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Friend
Aug 3, 2008

Taear posted:

Honestly I'd say it's only popular in America for a reason. There's a lot of shows like that which never got big outside of the US. It's a format that's not really done here.
I think that's probably why netflix has done it as it has, because it has wider appeal.

I would say at least partially also because none of the mysteries they were hoping to solve occur outside of America (except for a few where the suspect fled the country). Did America's Most Wanted play in Europe?

I don't blame Netflix for doing it in a style that is popular right now, but I do blame them for using the name.

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Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
Maybe the back half will be better and more mysterious.

AKA Pseudonym
May 16, 2004

A dashing and sophisticated young man
Doctor Rope

kuddles posted:

Yeah, the new series is clearly taking more inspiration from all the true crime series on streaming services the last several years than it is the original program.

Which is too bad because I would love to watch corny dramatizations with modern production values.

Low production values are part of the charm, and the original is a genuine product of its time. An imitation just would just feel artificial I think.

Action Jacktion
Jun 3, 2003

Friend posted:

I would say at least partially also because none of the mysteries they were hoping to solve occur outside of America (except for a few where the suspect fled the country). Did America's Most Wanted play in Europe?

Rescue 911 aired in various other countries. When it was shown in New Zealand it had a disclaimer reminding people that 911 is not the emergency number there (it's 111).

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!
Yea America's Most Wanted was on Sky here in the UK for a good while.

McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






AKA Pseudonym posted:

Low production values are part of the charm, and the original is a genuine product of its time. An imitation just would just feel artificial I think.

The closest inheritor to that style we have now is like... the whole Investigation Discovery channel.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
Volume II.... is out!!

(more of the same of the first, really)

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
New episodes include:

The death of former white house aide Jack Wheeler in 2010, where his body was discovered in a Delaware landfill, some weird things happened at his house on the day of his death, and displayed weird behavior right before he disappeared.

The probable suicide of an unknown young woman in an Oslo hotel room in the mid 90s with a mystery around her identity and whether or not there was someone with her in her final days. There's also a mystery of just how she came to be in the hotel room she was found in.

The search for a (former due to the supreme court decision) death row inmate (impulsively snatched, raped, and murdered a girl) who escaped in 1973 when he was given a furlough to go christmas shopping because he was so charismatic.

Spoopy stories about ghosts and spirits surrounding the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami

and more (ill edit in once I've seen them and can give a better summary lol)

Watermelon Daiquiri fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Oct 21, 2020

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!
I really liked the Oslo one. I'd heard of it before but he really went into it!

Friend
Aug 3, 2008

Just started volume 2, did they change the theme song since volume 1? I can't tell if I like it better because it was changed or if I'm just remembering how disappointed I was during volume 1.

Still not great though. Needs the "dum... dum dum-TISH" at the beginning at least.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
Ok the 2011 toohoku tsunami ghost episode is pretty much just a documentary on that disaster and the way in which people emotionally dealt with it. Like one of the 'ghosts' is literally just a guy confusing someone else for his mother due to wishful thinking.

For some strange reason they keep calling the shinto priest a 'reverend' like... no he very specifically is *not* christian.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



I've watched 5/6 of the new set.

The Japan one does feel like a documentary made separately or something. It's kind of like the UFO one from Volume 1, in that it doesn't fit with the other episodes. Almost all of the other episodes are murders or disappearances, and then you have the two paranormal ones.

The first episode of this new volume has the family really pushing for this guy to have been murdered for something at work when that is not at all clear. It appears like he got confused, wandered off, and got beaten to death by some unsavory people before being dumped in a dumpster. I don't think it was a hit or anything like the family seems to think.

The dead girl in Norway is almost certainly some kind of dead spy. I had been thinking that from the beginning, but when they talked to that Norwegian intelligence officer it became even more clear. It just makes no sense for someone to go to the trouble of removing all of the labels from all of their clothing. The fact that with all of the publicity around that case, no one has come forward to say that they even knew her, also suggests that she was some kind of spy who got burned or caught and killed.

The escaped death row inmate may be dead at this point. If he is alive, he would be in his late 70s now, and the fact that there have been no sightings in some time after he kept popping up in the 90s makes me think that maybe he died. Or he left the country, although I find that less likely because he does not seem to have had the means to do something like that. The guy was scraping around in the margins of society doing odd jobs/janitorial work because he was using fake names and needed to work a job that would pay him and not ask a lot of questions.

The drowned woman one, it's kind of hard to say. It does seem like something suspicious happened to her, but it seems like there's no way to prove it. I will say that if she was deliberately abducted and killed, as the family believes, whoever did it would have to be an extremely skilled professional because they left absolutely no evidence and no real wounds on the body. Regardless I don't see this getting solved because they have no real evidence that a crime even occurred.

baalaagaa
Apr 9, 2004
Needs more of the wacky paranormal episodes. As it stands this reboot is just another bland true crime show in a market already drowning in them.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
Its need the extremely ingenuous re-enactments of the original

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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baalaagaa posted:

Needs more of the wacky paranormal episodes. As it stands this reboot is just another bland true crime show in a market already drowning in them.
Some of the cases are interesting, but they really should have hired a narrator

Test Pattern
Dec 20, 2007

Keep scrolling, clod!

Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

Ok the 2011 toohoku tsunami ghost episode is pretty much just a documentary on that disaster and the way in which people emotionally dealt with it. Like one of the 'ghosts' is literally just a guy confusing someone else for his mother due to wishful thinking.

For some strange reason they keep calling the shinto priest a 'reverend' like... no he very specifically is *not* christian.

Weird fact: "reverend" is the honorary term for any religious leader. Like Honorable for judges and legislators. Rabbis in America used to use it before "Rabbi" became a recognizable English word. The reason Protestant leaders use it is because they're Not Priests, not because it's their term specifically.

Chef Boyardeez Nuts
Sep 9, 2011

The more you kick against the pricks, the more you suffer.
The elder politico who got trash compacted mid manic freakout seems extremely solved imo

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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Well not really because they determined that he died of being beaten to death

Chef Boyardeez Nuts
Sep 9, 2011

The more you kick against the pricks, the more you suffer.
I dunno those injuries seemed pretty consistent with old guy in a trash compactor

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

I dunno those injuries seemed pretty consistent with old guy in a trash compactor

Yea agreed, it felt like he had some sort of breakdown and he'd been leading up to it for a while.
Honestly so did the woman who killed herself, like she'd been going to church a shitload more and other stuff that felt like things were "changing" for her.

I really liked the UFO episode last season but the Japanese one this time left me cold. It's just "here's what the japanese believe about the afterlife" which I already know, I guess.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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I swear in the political guy episode they said that the cops ruled out him getting hurt in the dumpster but maybe I am crazy

The UFO one was really weird but the town had almost no records of that incident so I am pretty much writing it off as a mass hallucination event (which is something that has occurred in the past).

Chef Boyardeez Nuts
Sep 9, 2011

The more you kick against the pricks, the more you suffer.
I got a tip for the FBI about Lester Eubanks:

He was successfully rehabilitated and lived for like 60 years without committing another crime. He probably dead.

Shneak
Mar 6, 2015

A sad Professor Plum
sitting on a toilet.
The Norway episode and lady in the lake episode were really the only ones in this slate that piqued my interest but then a simple google search afterwards reveals several points they didn't include for some reason. Or they introduce points they never follow up upon. Like why did they not investigate the concierge that gave her the hotel room without ID or payment?

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:

I got a tip for the FBI about Lester Eubanks:

He was successfully rehabilitated and lived for like 60 years without committing another crime. He probably dead.
Yeah this is my thought as well

InfiniteZero
Sep 11, 2004

PINK GUITAR FIRE ROBOT

College Slice

FlamingLiberal posted:

The dead girl in Norway is almost certainly some kind of dead spy. I had been thinking that from the beginning, but when they talked to that Norwegian intelligence officer it became even more clear. It just makes no sense for someone to go to the trouble of removing all of the labels from all of their clothing. The fact that with all of the publicity around that case, no one has come forward to say that they even knew her, also suggests that she was some kind of spy who got burned or caught and killed.

I'd guess there's a 1% chance she was a spy and a 99% chance that she was a prostitute.

That would explain how she got into the hotel without properly checking in. She was either checked in by a handler/pimp or was granted anonymous and discreet access by an insider at the hotel (who was possibly paid with services and also compelled for that reason to not come forward with information). Something went horribly wrong and she was shot. The client who shot her was already probably somewhere else in the hotel or anonymously moving around the area. Other clients were not compelled to come forward with information about having seen her to help put together a better timeline for obvious reasons of not wanting to wreck their own reputations/marriages over it. This also explains the weird door access patterns. She wasn't moving around, she was letting other clients in.

This is a sad and boring explanation and therefore likely true.

Also she was allergic or sensitive to the clothing tags. That's not uncommon and plenty of people hate having tags in their clothing.

Unsolved Mysteries also weirdly left out the just kinda important fact that there were TWO bullets fired in the room and not one.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Hell, I wonder if they’ve tried putting the unidentified woman’s DNA through 23 & Me or the like as a shot in the dark?

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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I have never heard of sex workers going to those kind of extreme lengths to remove evidence of their identity like that, and on top of that, wouldn't some family have come forward by now to say who she was?

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
I take the tags out of all my clothes too. I don't like how they feel on my skin. Also:

FlamingLiberal posted:

I have never heard of sex workers going to those kind of extreme lengths to remove evidence of their identity like that, and on top of that, wouldn't some family have come forward by now to say who she was?

Probably wasn't "trying" to be super anonymous but just kind of was because of her circumstances. It happens. One of my buddies died while he was homeless and the only way the police were able to figure out who he was was because he had the number of one of our friends in his phone.

InfiniteZero
Sep 11, 2004

PINK GUITAR FIRE ROBOT

College Slice

FlamingLiberal posted:

I have never heard of sex workers going to those kind of extreme lengths to remove evidence of their identity like that, and on top of that, wouldn't some family have come forward by now to say who she was?

A sex worker working in a hotel that was well-known for hosting important travelling celebrities, politicians and political influencers might though. Whoever sponsored her being there wouldn't want it to be known that she was ever there to keep things clean. As for family, a sex worker being entirely estranged from family wouldn't be a stretch. There probably was and is nobody looking for her.

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!
Plenty of episodes in season 1 left stuff out, it's...a shame, i get why but still

The American Dream
Mar 1, 2007
Don't Forget My Balls

Shneak posted:

The Norway episode and lady in the lake episode were really the only ones in this slate that piqued my interest but then a simple google search afterwards reveals several points they didn't include for some reason. Or they introduce points they never follow up upon. Like why did they not investigate the concierge that gave her the hotel room without ID or payment?

About 10 years ago my friends went to montreal to get drunk for a few days.

I lost my hotel card one night and left my friends at the bar because one of them was being a dumbass and annoying me. At about 4 am I walked into the hotel and told the guy at the front desk I lost my card so he printed me a new one after I told him my name and room number. I probably told him the other names in the room.

It’s not that hard to get into a room if the other party doesn’t give a poo poo or you can find out basic info from drunk 23 year olds you overheard at a bar.

DrVenkman
Dec 28, 2005

I think he can hear you, Ray.

Taear posted:

Plenty of episodes in season 1 left stuff out, it's...a shame, i get why but still

I kinda don't get the point of making the show if you're going to leave stuff out, particularly pretty important aspects of a case. Yeah of course the original did this at times too, but given they were short segments you can almost understand why they were a bit more...'selective' with what they included. Even so, a lot of the time they reported what they believed were the facts at the time (not counting the Supernatural stuff that Stack could barely hide his disdain from).

There's no real difference between this and the true crime shows on YouTube. At least they seem better researched.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
That Chapter is a very good one and Mike does a hell of a job especially with having a very consistent release schedule

DrVenkman
Dec 28, 2005

I think he can hear you, Ray.

Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

That Chapter is a very good one and Mike does a hell of a job especially with having a very consistent release schedule

Ha that's who I had in mind when I made that comment. And there's a few others that I like, as well as a couple of podcasts. Having said that, we don't really know how well researched these shows are until they cover a case that you're interested in and realise what they choose to include and leave out, much like UM does I guess.

Its a shame we don't have a true crime subforum somewhere.

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
Having seen all of the episodes I'm now able to confidently say that this reboot sucks and has lost everything that made the original unique and interesting. It seems like they're trying to "manufacture" mysteries for a lot of these stories, when there's no shortage of actual mysteries out there to research. Just really disappointed across the board.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

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I do think it became a little too generic but it’s alright

InfiniteZero
Sep 11, 2004

PINK GUITAR FIRE ROBOT

College Slice

Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

That Chapter is a very good one and Mike does a hell of a job especially with having a very consistent release schedule

I just checked a few of these out and thank you for this recommendation he's actually way better than the new UM.

Watermelon Daiquiri
Jul 10, 2010
I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.
Mike is turdy-tree times better than the new UM e: and from what I've seen it's really well researched too

Watermelon Daiquiri fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Oct 28, 2020

Bape Culture
Sep 13, 2006

The politician guy with dementia who always forgot where his car was and took a taxi home and was clearly deteriorating and melting down at a neighbour seemed incredibly solved to me.

The Oslo lady is super fascinating to me though. I thought it was a spy. But still a suicide. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

It explains why she was checked in without ID. An agency arranged it. It explains the lack of tags and why she left and dumped large amounts of belongings. It explains the access to weapons and ammunition and why she knew about the random place in Belgium to write down as her permanent residence. It explains why the police forgot to look at any cctv and it explains why she didn’t particularly seem phased by any of it. The aftershave is a red herring and plenty of women wear men’s aftershave. I’d love to know where she went during the 20 hour gap.

None of those things work for me if she’s a prostitute. The implication of murder by the Norwegian spy guy makes no sense to me as it relies on the security guard outside the door not immediate opening it or just waiting outside until they exit. I found it really sad that nobody knew her and came forward to say “this is x” though.

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AKA Pseudonym
May 16, 2004

A dashing and sophisticated young man
Doctor Rope
Prostitution is legal in Norway. Soliciting is currently illegal, but it wasn't in 1995. No reason for it sub rosa. Maybe she was just depressed and wanted to be alone before she committed suicide. That stuff about checking in without an ID and the serial number being filed off the gun is really weird though. I doubt it was anything as grandiose as the Norwegian intelligence guy was saying, but definitely weird.

That, the first episode, and the lady in the lake were the only ones that really grabbed me. I'm just not going to watch that one about the kids.

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