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A Friend, A Murder is a three-part docuseries about a series of heinous crimes in the Danish town of Korsør, and how the friends of the perpetrator of those crimes were not only shocked that he committed them but how that discovery ripped apart their close-knit friend group.
A FRIEND, A MURDERER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Footage of a group of twentysomething-aged friends having fun together.
The Gist: In the first episode, one of the members of the perpetrator’s friend group, Amanda, is interviewed ten years after the first of those crimes, the murder of a 17-year-old girl, whom the producers have decided not to identify. The girl’s disappearance sent the young women of Korsør into a panic. She disappeared in July, 2016, and hundreds of townspeople volunteered to search for her.
We hear from Jane Valstead, who was was the volunteer search coordinator, about the intensity of that search and the fear that enveloped the town as the weeks and months passed. In one incident, a woman recorded her neighbor through a brick garage wall after hearing what she thought was a female voice calling for help.
The girl’s body was found on Christmas Day, but a suspect was still elusive. But, as Amanda says, the man that generated all the fear was “right next to me.”
Photo: Courtesy of NetflixWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? A Friend, A Murderer presents its story in a mostly straightforward manner, like a Danish episode of 48 Hours.
Our Take: There’s a certain awkwardness about A Friend, A Murderer that we couldn’t put our finger on while watching the first episode. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the episode that mentions that all victims’ identities are kept anonymous. So the filmmakers really had to do some gymnastics to connect viewers with the teenager that disappeared and whose body was eventually found after five months.
But the story isn’t about that particular crime, which isn’t apparent unless you’re really paying attention. There’s a reason why we hear extensively from Amanda, talking about her close friendships from her teenage years and the fear that she and all teen girls in the town felt as the missing girl’s case was investigated. While we had an inkling that the story was really about how the killer was one of Amanda’s closest friends, that aspect of the story wasn’t introduced until the very end of the episode.
We’re let at the end of the episode wondering if the story is going to start distancing itself from the victims and examine how this brutal killer was hiding in plain sight and how his friends felt when they found out the truth. We’re not sure that the feelings of non-victims are more important than the thoughts and feelings of the victims’ families, but we do concede that the “my best friend was a monster” angle is good story fodder.
Performance Worth Watching: Jane Valstead still gets emotional about how wrenching the search for the girl was, even a decade after her body was found.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Phone video of two people in masks at a party, giving viewers very little idea of who the perpetrator is.
Sleeper Star: We couldn’t really find anyone else that stood out.
Most Pilot-y Line: There is a disclaimer about the use of reenactments at the beginning of the episode, but the usage is still too much, given that the case got plenty of media coverage.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While we still question whether the concentration on the perpetrator instead of the victims was a wise choice, A Friend, A Murderer is still a very watchable docuseries about a violent person who was hiding in plain sight.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
English (US)