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I'll Be Gone In The Dark - Golden State Killer Doc HBO


Bash Riprock

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I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a new six-part documentary series based on the book of the same name, which explores writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer. Directed by Academy Award nominee and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus

 

 

Anyone catch this tonight? I thought the first episode was good but not great. 

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I'm sorry Ms. McNamara passed away, but there are many investigative true crime reporters that have actually finished a book, solved crimes, and have never received their big break. They just made the mistake of not being married to Patton Oswalt. HBO makes good docs and I'm happy there's something new to watch, but they can do better. 

 

 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I'm sorry Ms. McNamara passed away, but there are many investigative true crime reporters that have actually finished a book, solved crimes, and have never received their big break. They just made the mistake of not being married to Patton Oswalt. HBO makes good docs and I'm happy there's something new to watch, but they can do better. 

 

 

pretty much sums up my opinion of the book, also. obviously it wasn't finished, but a large part of what was finished thoroughly described various California neighborhoods/architecture/layouts where the crimes occurred, at the times the crimes occurred. a little of that was good for context, but a ton of it was in the book.

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13 minutes ago, strangulation! said:

pretty much sums up my opinion of the book, also. obviously it wasn't finished, but a large part of what was finished thoroughly described various California neighborhoods/architecture/layouts where the crimes occurred, at the times the crimes occurred. a little of that was good for context, but a ton of it was in the book.

I listened to the pod about McNamara writing the book. They glossed over how she got her book deal, and of course how involved Oswalt and his people were during the process. I think she was blogger, but not an author. There's a big difference. She missed every single deadline her editor gave her and the book was only 2/3rds of the way done in 3 years. Per Oswalt's own admission, her notes were all over the place and very disorganized. They doesn't scream New York Times Best Selling Author to me, but she was connected and has the right development people. 

Kind of surprised Netflix didn't buy the doc. You'd think they want to keep Oswalt happy or they might not care. His last special wasn't very good. 

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I’m a huge true crime fan, and would love a good, insightful GSK documentary. But I didn’t find the Michelle background that compelling, including her relationship with Patton. A tidbit like bonding over The Creature From the Black Lagoon isn’t a piece of info I need, but rather how a project like this swells to six episodes. I’m good with human interest, just as long as it’s interesting.

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9 hours ago, Vito Andolini said:

I’m a huge true crime fan, and would love a good, insightful GSK documentary. But I didn’t find the Michelle background that compelling, including her relationship with Patton. A tidbit like bonding over The Creature From the Black Lagoon isn’t a piece of info I need, but rather how a project like this swells to six episodes. I’m good with human interest, just as long as it’s interesting.

I hope it becomes more focused in the coming episodes. There’s still time to save it. There’s plenty of source material to go into now that they’ve caught GSK. A bio on GSK would be infinitely more interesting that the Patton-Michelle love story. 

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10 hours ago, Vito Andolini said:

I’m a huge true crime fan, and would love a good, insightful GSK documentary. But I didn’t find the Michelle background that compelling, including her relationship with Patton. A tidbit like bonding over The Creature From the Black Lagoon isn’t a piece of info I need, but rather how a project like this swells to six episodes. I’m good with human interest, just as long as it’s interesting.

I listen to several true crime podcasts and probably my favorite one, Casefile, did a four part series on this case a few years ago. It was teriffic, if not a bit graphic. I highly recommend it. 

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2 hours ago, Sandman said:

I listen to several true crime podcasts and probably my favorite one, Casefile, did a four part series on this case a few years ago. It was teriffic, if not a bit graphic. I highly recommend it. 

The casefile one was great. Every victim described his incredibly tiny dick and his terrible smell. 

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I love True Crime stuff, so I'll keep watching.  It think it's amazing this guy got away with this shit for 40 years.  I guess being a cop helped in that regard.

They mentioned his "excessively" small donger in the 1st episode too.  Got a chuckle outta that.

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5 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

The guy was awful, but I found it fascinating that he'd make snacks/prepare meals while in victims' homes. 

is he the one that would balance the plates on the bed? to make sure they didnt move? My wife is BIG into casefiles so we have heard them all. We are going to let this one play out so we can binge, seems easier.

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1 hour ago, Juicy said:

is he the one that would balance the plates on the bed? to make sure they didnt move? My wife is BIG into casefiles so we have heard them all. We are going to let this one play out so we can binge, seems easier.

Yeah, this is the asshole who would tie up the husband, lay him on his stomach, place a stack of plates  on his back and promise to kill the wife if he heard the plates fall.

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2 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

The Aussie who narrates casefile is fantastic. That’s all I’ve got. The discussion here is not really making me eager to watch this doc. Maybe I should check out the casefile episodes first. 

Yeah, I love that guy. I've been resisting for quite a while to buy this t-shirt, I might have to pull the trigger soon, LOL.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Casefile-True-Crime-1999-Light-by-casefile2016/41235832.FB110.XYZ

 

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On 6/30/2020 at 10:48 AM, Sandman said:

I listen to several true crime podcasts and probably my favorite one, Casefile, did a four part series on this case a few years ago. It was teriffic, if not a bit graphic. I highly recommend it. 

i've only listened to the first episode, but so far i've learned more about this assface than i did reading an entire book. thanks for the rec.

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On 6/30/2020 at 2:16 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

The guy was awful, but I found it fascinating that he'd make snacks/prepare meals while in victims' homes. 

Even more fascinating if the snacks were Steel Shank level. 

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Episode 2 is MUCH better. Far less McNamara. 

The detectives’ comments were pretty chilling. “The East Area Rapist wasn’t the most active rapist in Sacramento in the 1970s, but he was the most violent”. 

What the hell was going on in Sac Town?! There were criminals raping north of 50 women in the same small city at the same time? 

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Like, we’re so used to DNA being such an easy tool to identify and catch criminals that it’s hard to imagine a time where a man could rape 50+ women over 4+ years without being caught.

And those “rape education” films from the 70s were just......infuriating.

I’m enjoying the series a lot - I don’t mind the parts on McNamara. It’s like “Don’t F*ck With Cats”, the online sleuthing community is just as fascinating to me as the true crime stories that obsess them.

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On 7/5/2020 at 11:46 PM, Bama Chick said:

Like, we’re so used to DNA being such an easy tool to identify and catch criminals that it’s hard to imagine a time where a man could rape 50+ women over 4+ years without being caught.

And those “rape education” films from the 70s were just......infuriating.

I’m enjoying the series a lot - I don’t mind the parts on McNamara. It’s like “Don’t F*ck With Cats”, the online sleuthing community is just as fascinating to me as the true crime stories that obsess them.

 

100% agree different time back then. Hell Hitchhiking was very common and a legit way people for people to get from point a to point b, hell I would leave my house at 8AM in the weekends and summer and didn't come home until it was dark out almost everyday. 

As for the McNamara piece- I find it annoying. "Hey look at me I am going to video tape myself reading books, doing research, and talking to myself see how important I am............"

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13 minutes ago, HoffaJimmy said:

As for the McNamara piece- I find it annoying. "Hey look at me I am going to video tape myself reading books, doing research, and talking to myself see how important I am............"

I mean, it was probably pretty rare when she put her laptop and box of wine aside, climbed out of bed, and changed out of her pajamas, so she probably like to keep a record of those times. 

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4 hours ago, Deej said:

I mean, it was probably pretty rare when she put her laptop and box of wine aside, climbed out of bed, and changed out of her pajamas, so she probably like to keep a record of those times. 

She’s a veritable Hemingway. Just add a shitload of modern pharmaceuticals and take away all those classic novels. Hell it’s practically a draw

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20 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

I mean, I'm not sure what most of y'all are expecting.  It's a show about the process of writing her book and the subject matter it covers.  It's not just a crime documentary.

i agree.  the series is telling two stories - the rapist and why he did what he did, and how he did it, and hopefully eventually how he got caught, and mm - and why she ended up doing what she did.  imo, everyone that commits suicide or od's deserves a documentary. it's fascinating that 90% go through life with bugs hitting our windshields and just deal with it and go on.  what makes the other 10% freak out or ram into a tree, or pull over and call a tow truck?  what osome see as a minor speed bump, others see as a solid brick wall and stopping point.

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On 7/12/2020 at 9:26 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

Missed opportunity here shoved down our throats by Patton Oswalt. A series about the genealogist that actually caught the East Area Rapist, would have been much more interesting. But again she’s not married to a name brand comedian. 

I actually agree with much of the criticism of the show, but do you really think Patton Oswald is some type of power player in either the publishing or TV industries? I've no doubt her story is known due to his popularity, but there's no way Oswald got on the phone with a publisher or network and pressured them into doing anything. 

I've seen the first two episodes and I quickly tire of the eulogies for McNamara. The dull wad from LA Magazine who describes every aspect of everything as "incredible" is particularly tiresome. The story of the investigation is pretty interesting. It's an okay documentary that we'll likely finish.

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