If you're using your Netflix subscription as your primary form of entertainment, we've recently gotten two high-profile projects centered on notable criminal cases. Unabomber and Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story are both suspenseful and a blast to watch, but readers should be aware they're both in need of a disclaimer.
With so many outstanding True Crime movies out there, I would hesitate to add either to the list. I lump them together because I think there's an argument that both Lizzie Borden and Ted Kaczynski are painted in a sympathetic light. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with it if it wasn't established with purely fictional story elements.
I Was Shocked To See So Much Of What I Watched In Both Projects Was Made Up
I watched Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and how cruel her parents were, and wondered how Lizzie didn't kill them sooner. I'd known going in that Lizzie was accused and acquitted of the murder of her parents, but I had no idea how abusive they were, or the issues that kept Lizzie from being married.
Come to find out, that was all made up for the show. Additionally, there was no evidence Borden had a same-sex relationship with their maid, or that she was an advocate for the women's suffrage movement. Oh yeah, and there was no evidence that serial killer Aileen Wuornos idolized Borden, or even knew who she was.
Unabomber has similar issues, especially in how it presents the idea that Ted Kaczynski's crimes later in life were tied to a psychological experiment he underwent at Harvard. History has more about how this experiment likely had no impact on Kaczynski's views later in life, but no one watching would know that.
Does Netflix Have An Obligation To Its Viewers To Alert Them About "Real Life" Stories That Use Creative License?
I'm aware these two stories aren't the first to take a real event and fictionalize large chunks of it. I came to this realization way back in middle school, when I looked up the real story of Remember the Titans and how it or the characters were nothing like the Disney movie.
That being said, I kept thinking of all the people who saw these two works and probably went about their day unsure if any of it was real or not. It's a shame, because Netflix itself has documentaries that will inform the viewer about the reality behind it all.
To me, it feels like there should be a disclaimer when using real people and events. I guess I would hope the average person would assume the world at large is not as grotesque and cruel as a horror-driven project from Ryan Murphy's studio would portray it, but I don't know that. I think I would just prefer to know there's a disclaimer in all storytelling involving some of the most notable killers, just for caution's sake.
Watch Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and Unabomber on Netflix. I maintain that both are great, but again, people just need the heads-up that it's not how things really went down.
