By focusing on Maxine Carr, this drama skates perilously close to lumping her in with her murderous lover Ian Huntley. Why isn’t it about the police failing to stop him instead?
It’s possible we are about to experience some kind of event horizon, as the amount of true-life crime depicted on television becomes greater than that which actually exists in real life. Every serial killer’s life is now repeatedly picked over – the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Dennis Nilsen and others have all recently had more dramas and documentaries devoted to their deeds. Extraordinary, awful stories like the Jan Broberg kidnappings by her family’s paedophile friend and neighbour have been told in both factual and fictional form in the past five years. The axe murder of Betty Gore by her fellow Texan housewife Candy Montgomery is the basis for a drama starring Jessica Biel this week and another starring Elizabeth Olsen next year. They never stop coming.
The best of them justify their presence on our screens. They add insight; analyse attitudes; interrogate procedures, police failures and social prejudices; and sharpen our awareness of the obstacles that stand in the way of justice. The worst of them pander to our baser instincts while we snack on the sofa and marvel at the suffering humanity can inflict and endure.
