The first three episodes of the newest season to Netflix’s reboot of the iconic show Unsolved Mysteries were recently released. Unsolved Mysteries: Volume Three came out with a bang: it has been reviewed by some as the best season so far. There will be three new episodes released every Tuesday for two more consecutive weeks, which leaves plenty of time to think about these cruel and unexplainable cases.
True crime television series and movies have exponentially grown in the last few years. The legendary docuseries Unsolved Mysteries, which first aired in 1988, focuses on unsolved cases in all their forms: murder, disappearance, supernatural occurrences, and even UFO sightings. Each episode presents a different case introducing the audience to a new perplexing story.
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The Netflix update of Unsolved Mysteries is unique, even in the true-crime world that appears to grow with multiple productions every year. Here is how the show is different from the rest and a bit more about the new episodes.
Unsolved Nature
Netflix
There is a great payoff when it comes to detective stories: the moment everything falls into place and the mystery is solved. This is especially the case in true-crime stories when the victims and the violence are real, creating a more profound need for justice. However, solutions are obviously not a feature of Unsolved Mysteries. Because of that, there are various things the creators had to subtly change to make the stories exciting and focus on trying to help these families find closure.
Unsolved Mysteries uses a mixture of re-enactments and depositions or interviews from family members, friends, and professionals that worked on the case. Also, there is actual found footage (news when the events happened, self-recorded video, etc.) to create a compelling enough story that engages the viewer and immerses them in these worlds, even if the ending is the same (unresolved). The docuseries is effective in its storytelling and urges the audience to come forward if they have any new information about a case, especially the ones relating to murder and foul play. It is a difficult balance to strike, and the show did it very well in these new episodes.
Focus on the Victim
One of the biggest complaints in the true crime genre is that there is a romanticization and glorification of the killer (or crime) and a dehumanization of the victim. This happened a lot with Ted Bundy, especially in the movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and more recently with Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. This has become more prominent in every new movie and television show based on true occurrences. Some productions even come as close as ignoring that the victims were real people and focusing on the tragic past of a serial killer or the greedy details of the investigation. These elements should be a part of these stories, and it is alarming how much the victims have been ignored in recent productions.
Unsolved Mysteries strikes a very different path. Yes, the police reports and professionals that worked on the case are important, but there is a carefully depicted and three-dimensional victim presented in every episode. The audience gets to see who these people were: their dreams for the future, their relationships, and overall important things in their lives. The horrible moments the families had to go through, such as family members collecting scattered remains of a body after being hit by a train that was left by the team in charge of the case, are the focus of the show. There is an intimate feel to these episodes, which only makes it more heartbreaking to watch but a lot more real, necessarily so.
Also, how these crimes affected the people that care for the victims are placed in the front row, which makes Unsolved Mysteries less about perpetrators than victims and events. Of course, that’s partly a byproduct of these cases being unsolved, with no known criminal or person to explore, but it works nonetheless.
Variety of Unsolved Mysteries
One of the big highlights of the rebooted show is how incredibly different cases are explored. There is no shortage of murder, but supernatural and UFO cases are also a part of Unsolved Mysteries. This is already seen in the first three episodes of the new season, recreating intriguing cases that make the viewer wonder what happened. In only three episodes, there is an interesting range between them enhancing one of the best qualities the show has to offer — and for what has been announced of the remaining episodes, it will only get more diverse.
‘Mystery at Mile Marker 45’ is a strong emotional beginning for the third season. The episode is about a young woman, Tiffany, who dies after getting hit by a train. It was quickly ruled to be a suicide, but the family was not content with the outcome as it not only wouldn’t make sense with who she was, but important elements also weren’t taken into consideration. The main one: she had no clothes and shoes beside her underwear when she was hit by the train.
‘Something in the Sky’ takes a turn and shows the story of over 300 people in the state of Michigan seeing lights making weird patterns in the sky one night in 1994. Then, ‘Body in Bags’ returned to the emotional and heartbreaking element of the show, detailing a case where a young father, David, was killed and dismembered. The prime suspect ran away and has not been found to this day.
It is impossible not to try to solve these cases while watching the show. Fans will only have to wait for the remaining six episodes, hence six more perplexing cases to be available to watch. Or they can stream the last two seasons, which have a fair share of intriguing stories.
