Killing County (2023) User Reviews

Ok story, production, editing and makeup are a mess

[lu_lou_belle · 5/10 · 3 February 2023]

This story is told with news and deposition clips juxtaposed with interviews of local media, family of decedents, law enforcement, and journalists from the guardian, and some narrative actors. There is a drastic difference between how the decedents' families are lighted made up and shot. The make up artist also used the wrong kind of false eyelashes, making most if the surviving family look like ridiculous baby doll parodies. I am no make up fanatic, but the bad makeup, very different scene and shot compositions and lighting used for victims versus professionals interviewed is overtly distracting and does a disservice to victim family members by making them look cheap, when they are the driving force of the piece.

The physical and technical aspects of this documentary detract so much from the purported subject matter, I'm not sure what the message is supposed to be. Are we patronizing the pathetic denizens of Bakersfield, platforming professional experts, doing City Confidential Bakersfield, or revealing a story? The editing cuts between media records, reenactment narration, professional and victim interviews are too quick cut and don't move the story as much as distract. As the episodes unfold all these flaws become more and more apparent. Production is too clever by half. It's a Disappointing mess. The bones of a good documentary on law enforcement-resident conflict in a historically underserved community are here.

Biased expose of police violence

[aferrara-50213 · 5/10 · 15 February 2024]

The purpose of this documentary is to villainize police for officer involved shootings. Given who produced it and when it was released, it's meant to piggyback on the public outcry following the death of George Floyd. While it does expose some potential examples of excessive force and cases where the police could have potentially changed their tactics, it fails to address the root issue; most of the victims of police shootings are people with a criminal background and are often shot during the commission of a crime or while not complying with police commands. In this case of this documentary, they portray the police as cold blooded killers who murdered innocent people, as if it was for sport, even though it's fairly clear to the audience that several of these shootings could have been avoided had the victims not put themselves in a precarious position.

They also make it seem as if officer involved shootings are a common occurrence but fail to mention that they represent a small fraction of all police contacts with the public. It's worth watching if you're open to getting a different perspective on the issue, but it should be viewed through a critical lens.

Got an early watch. Very good. Somehow, other people who didn't watch it don't like it??

[lamarmf-76748 · 10/10 · 3 February 2023]

I've watched it. Got to see it early. Very good, informative, and keeps you engaged.

However, before I watched, i came to see the reviews. There are many people who have rated this film before it came out. People who I'm sure did not get to see this show in advance.

& from what the reviews say, it seems that they have a ridiculously strong bias towards the police, to the point where the concept and subject of the show is what they disagree with. & considering they couldn't have watched it yet, it seems like they know about it based on Colin Kaepernick.

Basically trying to rate it low to have people stay away. Even while not watching it.

Ignores the elephant in the room

[atleverton · 4/10 · 5 March 2023]

This series starts as a typical true-Crime documentary, in which it begins with loving interviews of the families who have lost a loved one due to crime. But in most of these documentaries, the person that they are talking about is the victim of the crime. In this one. The person that they are talking about, at least initially according to the police, was the criminal. The series then goes on to explore, if not the corruption of a local police force, certainly the incompetence of it. In fact, this small community had the highest per capita rate of citizens being killed by the police in all the country. It's an important issue, but I feel that the documentary doesn't do it justice. I think generally, American True-Crime documentaries are in a blind spot when it comes to crime. What I mean by that is the topic of guns is not touched upon at all. The police could certainly be trained more and better. I think that it is ridiculous that a police officer can be trained in the United States in a period of 4-5 weeks, whereas in other countries it's an actual college program of four to five years. While that certainly causes the clearance rate for murder cases to be below 50% in the United States and causes a myriad of other problems, it's not the reason there are so many murders in America. The reason is that there are three guns for every person in the United States. If there is a crime in Canada or Mexico that involves a gun, most likely that gun was smuggled from the United States. People in the United States take guns to church to grocery shopping, and remarkably there are even rules in the United States saying that you can take an unloaded gun on a plane. The problem is the cult of the gun. And any attempt to regulate this horrific situation is met with cries of they're taking away your freedom, they want to impose tyranny upon the United States. But the objective fact is that there are countries with a great amount of freedom that have gun control measures. In fact, regulation of firearms is one way to guarantee that freedom. Because if you do not have to be scared of being shot in school, the grocery store, in a church, or on a plane, you have a much greater level of freedom. Unfortunately, I think that American culture now equates Freedom with anarchy. Anarchy, not in the philosophical or political Theory sense but in the actual literal sense, means an absence of laws. Regulations that are fair, applied to everyone equally, are those things that guarantee freedom. Just ask yourself would you rather live in Switzerland or Somalia?

Kern county police murder capitol of the USA,

[tims_friends · 10/10 · 4 February 2023]

This documentary is an excellent piece of film making well directed and well put together it is thought provoking which is what a good documentary should do.

The cinematography and footage and background on the history of Bakersfield is an important part of the history and understanding of Kern county culture, founded by people from the dust bowl in search of a better life, who brought their culture with them and transplanted it to Kern county with all their fears and prejudices. These factors contributed to the present day issues facing Kern county , Law enforcement needs to be held accountable and the monies should come from their pension funds and not from taxpayers funds.

Police reform should be among the top priorities

I live in Kern county this documentary reveals The truth about Kern county where the county sheriff Donnie Youngblood said don't shot them and wound them and pay millions in medical shoot to kill them and pay the family three million dollars and the family goes away sheriff Donnie youngblood, guess how much the county pays these families , guess what three million dollars. That's all a life is worth in Kern County California, it's cheaper to shoot and kill them, than save them and pay for medical care.

The documentary is definitely thought provoking and gives an insight to the police murder capitol of America.

Disguisting!

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

[jt92871 · 1/10 · 4 February 2023]

Criminal meth head hanging out with a guy who's SO violent that the police send the Marshalls to go after him, in a shootout with police and gets killed. No sympathy. What a wasted life. And he WAS good looking. Shame. And the family is surprised why?? So sick of these glorifying shows about druggies and everybody crying about them when they put THEMSELVES in these situations and die. I don't do drugs or hang out with coke or meth heads. The chance of me dying while hanging out with a meth head is zero because I put more value on my life than these losers do. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Modern Day Greek/Shakespearean Tragedy

[franciscojavier-88162 · 10/10 · 5 February 2023]

In the documentary "The Killing County", the actions of the Coroner, the Sheriff Department and the Bakersfield Police Department exposes character flaws akin to a modern day "Greek Tragedy" or "Shakespearean Tragedy". There are so many instances of hubris, misplaced trust, pride and lack of self-control.

Damacio Diaz crashes like Icarus, Donny Youngblood's pride and arrogance like Julius Ceasar, etc.

The last "Modern Day Tragedy" film I saw about a homicide of an unarmed citizen was "Fruitvale Station" based on the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant.

It was shocking and surreal how some individuals were intertwined in multiple shootings. You could not have script this to if you tried. This has to become an award winning documentary.

slow moving, repetitive

[courtjes · 1/10 · 18 February 2023]

Not really a documentary, the story correctly points out the terrible actions of some police officers but goes on to generalize negativity toward all law enforcement. It finds prejudice on every street corner and ignores the hard working people who work, raise families and pay taxes. It is more of a political viewpoint than a documentary and that is not surprising considering the production company. The cinematography is decent enough. The interviews appear disjointed and again express a point of view rather than simply put forth facts. Bakersfield scenes are well done and the town itself looks like a nice place to live. I do not recommend this show though if one is sensitive to political posturing.

Give me a break...

[bizzyziggy · 1/10 · 5 February 2023]

Bleeding hearts for criminals. They never talk about what deaths the thug could have caused when he drove haphazardly in his vehicle being chased by the police. Then you have the thug breaking into a Subway. These people made bad life decisions. They put themselves on these paths. Where were these families then?

Yes, the death of the old man was wrong. The death of man seeking help for his condition was wrong, but where was his family then.

Amazingly these families can show up for protests and to receive settlements, but where were they when these family members were making bad life choices?

Yes, I do have a problem with several of these police actions and the covering up of information, but this is so one-sided.

Maybe these filmmakers should make a documentary on the revolving door of the prisons in California. Zero bail. Arbitrarily getting "earned" credits to let them out even sooner. Gavin Newsom and his administration have made so many policy changes that benefit the criminal, not society. The 3 strikes law has been gutted. These changes were done in the dark. Media has been quiet on it. Here's your story. Why were these changes made? Where was the media?

Maybe if the police,DA's and the court system were not so overworked with these repeat criminals, only if they're actually caught again, maybe then, other things could be changed.

Terrible

[bt698nhj · 3/10 · 9 August 2023]

This is a documentary about unintelligent people. Narration is terrible, production is terrible, whole user experience is terrible. Please raise the standards for who appears on televised productions.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.