Murder Among the Mormons

Well this is absolutely bonkers. A little background about me, I grew up in the church in the 90's and I never heard of any of this. I'll not spoil it, but there is a science-y aspect in the last episode that I would have gladly watched an extra hour on. A little slow to start, but not stretched for extra episodes like many Netflix docu-series. If the title didn't give it away, lots of white folks in this one. The whitest of folks.

Really intriguing story, but it's also just a lot of fun to hear people talk about the "rockstars of the Mormon document world." I always love documentaries that explore super niche areas where the players in those worlds seem blissfully unaware of how niche the world is.

I found the first part of this series really interesting. Mark Hofmann seems both really nice but also a homicidal maniac. I was more interested in the folklore and treasure hunting in the first two parts of this series. Once it was revealed who the bomber was, I wasn't as interested in the story. That isn't to say that the final part of the documentary didn't have some great moments and interesting reveals, I just wasn't as interested in the murder mystery part of it as I was with the mystical.

Looks and sounds like most other Netflix docuseries of the day (sort of Errol Morris ripoff in other words). Also, not too cohesive, and hinges very much on suspending exposition of Hofmann's motive. The thing is, there's not a tremendous deal of mystery to the well known case of the murdering forger, and so waiting for the details while the script dallies around proves more annoying than thrilling.

I've watched a ton of Netflix's true crime docuseries', and in my opinion, this one ended up being the most fascinating. No spoilers, but to see what people are truly capable of doing when all they care about is ambition and achievement, it boggles the mind. Very well executed, nearly perfectly suspenseful and compelling all the way to the end, and ultimately a very thought-provoking look into history, religion, and human nature.