Ripper tale tells the women’s stories
Dropped unannounced on to Netflix a few weeks ago, The Ripper instantly shot into the top 10 of showswatched. It isn’t hard to see why.
Thewhole ‘‘true crime documentary’’ genre is aminefield of the very good, mixed inwith the tasteless, the exploitative and the crass.
Taking publicly available archive footage, popping off a couple of presentday interviewswithwhoever is still around (and, for no reason at all, Bono from U2), and then hiring some wash-up from a career no-one remembers who just happens to have the exact rasp in his voice that only 20 years of cigarettes and poor decisions can give you, to sling some adjective-heavy narration over the top, is a quick road to pocketing a lazy fortune, and Netflix ha been among the very worst at enabling this shoddy school of ‘‘filmmaking’’ for years.
But, done right, aswith The Keepers, Unabomber in his Own Words or here, with The Ripper, a show can be genuinely involving, informative and shocking, all without descending into exploitation and spectacle.
The key to the success of The Ripper – about the Yorkshire Ripper case that transfixed the United Kingdom from 1976 into the early 1980s – is that it gently but insistently focuses on the women’s stories.
While every news outlet in Britain and around theworldwas focused on the deeds of the man and diminishing his victims – leading to a general assumption by the public and police that the murderer was only targetting sex workers – this show looks at those dreadful years as being primarily the story of howwomen forced the media, and then the police, to quit the victim-blaming ways of the past and to treat the victims as humans with a story to tell.
A final revelation that the killer could have been caught before he ever killed if one young woman’s story had been properly listened to and followed up, is as bleak as it is perfectly placed in the show.
Across four episodes, The Ripper takes long diversions into the reality of being a young woman working in the police, the media or in a lawyer’s office in the 1970s.
It will surprise no-one to learn that the fear of women that drove Peter Sutcliffe had its manifestations beneath the veneer of these institutions as well.
Or, for a TVNZ OnDemand life story
you won’t be able to tear your eyes from, Rodman: For Better or Worse is a standalone ESPN documentary on the life and times of the indescribable Chicago Bulls immortal.
Anyonewho sat through all 10 hours of Michael Jordan and The Last Dance
(I know I did) knows that professional basketballer Dennis Rodmanwas by far the most interesting character in the whole show and missed him whenever he wasn’t on screen. So here, over awellassembled 100 minutes,is the whole story, from homelessness and airport janitor to global superstar, one-time beau of Madonna, and bestie to Kim Jong Un. It’s all true andmostly incredible.