After just one episode of the “true crime” miniseries American Murder: Laci Peterson of the Netflix platform, I had just been lost. Adios, amigo Hugo. A whirlwind of frantic searches swallowed me and shook me to the core, send for help, it’s a serious case of television obsession.
Like a Temu version of Hugo Poirot, I was on Google Street View looking at the house where Laci and her husband Scott Peterson live in Modesto, California.
While we’re on the subject, where is Modesto in relation to San Francisco? What was Laci Peterson’s job, when she was more than eight months pregnant, before she was murdered? How far is Modesto from the Berkeley marina where Scott Peterson has anchored his new boat?
Seconds later, I was virtually inspecting the linear park where Laci Peterson walked her golden retriever McKenzie one last time before disappearing. Yes, this is crazy. Yes, I Googled information about the Petersons’ dog. This is what they call falling into the “vortex.”
As if I, a poor little armchair detective, was going to find a new clue in this sordid affair that dates back to December 2002. A crucial detail that had escaped all the police officers, all the lawyers and all the journalists who have been digging into this heinous murder for 22 years already. Honestly. It’s completely ridiculous.
At the same time, the very nature of real crime – the true crimein its controlled designation of origin – provokes this type of very intense investment in the viewer-investigator. Trial reports, abundant period archives, crime scene photos or 911 call recordings, everything can be found in a few clicks on the Internet. Why then wait for the next episode of our series to quench your thirst for truth when you can put the pieces of the puzzle back together yourself?
American Murder: Laci Peterson unfolds in three one-hour episodes in a sober and classic way. Without revolutionizing the genre, this miniseries, the most popular currently on Netflix, exposes the tragic fate of the smiling Laci Peterson, 27 years old, a young woman without a story whose mutilated body – and that of her unborn baby – were thrown into the San Francisco Bay.
Laci Peterson’s disappearance was reported on Christmas Eve 2002, a time when news always moves slowly. As a result, the national American media jumped on this news story, which exploded into a media circus, it’s completely mind-blowing.
Soon, grieving husband Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman, came under the police’s suspicion. He didn’t seem at all disturbed or distressed by the absence of his wife, who was about to give birth to their first child. Red flag.
But why would Scott want to get rid of Laci? That’s the question at the heart of the story told by Laci Peterson’s loved ones, including her mother Sharon, who is super moving and convincing.
On the other side, the family of Scott Peterson, convicted of the murder and incarcerated for 20 years, remains convinced of his innocence to this day.
Still on the subject of criminal obsession, if I were 17, I would definitely have acted like the resourceful teenager at the heart of the excellent British miniseries. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Murder Instructionsin French version), also hosted by Netflix.
This charming and captivating fiction series focuses on Pippa Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers, seen in Wednesday), a brilliant, slightly strange student who devotes her end-of-year project to a case that has never been solved by the police: the murder of popular graduate Andie Bell, which occurred five years ago.
At the time, Andie’s ex-boyfriend confessed to the crime before committing suicide. But Pippa doubts this official version and transforms a wall in her bedroom into a board covered with photos connected by red threads.
In the manner of Veronica Mars, clearly an inspiration, Pippa takes up the investigation from the beginning. She re-interviews the witnesses. She infiltrates clandestine parties. She unearths evidence in a more or less legal way. And she gets closer to the truth, which attracts threats.
Halfway between a teenage series and a police thriller, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder takes place in the bucolic fictional village of Little Kilton, England. Of course, the teenagers we meet in the six episodes, like those of Never Have I Everall look older than their age. They are handsome and well-dressed and have excellent taste in music: The Last Dinner Party, HAIM, Lykke Li, The Chemical Brothers, Billie Eilish and Wet Leg, among others.
Created by author Holly Jackson, the show’s heroine, the strange Pippa Fitz-Amobi, is a fascinating character. Let’s say she’s not particularly likeable, at first glance. Pippa is self-centered, monomaniacal, distracted, placid, but also determined and quick on her feet.
Like us in a true crime production, Pippa tumbles into the vortex. Obsession, anxiety, insomnia and madness. All of it, extra gratiné.
But unlike us experts in lazy Google browsing, Pippa deserves a detective sergeant badge for her field work. Not a Facebook super fan badge. A real police badge.