The Sons of Sam Review: An Informative Tale!

The Sons of Sam is a Netflix crime docuseries based on the killer who terrorized New York City during the 1970s. About a year after his first murders, the police believe they’ve caught the killer, but one armchair detective isn’t convinced. This documentary takes you further into the story than anyone has ever been. With the very real possibility that what we know of the murders was quintessentially just the tip of the iceberg.

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The eyewitness accounts, interviews from the public, and press briefings bring this documentary to life in an emotionally profound way. You can actually feel New Yorkers’ terror. It’s also very well compiled so that even if the story itself is complicated with many twists and turns, it’s not hard to follow along.

I will say though, they do, depend heavily on previous imagery too often, and it comes off a bit redundant. Nevertheless, the docuseries not only highlights this string of murders but it warns us all what obsession can do and where it can lead us.

What The Sons of Sam accomplishes is not providing us with just another serial killer story, but it gives us a hero in Maury Terry, the journalist we root for to uncover the truth. The docuseries push their boundaries and become a real armchair detective thriller.

Slowly the watchers are left to question, was there something bigger in all this that the police overlooked? Or was this dogged journalist so obsessed with his theories that he was determined to see demons where there weren’t any? As someone who has a fascination with serial killers, I’ve long thought the 70s had the worst (best) ones. The truth is, the world is no less or more sick today. It’s always been sick, but maybe you could argue it’s not as bad since we haven’t had a real good (bad), serial killer, for a while.

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The Sons of Sam is an informative tale but also a testament to what true dogged journalism can achieve and how important it is to uncover the truth no matter the outcome. It serves largely as a cautionary tale. Even though Maury was right about a lot of things and maybe right about a lot more… he paid the price for his dark obsession and “descent into darkness.” Watch ‘The Sons of Sam’ on Netflix here.

‘The Sons of Sam’ Rating – 3.5/5

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