TV Review: Unsolved Mysteries

Television

Jul 7

The Grandfather of True Crime TV Returns to Netflix to Mixed Results

The digital flood of true crime continues - this time, with the Netflix revival of a 90s cult favorite, Unsolved Mysteries. Helmed by the original series’ creators, John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, this new series attempts to toe the line between nostalgia and freshness, but often comes up short in delivering either. Minor spoilers below…

One of the only TV theme songs that terrified me as a child was the intro to the original Unsolved Mysteries. It’s surprising how much associations linger - all it takes is a short listen now, and I’m instantly transported by the pounding synths back into the world of ghost taxis, alien abductions, and vengeful curses, all narrated by the dulcet tones of the late Robert Stack. Netflix’s new reboot of Unsolved Mysteries is clearly designed to capitalize upon nostalgia - especially that of my generation - in a few ways. The series’ original creators, John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, return to helm this iteration, and along with them, an updated version of its hauntingly sinister theme song. And while original host Robert Stack is obviously absent, his ghostly image makes a cameo in the new show’s opening credits. Unfortunately, these thinly veiled callbacks are the only traces of the Mysteries of yore remaining: Window dressing and decor paint a vaguely familiar picture, but the engrossing spirit of its namesake is largely absent.

Much of the charm of the original Unsolved Mysteries was its “anything goes” approach. Week to week, subjects were plucked from a wild range of the unexplained and paranormal - from spectral cab passengers to chupacabras to the Bermuda Triangle, a large part of the fun of Unsolved Mysteries was the anticipation of its investigatory lineup. Flash-forward to 2020, and the Netflix revival has a shockingly narrow palette: Of the six episodes available for review, five of them explore either a murder or a missing person. In the age of Making a Murderer, Tiger King, and Cold Case Files, the true crime documentary space is getting more than a little crowded, and unfortunately, the new Unsolved Mysteries does nothing to differentiate itself from its brethren. Like many of its contemporaries, the series utilizes a more-than-familiar style and aesthetic: There are tripod witness interviews and slow zooms on grainy photos, predictably accompanied by drone footage of relevant locations and a stone-cold film filter; this is life and death seriousness, lest you forget.

“Flash-forward to 2020, and the Netflix revival has a shockingly narrow palette: Of the six episodes available for review, five of them explore either a murder or a missing person.”

This isn’t to say that this new series has nothing to offer. Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries starts off with its best episode, a hauntingly mysterious death that is as chilling as it is baffling. An intimate portrait of grief and frustration in the wake of an inexplicable tragedy, the first episode centers around the disappearance and death of an aspiring screenwriter, Rey Rivera. Rivera’s beleaguered wife and brother make for compelling subjects, and the mind-boggling physical paradox of his death only makes things more intriguing. Unfortunately, the episodes take a dive in quality soon after this fascinating debut - from their languid pacing to the obvious suspects, the cold cases are unsolved more due to lack of evidence than anything worthy of the Mysteries legacy. Most disappointingly, the first six episodes’ lone UFO sighting mystery - the only episode not focused on a murder or disappearance - is uncharacteristically dry and overlong.

And while it’s arguable that the late, great Robert Stack is irreplaceable, this new Unsolved Mysteries clearly suffers from its lack of a host. On the original show, Stack’s baritone narration was the production’s calling card, but it was also more that just a flourish, acting as a pacing stop-gap. With Stack’s alluring voiceover, Mysteries was able to cleverly circumvent clunky storytelling and convey useful exposition when needed, but with this host-less reboot, there’s an unwieldiness that’s hard to ignore and a clumsiness filled in with awkward graphics and repetitive talking heads that often overlap one another.

Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries feels generic much of the time. With so many true crime stories floating around on so many streaming platforms, it doesn’t do nearly enough to capitalize on its IP or bring anything fresh to the genre. I’m curious to see how the back-half of the season will play out (there will be another six episodes after this initial release), sincerely hoping it will inject some life and diversity to its cases - but if the first six episodes are any indication, it doesn’t look promising.