N and I started watching Netflix’s Making a Murderer. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend. If you have, please no spoilers. We only saw the first two episodes so far.
One observation I wanted to make is how extraordinarily manipulative the absent narrator is. This is a lesson we can all learn from 19th-century realist literature: if the author / narrator is going to great lengths to make themselves imperceptible in the story, some massive manipulation is about to be perpetrated against you. And you can make your experience as a reader or viewer more fun through catching the author in the act.
In Making a Murderer there is no narrator, and the viewers are invited to believe that nobody is telling them what to think, they can make their own minds. Of course, it’s all a lie. The footage is selected and arranged in a way that pushes a single version of events very hard. Every narrative and creative vehicle is used to slam the “correct” reading down your throat while allowing you to entertain the comforting illusion that you made your own mind.
It’s a great documentary, totally worth watching.
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