‘The Jinx: Part Two’ Review: HBO Docuseries Returns As Riveting And Questionable As Ever
In March 2015, just a day before Marc Smerling and Andrew Jarecki’s explosive HBO crime docuseries The Jinx aired its then-final episode, real estate heir Robert Durst was arrested for murder. It would be years before the manipulative suspected three-time murderer would go to trial. But in the meantime, news outlets worldwide breathlessly reported that The Jinx had helped put him away. The killer, after all, seemed to confess on a hot mic at the end of the sixth episode, stumbling away from a damning interview to go to the bathroom and mumble to himself that he “killed them all.”
It turned out to be more complicated than that. In 2019, news broke that the confession had been something of a “Frankenquote,” an edited and rearranged audio clip that served to make Durst’s ramblings more coherent than they were. Far from a smoking gun, the confession might not even be admissible in court. The brand new sequel series The Jinx: Part Two energetically relays the exhilaration of that finale moment. But in the four episodes available for review, it neglects to discuss the controversy and messiness around it. It’s a strange, glaring omission for a follow-up that otherwise digs deep into the intricacies of Durst’s eventual court case. It’s also not the only bizarre decision this fascinating yet flawed sequel series makes.
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The Jinx: Part Two, which debuts on HBO on April 21, 2024, picks up where its predecessor left off nine years ago. Durst was arrested while on the run ahead of the show’s conclusion, carrying a thick stack of cash, a gun, a map of Cuba, and an expensive-looking latex mask. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out his plan, but for the sake of clarity, an interviewer asks an investigator about it anyway. The second season of The Jinx is full of moments like this one, thrilling surprises that are stifled somewhat by the documentary’s self-indulgent pacing and tendency to bask in the absurdity of each detail it presents.
The off-kilter pace of these new episodes is just one sign that the world of true crime has changed considerably since the show’s masterful first season debuted. Sharing gory crime scene photos, for example, has gone from a common practice among prestige true crime shows to a sign of ethical vacuousness. The filmmakers here can’t help but do it anyway. While season 2 tones down its shocking imagery this time around, it still lets the camera linger on shots of sallow, splayed feet at the edge of crime scene photos.
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These shots also have the effect of turning Durst’s victims into partial people, which is apt given the docuseries’ strange framing of its own central trial and its victims. Season 1 of the series memorialized Susan Berman and Kathie McCormack, but the second go-round presents other sides to each woman, replaying a disturbing phone call Berman made after McCormack’s death (the defense’s theory of Berman’s death was that she initially provided Durst’s alibi, but he turned on her when he believed she might go to the cops 18 years later) and zooming in on the defense’s portrait of McCormack as having problems with drugs and alcohol. The filmmakers bank on fans having recently rewatched the first season to understand who Durst’s victims really were as people, just as it seems to have already rested its case when it comes to Durst’s guilt.
While the first episode accurately conveys the hype around Durst’s arrest, future installments paint the trial as one in which the prosecution’s case is astoundingly weak. This is likely an editorial choice meant to make the moment in which Durst himself takes the stand for an incriminating cross-examination. Yet it casts a strange sense of unease over the first four episodes. The Jinx seems to be reveling in the fact that it was “right” about Durst while also revealing just how thin the case against him is on paper.
Perhaps that’s because the killer has always provided the best evidence against himself simply by refusing to shut up. His magnetic yet repulsive interviews formed the basis of The Jinx season 1, and this time around we see him attempt to exert control over others and weasel his way out of trouble largely via recorded jailhouse phone calls. He’s as captivating and disturbing as ever.
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Without Durst able to take center stage again (he died in 2022), the floor is left open for the procession of rich weirdos who loved him to take over, and they don’t disappoint. Like its predecessor, The Jinx: Part Two is often grimly funny, as when someone asks an interviewee described as Durst’s girlfriend if his ability to cut up a body (he was acquitted of the death of Morris Black in 2003, despite admitting to dismembering him) was a dealbreaker, or when one of his associates throws a tantrum about the idea of flying coach if subpoenaed in court. A man who describes himself as Durst’s best friend comes out looking particularly slimy, but he was also once a novelty musical act with an album titled “Country Porn.”
For all its faults, The Jinx: Part Two is still utterly engrossing. The success of the first installment clearly afforded the filmmakers an incredible level of access, and the four episodes available for review are packed with under-reported details, surprising twists, and enlightening context that goes beyond the headlines surrounding Durst’s arrest and conviction. It’s not a superfluous add-on, but as both a standalone work and a sequel, it’s not wholly satisfying either. The Jinx: Part Two works better as entertainment than as a record of fact, and it’s almost good enough to make us forget to wonder whether or not a show about a multiple murderer should be fun in the first place. Almost.
Summary
The Jinx: Part Two works better as entertainment than as a record of fact.
Categorized:Reviews Television
