I was pretty sure when I sat down to watch this that I had seen the first series and greatly enjoyed it – but it must have been before I set up my blog as I do not seem to have a record of what I said and so I will return to Series 1 shortly and then do some comments.
I do recall that I did see the first episode of this second series fairly soon after the first but I was rather put off by the nature of the crime and did not continue with it. I suppose I must now be rather less sensitive as I did not get to disturbed by the nature of the crime this time round, grimly unpleasant though it was.
But this time round I enormously enjoyed it and, by the final episode, was very seriously impressed with it. The main /conceit’ is that it is done as spoof of the many and very popular ‘true crime’ series of which there are so many on Netflix. The first series focused on two High School students who decided to take it upon themselves to investigate a series of ‘crimes’ at their high school as they did not believe that the accused pupil was guilty.
In this second series, the two students investigate another crime at a different school as their exploits covered in Series 1 have gained much publicity, including being noticed by Netflix who support them in this second investigation – a nice bit of meta-irony.
The investigation unfolds grippingly and convincingly and for the bulk of it, the satirical/comedic element is very much in the background and you have to remind yourself that you are not watching an actual Netflix True Crime investigation. This shows admirable sophistication and self-control on the part of the makers as it would have been all too easy to be self-consciously winking at the camera all the time.
But it was in the final episode that it moved to a different level as the (pleasingly complicated), mystery was finally unfurled. Here it became a really powerful and thought provoking ‘real’ exploration about social media, its effects on our lives and ended up as a powerful pleas for people to ‘only connect’ – but in reality and not just online. It was very clever and powerful how the makers managed to make something very thought-provoking form what apparently started out as a mere spoof.
Although I gather Netflix has not continued the series *eye roll*, I do hope that it will/has been shopped out to other sources. It really is worth it.