have really spawned into its own History Channel series like Finding Bigfoot or Ancient Aliens. a blend of both, really, as all of these are mostly anecdotal tales that range from mildly acceptable or credible to totally absurd. it's a fun episode but it also doesn't really have its center of gravity to hold it all together. there is some interesting and disturbing artwork involving skinwalkers and such, but the most memorable thing about it is the amazing scenery of the land.

"body in the bay" - the title is a little too similar to "body in bags", but the story is pretty gripping. pat mullins goes on a local boating trip in his fishing boat. he goes missing, they find his boat empty, and his body is discovered miles from it, at the bottom of 6 ft. of water in Tampa Bay, tied to an anchor. from the skull they determine he was shot in the head with a shotgun. the original determination is that it was a suicide, but nothing in that ruling adds up. the most convincing theory is that a family friend who was caught up in drugs may have killed him, or been involved in his killing. he died of an OD years ago so there'd be no way of ever really knowing unless someone fessed up. this one is not as mysterious as the josh guimond story, which has absolutely no clues.

"the ghost in apartment 14" - this episode could be spun off into its own docuseries about cameron & janice hooker (and probably will if this show gets more interest). there already was a documentary & lifetime movie called "girl in the box" about their kidnapping and enslavement of colleen stan. this episode deals more with their 1st kidnap victim, marliz spannhake, who was murdered. her "ghost" apparently was haunting this single mom and her young daughter in the apartment marliz lived in, twentysome years later after the murder. the story that unravels is extremely disturbing and thick with macabre details. the haunting sequences are even pretty creepy because the little girl has this talking ernie doll that keeps going off (in reenactments of the incidents). i feel like this episode should've been dropped *before* halloween because it has so much atmospheric horror to it.

"abducted by a parent" - probably the most emotional episode, because anytime a child is involved in a kidnapping, you feel helpless for the parent left behind. this has 2 stories: one, the ex-wife abducts the child; the other, the ex-husband abducts the children. in the story of the wife, there's a possibility of getting the kid back because it's likely she's still in the US and she's committed felony kidnapping which involves national law enforcement. it just might take a while. in the other case, the ex-husband took his kids back to his home in egypt where kidnapping laws don't exist. it's going to take the kids (now being adults, i think) escaping the dad and coming back to the US.

pretty strong way to end season 3, which i thought was stronger and more consistent this time. every episode had my interest, and each was put together extremely well.

i hope this show continues, because i'm not seeing a lot of interest on the interwebs.

Yeah, this is a real head-scratcher. I'd say he hooked up with someone online, but that goddamn monastery....this was really sad overall.

Whomever wrote and directed this one did an A+ job.

Loved the Minnesota dialect here, though. It was subtle--yet thoroughly enjoyable.

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Except the dad…was almost cartoon-like in that accent.

That fake eye threw me off.

You should create an "Ask W_Z" thread so board members across our fine nation can ask you questions about movies. I have questions about three movies right now. I only see a few movies a month, though.

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Hey that's a good idea. W_Z what did you think of 1984's Devil Fish? I think Deputy Fernando Cortez was one of the more underrated characters in the Italian ripoff genre. Your thoughts?

Rumblefish with Matt Dillon was also a good one. There was a book of the same name that they totally ripped off.

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How about...Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell? 1978 TV movie. Pretty classic.

Also, my favorite Italian ripoff movie was Pieces (1982).

Zack restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness . . .

They were pretty hot for sure and that was a good episode.

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