Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries Crime Scene: Times Square Killer is a par for the course effort about the gruesome serial killer known as The Torso Killer who stalked Times Square its street walkers in the late 1970s. The series itself doesn’t pretend to make any new discoveries about the murders, nor does it try to pretend that the killer was an unknown entity.
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to these true crime type shows that Netflix seems to love so much. The hallmarks are all there. There are talking head interviews with police investigators who were working the case at the time. Academics and people in the know are used to set up the environment of Times Square in 70s and 80s. There’s a little bit of social commentary about the seedy culture of the time. As well as an introduction to the New York pornography and peep show industry. All of it used to introduce the audience to a side of New York that not many now recognize.
In fact, Crime Scene: Times Square Killer is a good watch for just that reason, in that you get to see a side of New York that has all but disappeared, serving as something of a time capsule to a bygone era.
Sure, there is a serial killer story going on, but when you’ve seen one Netflix true crime series, you’ve kind of seen them all. Crime Scene: Times Square Killer never quite digs into the zeitgeist quite like Making A Murderer or The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Nor is it as interesting a mystery like The Staircase or I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. But as a three episode limited series, this one is just about interesting enough. Especially if you’re a fan of the genre. Just don’t expect any big twists or spills.
Crime Scene: Times Square Killer, much like it’s predecessor, Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel from February 2021, is a serviceable enough true crime series. If you’re into that sort of thing. When you’re done with this, I’d also recommend Sophie: A Murder in West Cork and American Murder: The Family Next Door.
Seemingly random acts of brutality shock even the most seasoned NYC homicide detectives, stoking fears of an elusive serial killer operating within 1970’s era Times Square, a near-lawless sexual playground where forbidden fantasies were fulfilled, including murder.
Season two of Crime Scene begins as firemen respond to a call at a seedy hotel in the middle of Times Square in December 1979. What they discover among the smoke and ash shocks even the most seasoned NYC homicide detectives, triggering a hunt for a vicious serial killer who preyed upon sex workers operating within Times Square’s then-booming, anything-goes sex industry. The three-part series takes viewers deep into the investigation, detailing the social and systemic forces at play in a near-lawless area in the center of Manhattan that allowed multiple horrific crimes to go unnoticed for too long. A wide range of subjects are profiled to bring the era to life, from Times Square denizens to beat cops to the daughter of New York’s self-proclaimed “porno king.” With exclusive access to Jennifer Weiss, the daughter of one of the victims, the series also underscores her efforts to identify others who have remained Jane Does, lost to an infamous, long-gone time and place.
Oscar-nominated and Emmy award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger returns to direct and executive produce season two of Crime Scene, the acclaimed Netflix documentary series that unpacks the ways in which certain locations aid and abet criminal activity.
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