They didn't go for nifty red uniforms on the RCMP characters

[charloween]

Sky Living has been showing s4 of Criminal Minds, so with minimal effort I can finally watch their version of the Pickton murders. Three years after it aired. (And ten years after Pickton's arrest.)

Because I'm watching on actual TV (well, DVR'd but with all the ads left in) I'm giving it all the side-eye it's due, in between watching through my fingers because ew ew ew pigs eating dismembered bodies.

I know a lot of these crime shows take their plots from actual cases. There's something extra creepy in watching this particular one because I'm super-aware of it being an adaptation. Especially with all the things they've added in - it's a master class in ways to turn 49 missing women and systemic disinterest from people in power into a tidy* two-part narrative.

*No need to fuss with prosecution when you can sort things out by killing the baddies in slow-mo under a pathos-filled orchestral score! Yay crime show wish fulfilment!

Also, the crew seemed really into the OPP trouser stripe (based on how the Ontario cops were placed in the frame. And they avoided Mountie tropes, though the fresh-faced border guard was cutting it a bit close. (The extras' moustaches, however, were totally on the money.) It's nice to see an American show that notices Canada exists for more than a punchline. Even if it is to mine serial killings for mass entertainment.

Also-also, to follow the cliff-hanger end of s4, Sky Living skips s5 entirely and is going straight into s6.

Comments

[firstgold]

I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch their version of the Pickton murders. Any time it gets advertised on TV, I change the channel because creepy.

[charloween]

I do think it's worth seeing, both as an adaptation and because the real crimes were far more gruesome than what they go with in the episodes.

It's likely I found it easier to watch than I'd feared because part of my watching was taken up in looking for the changes, and guessing what the implications were for the various alterations.

[firstgold]

Oh, I will eventually see it but definitely not alone.

[charloween]

We'll find a copy and watch it when I'm back over Christmas (or, hell, in a few weeks if you're up for a school night adventure). We can yell at the TV and mock the innocent and adorable Canadian border guards...

[firstgold]

I can rock school night adventures if you don't mind not hanging out too late and evasive conversation changing when it gets to the topic of how my day was.

[charloween]

Cool! I'm back on Sept 30th, I think, and planning to be around all of Oct 1. My flight out is dinnertime on Oct 2.

When do you want me? :D

[firstgold]

Whenever you are available. On school days, I usually get back to my place around 4 pm, and I can pick you up whenever.

I could always pick you up from the airport on Sept 30th and we could hang out here for a bit.