How I Caught My Killer (2023) User Reviews

I've never hated music more

[pink_europa · 6/10 · 28 January 2023]

I really hope the directors of this show read these reviews. I'm a big fan of true crime but I found the soundtrack for this show appauling, just downright disrespectful to the victim & families. As two reviews mentioned - "Emo" & "time to feel sad now". You don't need the music to feel a loss for these people. Stick to simple instrumental. This is fact based, not days of our lives.

As for the narration, I feel it did get a bit better as the season went on. The first few episodes had terrible narration though, it felt so insincere.

Definitely agree these people deserved a more respectful telling of their stories :(

The stories were interesting, the writing was weak

[rmassey21 · 5/10 · 15 January 2023]

I love True Crime shows but this series needed a stronger writer. They were attempting to build suspense constantly and it distracted for the story telling. It felt like the blurbs for upcoming news stories..."don't touch that dial. What happened to her could happen to you" kind of vibes. True crime kind of writes itself and you don't need to push so hard to sensationalize it. Sometimes I can ignore weak writing, I am here for the story after all, but it was so bad at points I wanted to turn it off. If you don't have enough information to make an hour episode, make it shorter or do more story telling about the victim. If they have a second season I hope they get better writers.

Weird editing

[jmp-84580 · 5/10 · 5 June 2023]

The stories are compelling but the editing/ production is so strange. It felt like watching a compilation of trailers for the series rather than succinct, fluid story telling. The music is genuinely terrible. The narration is way too over the top and hammy. It's not all bad and I respect the makers trying to put together something watchable and fast-paced but they unfortunately missed the mark. If there's a second season, I would like to see something a little less hyperactive and a little better paced.

Positives: good stories and doesn't over stay it's welcome.

Negatives: poorly pieced together.

Pretty okay to watch when hungover, but...

[MNR87BPF · 24 January 2023]

The music was terrible. It really made it barely bearable. So cringey and cheesy. I can't describe it even. Monotone and this suggested emotionality. Give me a break. Can't you just tell the stories without it. I'm running out of words here. Why do I have to write that much, when I just wanted to say that the music was annoying. The music was terrible. It really made it barely bearable. So cringey and cheesy. I can't describe it even. Monotone and this suggested emotionality. Give me a break. Can't you just tell the stories without it. I'm running out of words here. Why do I have to write that much, when I just wanted to say that the music was annoying.

Watchable

[dilipkeshu · 7/10 · 5 February 2023]

The series is not ask bad as its ratings! The episodes are interesting and watchable but the narration (each episode seems to have a different person) is absolutely terrible - seems to be super young folks who narrate in a manner that is better suited for a social media kind of show, not a murder mystery. I almost stopped watching at one point because of this "flaw". Clearly someone creative tried doing something different. Sorry, it did not work at all.

None of the episodes are old re-hashed stories that one has seen on TV. One or two of them throw light on FBI and police work that is quite extraordinary like tracking a killer from an exercise/health app.

Music and narration ruined it

[souplahoopla · 3/10 · 22 January 2023]

My headline pretty much sums it up.

Its a shame because these family's deserve to have their stories told respectfully. This doesn't do that. I'm not sure what they were thinking but the pseudo dramatic narration and the god awful music that keeps interrupting the story line every 5 minutes makes this almost unbearable to watch.

Its like listening to a child tell a story to then be interrupted by music for no reason, and that music to be totally inappropriate for the setting. In one episode the music said something along the lines of 'I'd rather die' or 'let me die' something like that...wow.

I'm assuming the writers/editors thought they were doing something new and innovative. They didn't.

Awful music and narration.

[laura-young-x · 6/10 · 22 September 2023]

The show itself is quite interesting. Very sad, often quite shocking. However, the music played throughout the episodes is awful and not very well thought through. Some of the lyrics seem borderline disrespectful to the story being told. The narrators are also quite ridiculous. They bring nothing to the series other than cheesy, crime doc tropes and catchphrases. They make the series feel like a budget, Buzzfeed Web series or similar, with fresh out of college writers trying to make a name for themselves. This being said, the series is a good watch. Particularly for background noise or if you don't really want to pay too much attention.

Narrators ruined it

[ebahrt · 1/10 · 15 January 2023]

I'm a true crime junkie - I've seen most of the true crime series out there, and was intrigued by the concept of this show, where the best clues were from the victim themselves. The first episode actually got and kept my attention throughout the episode, but I can't say the same about the ones that followed. For me, my biggest issue was the narration. I don't know why the directors and producers thought having soft spoken 15 year olds as narrators would be good, but it was bad enough that I only made it through the first two episodes and part of the third before it was clear there was a pattern and it wasn't going to improve as the series progressed. I would actually say, as my review title says, the narrators ruined the series for me.

My initial Reading Was 5, Then I Upgraded

[Mehki_Girl · 8/10 · 16 January 2023]

The things I don't like:

The constant singing and background music and MTV-like treatment, as though the program is geared to attract young people.

Sometimes, the narration, but the voice actors sound real, not like professionals.

The things I liked:

This series highlights stories of the more marginalized people in our society. (Not all of them though. The 8th episode was a little different.)

Too often the only stories highlighted in the news or true crime shows are the infamous "missing white women" exploitation.

It also highlights how, depending on your economic and/or racial status, the cops do nothing until the perpetrator practically knocks on their front door and says, "I did it."

Do better, police. And I don't want to hear or care about how hard police work is. You chose that job. In many. Many cases people don't choose to be a victim of heinous crime, so stop picking and choosing which crimes should be investigated and which crimes don't deserve to be investigated in your eyes.

The program seems to be geared toward young people and I actually applaud that because a lot of these cases, not all, feature young people putting themselves in danger and making poor choices.

Hopefully, young people watching the show may find themselves in the victims and perhaps they'll change some of their unsafe behavior, so for that I applaud the show.

Great promise, terrible execution, AWFUL music

[veryvividviolet · 3/10 · 16 January 2023]

I'm convinced this series was created solely to be a platform for solo female "singers" with terrible voices (basically vocal fry set to music) and trite lyrics to have a place to have their work showcased. If you want to listen to terrible music, play even a single episode and you'll get your fix.

It also is worth mentioning that even though this series was created for a streaming platform, it is produced like a cable show. Lots of repeating the same info and campy narration.

The victims of these brutal crimes deserve way better than this terribly produced and overdone style of true crime show.

Cringey Music...

[thubakabra · 4/10 · 20 February 2023]

I love true-crime documentaries, so I was excited to see this one as the title was promising something new.

But the series is so over the top... I know that many podcasts and documentaries use dramatization but here is just very bad. But the worst part is the lame music with lyrics like "danger follows behind" and "you got something to hide". I mean, seriously???

The whole episode is like a very bad trailer for a CSI episode that tries to attract interest but it fails badly.

If you like true crime, I don't think you'll like this one. You can give it a shot but prepare to see something very over-the-top that won't make you more interested in whatever happened. Which is sad to say as the series istalking about real crime with real victims but whenever you start to feel something for them, the bad music is on and you get annoyed instead.

Awful Narration

[lsufanlife · 3/10 · 19 January 2023]

The cases themselves were fine and more than interesting. The true crime scene in tv is crowded and the angle this one takes is usually leveraging how that persons use of social media helped lead detectives to solving their case.

What really makes this show bad is the music and narration of this show vary episode to episode and the quality is to outright terrible voice filters to just ok/good. You can skip this show and be fine. It adds nothing new or interesting to a crowded true crime genre. And often times watching it, I felt punished for giving it a try. So overall I recommend to avoid. Many of these cases have been done better elsewhere.

A swing and a miss...

[tmiclemon · 2/10 · 23 January 2023]

Who is this show geared towards? I can only imagine teens. I tried watching one episode and I just couldn't finish it. The narrator sounds like she is 13 years old and it just doesn't work well for this genre of show. There's also the loud background noises and music, which unlike other true crime shows, the soundtrack in this one seemed of poor taste. I felt like I was watching an episode of Catfish because they use the same style of suspenseful sound effects and snippets of songs featuring a woman singing to indicate that it's time to feel sad. The whole feel of the show is really obnoxious and I found myself rolling my eyes nearly the entire time. The premise of this series had potential, but the delivery was garbage.

Emo-tru crime...

[NullUnit · 2/10 · 20 January 2023]

Wow. The overused emo-music is just horrific and sinks this show incredibly.

Add the poor narration, that seems to be trying so desperately to get viewers to care, and it's even worse.

The pacing of this series is just slooooow. The cases are fine and could be compelling, but they are presented in such a slow, anti-compelling manner that I find myself constantly losing interest. Then throw in the interruptions of the BAD emo-music and it's merely a struggle to watch.

If anything, it's perfect "bedtime" watching because it'll put you to sleep.

This series appears to be produced and directed by amateurs that have simply watched a lot of true crime and THINK they can do it as well -- forgetting they are amateurs. The inexperience is glaring here.

It is unfortunate that victims will be lost in this mess of poorly directed and produced episodes.

Great stories; IRRITATING MUSIC and female narrator

[mcmcnamara-17366 · 3/10 · 25 January 2023]

If you could get past the annoying music that comes in and out of every single episode with random cryptic lyrics, this show isn't bad. The female narrator might actually be the singer because they both have annoying voices and it's like they are trying to force the Audience to listen to them ...if that makes sense? I understand that the idea behind the music is to evoke emotion, unfortunately the it's really distracting and takes away from the people telling the story, and the victims. Later episodes improved because of a male narrator who is much easier to listen to, however the irritating music is still inserted with the same annoying vocalist. Still find that very distracting and annoying.

I wish I were deaf

[noahchittim · 2/10 · 29 January 2023]

All of the people in the sound/music departments should reconsider their choice of career. I really hope they never work in this aspect of the business again. It's so bad. They should be eternally embarrassed. Other content is decent, but the godawful music/sound make this almost unwatchable. Absolutely does not honor the victims of these crimes. I'd be pissed if I were a family member. Being forced to listen to the music that's sampled in this show should be considered a form of torture. It's aost comical how amazingly horrible it is. What were these people thinking?! I recommend watching the show muted with subtitles.

True Crime if it was a mediocre YA novel

[lanaijw · 2/10 · 31 January 2023]

Plenty has already been said about the music and narration. The music is out of place, terribly produced with grating vocals (I have a feeling the narrator is the vocalist?). The narrator tries to drum up suspense and emotion, but it's forced and feels downright disrespectful.

The pacing is slow. I enjoy a slow burn true crime doco, but this was like watching grass grow. At one point, the narrator paused for dramatic effect and I wanted to yell at her through the screen to hurry up.

Who is the target audience? It seems to be aimed at teens due to its "YA Novel tone". Would teens actually be interested in this? I'm not sure. This show almost feels condescending to its audience, not to mention disrespectful to the victims and their loved ones, for over dramatising real tragedy for no good reason.

There are much better true crime documentaries on youtube.

Distracting Narration

[robiono · 2/10 · 6 August 2023]

I started googling during the first episode because I couldn't believe the narrating. And I found everyone feels the same. It's so awful, the writing makes zero sense and it's distracting. It ruins the whole story. "You won't believe what comes next" and the next is they found a body on a show with a title that makes it clear people were murdered. In the first episode they also say something like "Will we find her alive?' No ... We know this... Just an awful attempt at True Crime.

This show also gives you mini previews of what's to come and the stories are single episodes! We're watching the episode... I don't need a mini trailer of the next thing the episode is about to show me.

Aimed at the sensation seeker rather than those interested in true crime

[ells-52090 · 1/10 · 12 April 2023]

I'm agreeing with many of the other reviewers here. The music is disrespectful, playing songs about a young woman needing to 'escape' her lifestyle when she was in a loving and supportive home. Other music didn't seem fitting either and was overdramatic.

The narration was inappropriate where the narrator sounded as though she was smiling and gleeful over what she was saying rather than educating.

They did choose interesting cases to follow. I agree with other reviews saying it was far too sensationalised when the cases in themselves are interesting it's just unnecessary and definitely made it more awkward to watch, especially the 'you'll never guess what happened next' kind of comments.

There's an agenda

[mdavi-06504 · 27 January 2023]

I found some of the storylines completely bias such as the one with the college student murdered by the cop. He engaged in a sexual act with the cop so that he could use it as a method of blackmail when his case was not thrown out, yet he was painted as a LGBTQ+ social justice warrior at the conclusion. While he did not deserve death, he also had insidious intentions but the cop got the best of him. He was ready to blow up the cop's while life over a ticket that no one would remember in the future...he was far from innocent and definitely not a "social justice" warrior. Once again, no one deserves to be murdered over that, but he did seem to have a hand in his own fate. Everyone else already mentioned the awful narration and the even worse music.

The horrible narration is a big problem!

[kofogt · 4/10 · 5 October 2023]

The music is inappropriate and the voice narration terrible!! Had a good concept but did not do it justice. Felt like a 10 year old was telling the story and adding terrible music just to annoy me!

I watched episode one and the music left much to be desired, the story line was played up to be dramatic and the jokes at the expense of the deceased was not cool.

Had a better time watching other crime shows that took the case seriously. I just felt like this was comedy and did not actually happen because of how child like and silly the story telling was.

I dropped at episode one and I recommend not wasting your time.

The narration and music is embarrassing

[realhashtagselfie · 2/10 · 3 October 2023]

Given that these are the real stories of real people's tragic deaths, I expected more care to be given, but the narration is cringe-worthy as it's constantly trying to dramatise the accounts of real-life murder, and the music choices only increases this. These are very recent cases, and it's unfair on the families and loved-ones of those hurt (or worse) by what happened as it is, so it's surprising how little care has been taken as soon as they were done interviewing those who know the deceased.

I've always found issues with how production companies treat true crime cases, but this really takes the biscuit.

Cringe

[cquantrall · 1/10 · 24 June 2023]

Four minutes and 25 seconds in and I'm out. Felt like an awful and tackily produced podcast with images thrown in as an afterthought. Google the individual cases if you want to satisfy your curiosity and discover the actual facts about the victims without the weird vocal/music self promotion.

Four minutes and 25 seconds in and I'm out. Felt like an awful and tackily produced podcast with images thrown in as an afterthought. Google the individual cases if you want to satisfy your curiosity and discover the actual facts about the victims without the weird vocal/music self promotion.

Literally nothing else to say....

Too much distraction

[muhdbd · 4/10 · 17 September 2023]

I love crime documentaries & I've watched tons of crime series before. However I quickly got annoyed by few things; the unnecessary dramatic voice narration the constant insert of "soundtracks" too much "suspense music" effect.

I felt like these elements were too much & unnecessary. It ruins the whole feel/vibe. I get that this might be a new way of crime documentary style the producer might try to explore but it's a no for me.

Especially the "songs" inserts. At first I thought "nice music" the kind that would suit a crime drama's opening montage, as I watched more, the music keeps on coming up way too much that it got annoying.

Who was responsible for THE MUSIC

[hidxxujn · 19 November 2023]

I think everyone summed it up already but holy crap the music and narrator ruin the tragic stories.

It honestly feel like the director got all of their 'musician' buddies together and then paid the editor to literally slap the songs in the worst places possible. You will find yourself semi laughing at how terribly the music and stories are juxtaposed.

Plus the overdone sound effects?

I'm sorry, but I just cannot get over how terrible the editing and music are. If you watch this, watch it for the absolute absurdity that it presents.

Which is awful to say, these stories are devastating and deserve to be told with respect, but team, you dropped the ball.