There are definitely spoilers in my review, so don't read further if that will ruin things for you.
Many of the reviews for "Burden of Proof" were very positive, which is why I ended up watching this in the first place. And indeed, for the first three episodes, I thought this documentary was very good. Unfortunately, everything collapses in the final episode, when you realize that not only didn't the parents do it, they're really not sure who did do it. And to be honest, unless someone makes a deathbed confession, I don't think we are ever going to know what happened. They suggest that it could be the ex-boyfriend, but my guess is that they were afraid to go too deep with that for fear of being sued by the ex-boyfriend.
So the show kind of pivots from a "whodunit" to "trying to make peace with your parents." What else was left for them to do with this? I feel bad for the documentarians, who hung in there for I think it was seven years thinking they had a great story. When this turned out to be another "dry well," I think they decided that they had to put something out, or else all the time and money they had spent on this would have gone to waste. On the very remote chance this ends up getting solved, they can always add another episode or two about it.
And on a side note to this documentary, Donnie Norrell, the private detective that Stephen hired to help him figure out this case was an absolute waste of money. Without getting too deep into this, I had read an article once that people like this end up latching onto the theory that their client wants to believe, whether or not that is really accurate or not. I'm not saying he was intentionally devious, he was just clueless. Isn't his job to figure things out, rather than to go along with his client? At least Lena Sisco (my wife and I called her "Poker Face" from the Peacock series. If you saw the series, you should understand the reference) expressed some early doubt about the mother being involved. Norrell just goes full-force on the parents until...the ex-boyfriend becomes the main suspect, and then he goes all out on the ex-boyfriend. How does anyone hire this guy?
Many of the reviews for "Burden of Proof" were very positive, which is why I ended up watching this in the first place. And indeed, for the first three episodes, I thought this documentary was very good. Unfortunately, everything collapses in the final episode, when you realize that not only didn't the parents do it, they're really not sure who did do it. And to be honest, unless someone makes a deathbed confession, I don't think we are ever going to know what happened. They suggest that it could be the ex-boyfriend, but my guess is that they were afraid to go too deep with that for fear of being sued by the ex-boyfriend.
So the show kind of pivots from a "whodunit" to "trying to make peace with your parents." What else was left for them to do with this? I feel bad for the documentarians, who hung in there for I think it was seven years thinking they had a great story. When this turned out to be another "dry well," I think they decided that they had to put something out, or else all the time and money they had spent on this would have gone to waste. On the very remote chance this ends up getting solved, they can always add another episode or two about it.
And on a side note to this documentary, Donnie Norrell, the private detective that Stephen hired to help him figure out this case was an absolute waste of money. Without getting too deep into this, I had read an article once that people like this end up latching onto the theory that their client wants to believe, whether or not that is really accurate or not. I'm not saying he was intentionally devious, he was just clueless. Isn't his job to figure things out, rather than to go along with his client? At least Lena Sisco (my wife and I called her "Poker Face" from the Peacock series. If you saw the series, you should understand the reference) expressed some early doubt about the mother being involved. Norrell just goes full-force on the parents until...the ex-boyfriend becomes the main suspect, and then he goes all out on the ex-boyfriend. How does anyone hire this guy?