‘The Ripper’ - 2020
4 Episodes
Explanatory. Dramatic. Suspenseful
‘The Yorkshire Ripper Files’ - 2019
3 Episodes
Investigative. Personal. Engaging
Recently Netflix released “The Ripper”, its latest true-crime series. Netflix is dominating the true-crime genre currently, covering well-known cases like Ted Bundy, Madeline McCann as well as investigations their documentaries brought forward themselves, like in Making a Murderer. However, in early 2019 a BBC documentary concerning the Yorkshire Ripper was released. Both the short series are fascinating and well done, but to the reader deciding which one to watch, I recommend the BBC’s “The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story”. I feel Netflix’s “The Ripper”, whilst being informative and well done, is more explanatory than Liza William’s investigative BBC piece. “The Yorkshire Ripper Files” has Williams as a narrator, investigating the case with hindsight and fresh eyes, critically analysing both the case and the justice system. This creates a much more personal and sensitive documentary series, not just because of her own northern roots, but the personal approach to the victims, the investigators, and the public. Netflix’s “The Ripper” is much more dramatic and has many of the characteristics of the typical Netflix true-crime series. Furthermore, Netflix’s series focuses more on the suspense of the case and the press reaction. Both are very good and will give you plenty of detail, question, context, and discussion. However, I found the BBC documentary far more engaging in its interviewing and that occasionally the Netflix series felt slightly adrift from the subject. the BBC’s documentary also has the benefit of being only 3 episodes compared to Netflix’s 4, which I felt did make the series drag slightly.
From the documentary-analysis viewpoint, I’d actually recommend watching both of them. The two have so many similarities that to watch both allows a viewer to notice the small differences and question why those choices were made. For example, both documentaries have many of the same interviewees, but how come some spoke to Netflix but not BBC? The settings for the interviewees differs as well, which leads a viewer of both to question what is achieved by this, allowing some meta-discussion about the genre of documentaries if that interests you!
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