The Keepers is a fascinating, engaging, and extremely well made documentary series, that is also extremely flawed.
Apart from a little bit of unnecessary padding in places, a little bit of narrative confusion (at times it is a documentary about the murder of Sister Cathy, at other times it is about clerical sexual abuse), and some moments of corny reality TV style set ups, the flaws in this show doesn't lie in it's technical aspects, but rather in the wild conjecture and the lack of accuracy and balance.
For example, the documentary claims that recovered memories are now a accepted and regular feature of modern psychology - however the exact opposite is true, they are still highly controversial and the majority consensus in psychology is that they are extremely problematic.
Why this point is so important is that the entire premise of this series - that Sister Cathy was murdered by (or under the orders of) Father Maskell - hinges entirely on a recovered memory from just one adult female victim of sexual abuse. The way this memory is presented in the series also raises serious questions (or, at least, it should have, but wasn't, in this series) about its validity - the woman concerned says that she only experienced this memory for the first time AFTER a friend planted the seed in her mind about the crime while looking over an old school year book.
If this recovered memory lacks validity, then so does much of this series (which is probably why they were not accurate in the information they presented about recovered memories.)
There is also a lot of conjecture that is extremely speculative and extremely tenuous.
For example - even if their were maggots found on the corpse of Sister Cathy (a major point of contention in the series) that doesn't prove that the recovered memory was true, and it also raises a serious question about why a murderer would show someone a body - thus linking him directly to the crime - when the whole point of the murder was that it was a desperate attempt to try to hide his involvement in criminal activity.
Then there's the conjecture about the necklace - which, for all we know, was purchased, or stolen by Ed, and has nothing to do with Sister Cathy at all - but the series goes to extreme lengths to speculate a connection into existence (and the subsequent interview with an ageing Ed, in a clear state of mental ill health, seems exploitative.)
The other thing that I found really frustrating about the series was that, apart from some basic details in the very first episode, we are not told a lot about the important specifics of the crime, the evidence, the finding of the body, etc - but these are all really important aspects of this case that will have an important bearing on the theory being proposed by this series.
The series also failed to properly explore some rather glaring inconsistencies and questions in its own evidence.
For example - Koob makes a claim about his relationship with Sister Cathy (that she rejected his infatuation for her) that seems completely contradictory to later evidence about her writing a very intimate love letter to him. Then there's also the largely unexplored questions about his role in the crime - which detectives clearly considered to be major at the time.
Then there's the fact that two different uncles (from two different families) are supposed to have committed the crime - but it is clearly indicated that they never knew each other, and nor are they adequately connected to Father Maskell to make the primary claims of the series compelling.
Like I said, this is a fascinating series, and you have to admire the tenacity of the amateur investigators who continue to pursue the cause of trying to get justice for Sister Cathy, however at the end of the day, this feels like a highly speculative fishing expedition, where all sorts of allegations and theories, regardless of their validity, are being thrust out into the public arena in a very spectacular fashion.
The problem is that this ends up being a trial by media, and we all know how dangerous such an approach can be - both for innocent any parties who end up being wrongly tarnished, and also because they can place a successful criminal prosecution of any guilty party at risk.
My hope is that, despite all the flaws, this show leads to a successful closing of this case.
Apart from a little bit of unnecessary padding in places, a little bit of narrative confusion (at times it is a documentary about the murder of Sister Cathy, at other times it is about clerical sexual abuse), and some moments of corny reality TV style set ups, the flaws in this show doesn't lie in it's technical aspects, but rather in the wild conjecture and the lack of accuracy and balance.
For example, the documentary claims that recovered memories are now a accepted and regular feature of modern psychology - however the exact opposite is true, they are still highly controversial and the majority consensus in psychology is that they are extremely problematic.
Why this point is so important is that the entire premise of this series - that Sister Cathy was murdered by (or under the orders of) Father Maskell - hinges entirely on a recovered memory from just one adult female victim of sexual abuse. The way this memory is presented in the series also raises serious questions (or, at least, it should have, but wasn't, in this series) about its validity - the woman concerned says that she only experienced this memory for the first time AFTER a friend planted the seed in her mind about the crime while looking over an old school year book.
If this recovered memory lacks validity, then so does much of this series (which is probably why they were not accurate in the information they presented about recovered memories.)
There is also a lot of conjecture that is extremely speculative and extremely tenuous.
For example - even if their were maggots found on the corpse of Sister Cathy (a major point of contention in the series) that doesn't prove that the recovered memory was true, and it also raises a serious question about why a murderer would show someone a body - thus linking him directly to the crime - when the whole point of the murder was that it was a desperate attempt to try to hide his involvement in criminal activity.
Then there's the conjecture about the necklace - which, for all we know, was purchased, or stolen by Ed, and has nothing to do with Sister Cathy at all - but the series goes to extreme lengths to speculate a connection into existence (and the subsequent interview with an ageing Ed, in a clear state of mental ill health, seems exploitative.)
The other thing that I found really frustrating about the series was that, apart from some basic details in the very first episode, we are not told a lot about the important specifics of the crime, the evidence, the finding of the body, etc - but these are all really important aspects of this case that will have an important bearing on the theory being proposed by this series.
The series also failed to properly explore some rather glaring inconsistencies and questions in its own evidence.
For example - Koob makes a claim about his relationship with Sister Cathy (that she rejected his infatuation for her) that seems completely contradictory to later evidence about her writing a very intimate love letter to him. Then there's also the largely unexplored questions about his role in the crime - which detectives clearly considered to be major at the time.
Then there's the fact that two different uncles (from two different families) are supposed to have committed the crime - but it is clearly indicated that they never knew each other, and nor are they adequately connected to Father Maskell to make the primary claims of the series compelling.
Like I said, this is a fascinating series, and you have to admire the tenacity of the amateur investigators who continue to pursue the cause of trying to get justice for Sister Cathy, however at the end of the day, this feels like a highly speculative fishing expedition, where all sorts of allegations and theories, regardless of their validity, are being thrust out into the public arena in a very spectacular fashion.
The problem is that this ends up being a trial by media, and we all know how dangerous such an approach can be - both for innocent any parties who end up being wrongly tarnished, and also because they can place a successful criminal prosecution of any guilty party at risk.
My hope is that, despite all the flaws, this show leads to a successful closing of this case.