Unsolved Mysteries season 3 review: Fascinating as always

Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries, a fresh run of the popular American show once hosted by Robert Sack is a unique sort of minefield in the platform’s almost compulsive exploration of true crime. Contrary to most fiction it offers only questions, and unlike most true crime documentaries, it isn’t bothered to obsessively tie loose ends. Most mysteries in this series, for that matter, are analysis and discussions about what definitely isn’t rather than what could have been. The latter is left to the viewer to imagine, contemplate and ultimately commit to the act of conversing. Which is precisely, where Unsolved Mysteries continues to fascinate and at times also divide in its exploration of a world full of pain, misery and unclosed threads.

One of the key criticisms of Unsolved Mysteries has been its exploitation of families and victims who continue to live without answers. That concern has been somewhat assuaged by the fact that the series also wants to act as a connect between the unsolved and the rest of the world. To entertain, so to speak, the possibility of closure still. Historically, the series has even led to breakthroughs in unsolved cases, but the proportion of that welcome change to that which remains unmoved is starkly small. Wherein lies the conundrum. Unsolved Mysteries is undeniably engaging and intriguing. In this third season continues it continues its hot streak of merging the supernatural with the personal and exploring stories that are brimming with potential, possibly because they can never be put to rest.

In Death in a Vegas Motel, the series examines the death of Buffalo Jim, a popular auto-shop owner from the Vegas area who was found dead at a Vegas Motel. Claimed to have died of a cocaine overdose the case feels far thicker than the details let on. The evidence doesn’t stack up, and Jim’s popularity, his jovial outlook of life adds a certain richness of emotion to the story. Mystery at Mile Marker 45 on the other hand is a cold head-scratcher about a little known girl who dies after being hit by a train. Most evidence after the discovery of her body, however, points to the presence of malice and quite possibly of an explanation other than suicide. There are of course no answers, but only questions.

Unsolved Mysteries always makes it a point to mix the supernatural with the definitively human but in this new, host-less avatar on Netflix, it’s actually the personal stories of grief that resonate compared to the ones about UFOS and unexplained events. Paranormal Rangers and Something in the Sky, two episodes in this particular season, for example, simply don’t have the punch-in-the-chest impact of the others. They carry the magical quality of being elusive and unimaginable but struggle for emotional anchorage to push people to care. In comparison, the intimate stories of life, death or loss hit harder. It is quite possibly the outcome of our obsession with true crime that Netflix and co have polished to within an inch of becoming the mirror we wish to not see.

Of all the mysteries of this new season What Happened to Josh, sticks out for just how many threads it lends itself to. Josh, a varsity student goes missing near a water body on the night of his birthday. The theories around his disappearance oscillate between serial killers, personal secrets and peeved classmates. It’s precisely the kind of mind-boggling mystery that this show is both loved and hated for. There is no sight of a comprehensive clue, only the suggestion of something that might have happened. It’s blood curdling and yet you cannot look away. To be honest, Unsolved Mysteries has never quite hit the heights of the Mystery on the Rooftop from the first season but in its impressive run since, this is the closest it has come to diving into something that can at times feel bottomless.

The debate around the ethicality of unpeeling stories that also reveal unresolved grief and trauma will always accompany something as fascinating and endlessly debatable as Unsolved Mysteries. There is something for everyone here, from those keen on the supernatural to those who like their mysteries to be about people and personalities. In this third season, the series only establishes itself as that unique show that though it largely concerns itself with the surface level details of cases, doesn’t quite indulge in the romanticisation of violence and crime the way some of Netflix’s other true crime fare does. It’s probably weird to categorise this as a family watch, because that’s precisely the sight that makes it uncomfortable and questionable in approach. For everything else, however, it is always breathlessly entertaining.

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.