User Reviews

One of the worst HBO documentaries ever made.

Mostly conjecture and staged interviews where subjects are more or less fed lines and leading witnesses. The narrative constantly deviates from serial killing into family drama and how men are bad and nobody believed rumours in the 1970s, a time when hearsay dominated life. Evidence shcmevidence it seems the filmmaker is saying.

The entire first episode could be condensed into a 3 minute intro but the filmmaker is too invested in her own namesake and San Francisco trauma to stop.

Just because you can shoot a documentary doesn't make it compelling or necessary.

Far below HBO documentary standards.

I would not call this documentary true crime but instead reality tv. A family documents their attempts to pin infamous murders on their late grandfather (who doesn't even have a criminal record) with no proof other than that he was a bad guy. It's obvious that Jim is not a good person, but that a serial killer does not make. The links are tenuous at best and commentary from all family members is wildly speculative. The documenter cannot provide any conclusion due to this lack of evidence and so it makes you wonder why you're watching at all. A hard pass for any true crime or good tv fan, this is just opinions.

"Somebody's grandpa was a serial killer....." Sigh, not necessarily tho, right? Cause a serial killer isn't automatically a father - and it's assumptions and leaps like that that pepper this series with, let's say reckless allegations that most of, are pure speculation - now PLEASE understand that I'm not defending the subject of the documentary, nor disbelieving the accusers (in the cases that it's first hand recounting) but let's just say that had the filmmakers not been immediate family AND the accused being deceased, this type of film couldnt or wouldn't exist - so to me, the fact that one or more of these are purely conjecture - it causes me to see the whole through this lens of speculation - for that I think I have to give it a 3, if for no other reason than, IN FACT, it is NOT the TRUTH about Jim.

This was pure speculation! All the way through, with no firm conclusion. While he may have been an awful man and I am sorry for what they all went through, you are accusing a man of murder ! When you have no proof and he cannot defend himself. Don't waste your time watching its long winded and meaningless.

The interviews all seem prompted, I did have sympathy and empathy for the women, but as stated it was all speculation.

There doesn't seem to be any firm presented evidence, for anything. I was very disappointed in this documentary. I wish I read the reviews before I wasted my time watching it.

Never thought I'd make it through all four episodes but I did. Compelling content with sharp hooks to keep viewers engaged.

At first I was surprised they had so much footage of Jim given that the action largely took place pre-cell phones/pre-cameras being ubiquitous in society. I later realized it wasn't that they had ample footage, but that they were using and re-using the same shots and clips in creative ways- backed by different tones, sequences and music- so that they never felt recycled. Speaks to the production value of the series that such repetitive usage of the same pictures and home videos never derailed the pacing or came across as cheap.

In terms of the story, I found the most fascinating character to be Sierra's grandmother (Jim's third/last wife). I wonder if she didn't have more intel she could have shared but was holding it back out of loyalty to her late husband. I mean I'm just speculating- maybe she just wasn't a big talker. But I'm curious how such a beast could manage to hide so many dark secrets from his partner over multiple decades, when he seemed like such an opportunistic abuser (if not borderline psychotic) with most everyone else. She was a contradiction in that way, by being both a passionate supporter of the investigation while also keeping herself at arm's length from it (perhaps to honor her vows- even in death?). It presents another debate that the series didn't cover head-on: what do you 'owe' your husband who's 15 years gone if you learn he was 100x more monstrous than you had ever known while he was alive? Seems like quite a dilemma. I doubt if she's even answered that question for herself yet.

Enjoyed the series. Much respect to the entire family but particularly Melissa and Jaime Mordecai for bravely facing their biological father's past. Even if it was the "right" thing to do, it couldn't have been easy for them. Hope they can all find some peace now as a broader functional unit- together. Their saga crystallized a key point for me: that while it's important to love and support your family in general, it's also ok to prioritize those who *truly care about you in practice.

Between the mother who basically called her daughter a liar in the most passive aggressive manner, who ignore countless red flags, who couldn't see what was happening right in front of her, even though he threatened to kill her more times than could be counted, and pretends everything is just fine. You're at least 70, it's blatantly apparent you haven't a lick of sense in your head, despite your years of life.

The granddaughter (Sierra) who seemingly is too completely moronic, I half expected the person she went to with her discoveries to be a psychic. She keeps claiming to not want to bother people, but doesn't bother to do a single bit of research into families of murder victims with no answers, and how desperately they cling to the hope that some day they'll finally get the answer to all the questions. She's constantly putting HER BARE HANDS all over every piece of physical evidence with no thoughts as to evidentiary integrity. She spends far too much time talking about pointless drivel that has no bearing on what this absolute abomination did. WHY DID SHE NOT IMMEDIATELY GO TO LAW ENFORCEMENT? I swear to God all she ever says is 'I'm so freaked out right now!' It's like the worst Scooby-Doo episode ever. So this entire 4-episode snoozefest was an attempt to grift off of Zodiac? STOP. IT.

The daughter who's the mom of Sierra (Shannon)- they disposed of an entire box of possible trophies of victims of Jim, because they were just tired of it all? WHAT?! So there's all these CHILDREN who died and you could hold the key to it all and just 'screw it, I think I took it to a thrift store or something!', like it's totally normal and understandable.

This so-called Zodiac 'expert' by whose account exactly? Because he wrote a book? These people seek out their victims for specific reasons-murderers don't just turn their entire MO on a dime, going from couples to children.

This entire series is so much blather that it's stunning to think it was stretched into FOUR EPISODES. It's not shocking at all that this complete snore is from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer- (what ever happened to Grazer's #MeToo claims?) these two have taken what could have been good subjects to cover and turned them into something that came straight from TMZ or National Enquirer, and spat out over-produced, tacky nonsense that works better for falling asleep than anything remotely related to engrossing television.

There is plenty of first hand experience with this man's violence, and it makes me ill how people are so quick to dismiss his many known victims. I am glad this film was made and hope it helps other victims of charismatic and likable monsters find the strength to stand up and say something. I raise an eyebrow to anybody who can watch this entire series and be indignant that there was "no proof" that this man did anything wrong. If the only thing the series accomplishes is giving the voice to girls that had their voice taken away from them at a young age, then that is reason alone to document and share their experiences.

This documentary had no business being stretched into four episodes, and perhaps due to its extended nature it seems to never quite get to the point. It seems primarily to be a vanity piece for its main subject, Sierra, but fails to explore the nuance behind what is driving her "investigation." Jim was clearly a bad man, but watching the women in his life speculate about things he may or may not have done now that he is long dead feels regressive rather than empowering. It lingers on long drawn out scenes of mothers and daughters reminiscing on Jim's impact on their lives, though it didn't feel to me as the viewer like it was particularly healing for them to do so, even as the documentary attempts to manufacture a storyline of familial healing.

This documentary had ample opportunity to take an academic look at cycles of abuse among generations, the role of women as family healers & documentarians, or even could have explored the making the project itself as a coping mechanism for its subjects, but instead it takes a one dimensional view of Sierra and her family.

I don't even know what to say. This is either a money grab or the "investigator" trying to make a name for herself.

I have watched hundreds of crime docs and this is almost certainly the worst. Waste of time and frankly embarrassing to the writers, directors and any individual or business that was associated with it. It's a shame what this space has become.

While you presented no evidence at all that your family member was a murderer, you have effectively murdered all of our time and should be held accountable.

Save yourself some time and watch a real movie or a crime doc that is real and has any sort of substance whatsoever.

I don't know why anyone would produce a documentary that's based entirely on speculation. Zero evidence is presented to support any of the allegations. This shouldn't be labeled "true crime." It's more along the lines of, "National Enquirer Presents..." It wouldn't even qualify as good fiction. It's garbage through and through. Everyone involved in this s-t show should be embarrassed and banned from ever working on another documentary. Do yourself a favor and skip this pathetic money grab. There are far better programs out there. That said, wtf does IMBD require us to write such lengthy reviews now. I'm not getting paid for this so don't expect another.

Is this a joke now? It's devolved into something quite silly, which is unfortunate - I feel it's a sad state of affairs that the mighty HBO / max cosigned on this documentary - granted this was a bad man, objectively even for the times he was in - I have no doubt that his sexual predation was real and traumatized several girls - but I don't see the violent tendencies to suggest he would escalate and in truth had commited serial killings back in the early 70s, Statistically him stopping entirely, is extremely rare and unlikely - especially having been in gold health, having opportunities and not being incarcerated - the documentarian (if you can call her that, and I'm sorry for saying that) often puts words into peoples mouths, never consulted law enforcement nor any professionals of any kind, save for one PI late in her exploits - this in itself is terribly troubling to why the viewer should take stock - perhaps she had and didn't like what she found? Furthermore, and this is big for me, notice the staged meetings and interviews - (obviously HBO lent it's might as a studio in the form of cameramen and editors etc etc) many of these 'first time meetings' were filmed with multiple cameras that had to be set up long before she arrives - these meetings are at best recreations of the original event and at worst, produced and loosely scripted - finally I'd like to add my take on how part of this came to be - SADLY I feel the mother / Jim's step daughter, so fervently indoctrinated her daughter with this fear and caution (albeit warrented), at such a young age, that she did not even need to be told, she could intuit her mother's trepidation, this alone is enough for a formative human to create these core memories that color much of her subsequent years - HOWEVER, this much is true - Sierra has been victimized over and over and over and as she stated, she felt that only her mother cared at all - well I care about you Sierra - I may be critical of this project but I absolutely care about you! I.

The only evidence presented in this "documentary" is pure hearsay with Ms Barter trying to hype up the suspense with over the top narration to lead the viewer where she wants to take them.

This does far more harm than good. Mobs act on feelings and emotions; law enforcement does not.. Feelings are what lead people to shoot up pizza parlor because they think it has a hidden basement where crimes are being committed. Feelings lie.

I'll grant that J Mordecai was probably a horrible person. But to wonder what an FHA instructor who teaches agriculture is doing with a hunting knife and guns is akin to wondering what what a baker is doing with some egg beaters and a rolling pin... It ain't unusual.

I really wonder what the true motivations are for this documentary.

No spoilers here as Jim was not Hitler's baby and really not sure what he was besides a mean guy ag studies teacher as the entire series is conjecture and speculation. I believe he was probably abusive to people and the rest I just have nothing to go on because the series gives us nothing to go on. The detective-narrator, Sierra Barter only tertiarily knows him and tends to be overemotional either for the cameras or herself but it just drags the series to a crawl and is the part that feels disingenuous. And what we are presented with are just basic descriptors of any rural person. Knew how to raise and slaughter animals, knew local area and backroads, carried a knife in the truck, use farm phrasology to threaten etc. It all probably sounds bad to a city person but I have frankly seen and heard much worse about people in the Publix checkout line. Anyway there are a PILE of these kinda murder pr0m docs so just watch something else. It really jumps the shark in the last episode and part of the third. (zomg what was the 20 mins of the lake scene???). I also cannot get over the fact that both HBO and Max signed off on this longwinded story. You know what most serial killers don't have? Hours of film footage (70s pre youtube and phones was a big deal heck my parents probably have a total of ten mins of me growing up) with the family doing family things, a cancer razor, and a cadre of live people aka survivors to talk about them. Sorry I just had to get that part out as it really stuck throughout the series. ALLLLLL of that home footage... Even if this was a podcast I would have been disappointed. I dunno if the powers that be are going to make this a returning series of some sort, but hope it goes through more production scrutiny before we are faced with hours of Sierra sitting in places, open mouthed, and trying to make sense of some feelings or buying a mocha latte (as you do) on your way to visit your mom because the drive is super stressful or her mom has severe IBS issues and keeps coffee out of her house as it is demon poop juice. And finally hire another private eye to put together a nice Kinkos murder info packet for the federales lol. Maybe it is meant to be a Steel Magmolias kinda old women are strong movie but it just feels like the vibe is off the entire way through. I throw my hands up at this one.

If it's a hbo doc, it's bound to be good!

This is a disaster. I watched the whole first episode w/o skipping through. I got to the second episode thinking ok, this has to be where the serial killer connections start. Nope, more home video and family and former student interviews. Ya don't advertise something w/ the words 'truth about' and 'possible serial killer' and not get to the main part of why you're doing this doc using those words by episode 2. You lay out the map of the past in episode 1, and by episode two you've got facts and connecting some dots.

This is a horribly done version of 'Great Photo, Lovely Life'. (I gave that an 8!) This is not a truth about or serial killer doc. Was jim mordecai a horrid person? Yes. Do I believe the victims? Of course. But when I got to.about 25 minutes into Episode 2 and she was GOOGLING Bible verses? Oh come ON! This is going nowhere.

True crime, and documentaries in general, are my two favorite genres. I've seen 100s and 100s of each. I only rate the stuff I watch that's at least 5 stars. I came to imdb to read the reviews and find out what it was rated. I like to make up my own mind before I read ratings because opinions are like aholes, we all have one. Five stars is too generous. The reviews all got it right - this is awful and a waste of time. One of the 'spoilers below' summed up the whole doc and I'm not going to finish it. At least I only wasted an hour and a 1/2 of my life on this that I can't get back, vs four hours. Don't waste an hour and a 1/2 of yours on this rubbish.

I mean I am no body language expert or anything but anyone who believes anything that comes out of the mouths of the three ladies featured in episode 1 is just plain stupid (especially the main characters mom). You can't just accuse someone of murder with literally ZERO proof. Wow. Can't believe HBO signed off on this. This is NOT a documentary really. It's more someone (s) making assumptions about a family member with nothing to back up anything.one hundred and forty nine more characters to go? Come on IDMB I don't work for you. That amount of characters isn't necessary to give an honest, accurate review.

Here's the story....

"I wasn't alive in the 70s... wasn't even a glimmer in my mother's eye at the time.... Apparently my step-grandfather was an abusive, misogynist, man - more than could be explained by merely social norms of the time. Although it has nothing to do with my grandfather, I've been abused.. I know how bad it can be. I'll spend the bulk of 4 hrs interviewing family members who can all speak to how horribly Jim treated them. The Zodiac killer was proliferate in the same general region my grandfather lived, in the same time period. My grandfather wasn't a nice man. Therefore.. my grandfather MUST be the Zodiac killer."

That's this "documentary".

There are no facts presented. No evidence.. nothing. It's 4hrs of descendants just verbally bashing Jim. Now, I make no excuses for Jim. He does sound like a rather horrible human being.. Of course, accusations are easy once someone is dead. There can be no defense. However, to make the leap to "he must be the Zodiac." well.. I just don't grasp that logic. There was NOTHING presented to perpetuate any such belief - it's a wild, illogical, perhaps moronic, leap.

I'm sure this documentary was very cathartic for the women.. getting to voice how horrible Jim treated them. Because that's at least 95% of the content in this documentary - just the abused detailing trauma.

To imply one's grandfather was one of the most prolific serial killers of the 20th century with ZERO evidence to back up any such allegation..... well.. was that merely to get the documentary picked up by HBO??? Because I can see no other reason for that accusation.

Hell hath no fury... and all that.