I have watched thousands of true crime shows. So I know what makes an informative and engaging story. The reason I give this series 2 stars is, first of all, the visual experience. There is too much shifting between dozens of shots that do not advance the plot or even flesh out the setting for viewers. Many of them are blurry backgrounds with some random object in the foreground. Or vehicles driving nowhere. And I find that true crime told from the perspective of one or two people and a detective is the most effective, because it helps create intimacy with what the viewer is seeing and hearing. And it helps develop a sense of compassion for the victims, which is missing here. This is not a series of well-told true tales. It is a mishmash of visual clips and audio sound bites. Maybe since these were cold cases, many years in the solving, those left behind were left to stew in their own rage -- and they seem to be at the center of these stories. Episodes are drenched in that sense of futility, even though all of the cases have now been solved. Wasn't to my liking, but many of the other reviewers think the show is excellent. Maybe I should stick to podcasts where there are only one or two narrators.
Review of Cold Case Files
