American Murder: The Family Next Door

Other than stitching up vignettes in a chronological order, this documentary offers barely any new insight to the Watts familicide. It has been nearly two years since his incarceration and there are no recent interviews with the killer or family members.

The story plays like an episode of Air Crash Investigation (minus the investigation) - multiple failures must occur to precipitate the ultimate catastrophe. Chris stalks Shanann on Facebook. Shanann agrees to meet but would repeatedly rebuff Chris' advances. But why? Best guess would be her feelings of inadequacy about herself and her lupus. She finally succumbs to his charm and agrees to marry him. But Chris' family fails to attend his wedding because Cindy, his mother, does not approve of Shanann and does not want to lose her son to her. What does this say of Cindy? It would take a deeply narcissistic person to make her son's wedding about her and sabotage her son's happiness.

According to the neighbours, Chris Watts is a subdued man. In his text messages to his wife, we see a man whose words do not reflect his actions. This is a man so accustomed to putting on a performance that he probably does not have a coherent sense of self because he has dedicated his life to appeasing everyone around him, not least his mother. According to Shanann's friends, she is "bossy"; in other words, she is a control freak. This is consistent with her anxious and validation-seeking personality. She massively over-reacts while at her in-laws despite an already tenuous relationship with Cindy. Her text messages to her friends and husband also do not paint a portrait of someone with healthy emotional regulation. Despite all of her protestations via text messages and hand-written letters to her husband detailing her anguish, she seems incapable of having face-to-face discussions with him without flying off the handle. This was a couple in dire need of relationship counselling and the basics of effective interpersonal communication.

Nothing can bring back Shanann and the kids. Just as the lessons of air crashes have made air travel safer and prevented more lives lost unnecessarily to air crashes, these tragedies hopefully serve as cautionary tales to couples in toxic or unfulfilling relationships. Get help as soon as issues arise. Most of all, do not flog a dead horse. Sometimes the best thing to do is simply to walk away calmly with dignity.