Real Serpent: Investigating a Serial Killer (2024– ) User Reviews

Great potential, poor excision!

[sjohnstone-49501 · 1/10 · 22 March 2024]

One star because this documentary had great potential.

But other than that, it's an absolute waste of time. If you haven't watched the Serpent, give that a go instead.

You will learn nothing new in this documentary, nor will you get a better and deeper understanding of why he did what he did, or who he is as a person.

They didn't manage to hold him accountable for anything. The people who interviewed him did a terrible job, as well as everyone else who was in charge of this documentary. The whole layout is boring and repetitive. You don't actually get to see much of the interviews/interrogations with him, I guess that's due to them doing such a bad job that they didn't have enough material in the end, so they had to use other useless material instead to somehow put a documentary together. Honestly, one of the worst documentaries I've seen in a long time.

A vanity exercise

[tiny_l-739-732457 · 3/10 · 22 March 2024]

It says at the top if every episode that Charles Sobrahj wasn't paid anything for this documentary but what he has always thrived on is the publicity and infamy. This stokes that fire.

It tells us nothing new about him or the alleged murders he committed, but allows him a platform to spread his lies and promote his notoriety.

There is no "Gotcha" moment a la The Jinx whereby he admits his crimes, it's just denial after denial when faced with interrogation.

Not worth watching if you know about the case already, it's just a 3 hour vanity exercise for Charles Sobrahj, you can tell he revels in the attention he's being given by this documentary.

Yet another post-event whitewash

[Pizzaowner · 1/10 · 26 March 2024]

Mr. Sobhrah, if we believe the producers, was not paid for this interview. Let's say it might be true if you don't count an extensive stay in a luxury hotel all expenses paid.

So what do we get by way of entertainment you ask?

LIES and more lies. Denials of FACTS well documented at the time by the police of several countries.

If any attention should be given to these sad events and the miserable creature that did them, then let us hear from the families of the victims. They still suffer to this day, and this disgraceful whitewash does credit to no-one...least of all the production company.

Not worth the time to watch, and just barely worth my time to expose this lkiar for the murderer he is.

He should still be in jail today.

Pointless and morally confused

[paul2001sw-1 · 3/10 · 6 April 2024]

'The Real Serpent' is a strange, and morally confused, programme. Charles Sobhraj is almost certainly a serial murderer, one who has served time in prison for only some of his crimes, and also a vain publicity hound who has alternatively confessed to his guilt and protested his innocence. In this series, he agrees to be investigated and interviewed by some retired detectives, who review the evidence (which is mostly well-known; the story was only recently dramatised on television) and then basically tell Sobhraj that they've concluded he's guilty and is an awful human being to boot. In fact, they don't convince, as their technique is basically to talk over Sobhraj while accusing him of attempting to dominate the conversation! One can argue that the weight of proof means Sobhraj does not deserve fair treatment; but by the same token, why put him on TV (where he clearly wants to be) at all? The real story of the killings is terrible and compelling; but wheeling Sobhraj out to insult him adds no further insight.