Netflix’s true-crime docuseries, The Playing Card Killer follows the investigations into Spain’s most notorious serial killer who terrorized the nation in 2003.
Story
In 2003, Madrid witnesses a string of cold-blooded murders that terrorize all. The authorities get on investigating the crimes and find one pattern that connects them — playing cards.
As the police try to prevent the next murder by the serial killer referred to by now as the “Playing Card Killer”, a survivor comes forward and provides a description of the killer, following which a portrait is etched, which also gives rise to confusion and conflict.
The killer finally surrenders and confesses to his crime, only to retract it all as time passes. The trial begins and in spite of inconsistency and lack of evidence, amid contradictory theories, the killer is sentenced and put into prison for twenty-five years.
Positives
The subject matter is inherently compelling and apart from the morbid curiosity that’s involved in almost all true-crime documentaries, The Playing Card Killer has a lot of other components involving the incompetence of the authorities and loose threads all over that make the affair quite an intriguing watch.
The docuseries makes an effort to include the voices of the victims’ families, even highlighting how the government failed to compensate them in any manner, especially when glaring mistakes and oversights contributed to the killer being able to smuggle in firearm to the country.
Negatives
For episodes that run so long, the emphasis on the victims and the testimonies of the survivors are put on the back burner, comparatively speaking.
Although there’s an effort at including their voices and highlighting their unfair treatment by the government, it doesn’t do that great a job of it. In that way, the ending portion of the third episode feels dishonest and not at all a deserving conclusion to the rest of the affair.
True crime always falls victim to its dreadful pitfalls — the kitsch. There’s always an insensitive effort to dramatize things and sensationalize them as well, whether it be by using background scores or visual representations.
Unfortunately, this docuseries suffers from the same problems, even when it isn’t as prolific as it is in other true-crime documentaries.
Verdict
The Playing Card Killer follows a truly compelling case of the macabre but one is left desiring more out of the effort, both in terms of the humane angle with which to cover the victims and their surviving families, as well as raising questions and flags at the inconsistencies and incompetence at the institutional level that often contributes to crime.
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