As an avid viewer of the true crime genre, my personal rating system is inversely proportional to the number of reenactments in a given show. I want to hear from people who were actually involved in some way, not watch a bad high-school drama club stage production.
The Brits are often pretty good about avoiding cheesy dramatizations (and, thankfully, the recaps after the innumerable commercial breaks). But it's not uncommon for British true crime shows to come across as flat, since they usually eschew hype.
Here, we have a method of story telling I don't recall ever seeing before. There are indeed reenactments, but they're not only acknowledged, but we often watch them from behind the scenes, alongside two of the investigators (both of whom are awesome, BTW).
One could easily argue that this drags out a single episode story to three, and, if you're a "just the facts ma'am" kind of viewer, a valid one. But, in my case, I already knew this story, and yet I found out a lot more about it from this series. Could that have been the case with another method of storytelling? Maybe, but the people behind this effort should be commended anyway for trying a most novel approach.
My rating of 7/10 is overall, but it rates higher in terms of story-tell-risk-taking, and in terms of the emotions revealed & imparted, which is something that simply can't be told in a mere 45 minutes.
The investigators here were fully involved, both emotionally and professionally. They did an incredible job, in spite of everything working against them. The initial investigation by the parachute club members was awesome-- without them this case would have gone nowhere. Again, things that can't be adequately portrayed in a single episode.
Hearing from Victoria herself was the main coup though. To avoid spoilers I'll simply say that she doesn't look all that astute through a lot of the story, but in the final scene your heart can't help but go out to her. Guarded as she is, she still wears her heart on her sleeve, and she doesn't shy from her mistakes. She deserves SO much better.
In the end, this is a novel telling of a seemingly simple story, that is anything but simple once you've heard it. If you like cheesy "I Can't Believe I Married a Murderer" kinda stuff, or if your attention span is short, this will likely not resonate with you. If you watch true crime to learn about humanity and personal motivations (both good & bad), give it a look.
Not every true crime story would benefit from this style of story telling, but IMO this one does, and everyone involved deserves kudos for taking part in the effort. Currently vastly underrated at under 6/10, this one deserves a look for mature viewers of true crime docs.
