As 2019 begins, Netflix has begun to release original content. Their original content can be previewed through their new hit documentaries: Conversations with A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.
Conversations with A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes–
The world is fascinated by the modern day serial killer. There is a desire by the public to understand and decode the twisted mind that could facilitate so many wrong-doings. This gave Netflix the idea for their new documentary series, deeming Ted Bundy’s story a perfect plot line to entice their viewers. Conversations with A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes was directed by Oscar-nominated and Emmy winning director Joe Berlinger and was released on January 24, 2019.
The binge worthy documentary series was inspired by the book Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer, written by Hugh Aynesworth and Stephen G. Michaud. The book similarly goes over tapes between Bundy and journalists while on death row in Florida. The tapes describe the type of person who would commit such heinous crimes. He tells his story in his own words, resulting in a personal connection the viewer finds with Bundy, making the documentary even more interesting.
The four-part documentary series reveals everything from what may have led Bundy to become a serial killer to his very last words. The tapes were recorded before he had admitted to killing up to 30 women between 1974 and 1978 across seven states. This explains why Bundy evaluates the psyche of who would commit the crimes in third person. Bundy is not the only narrator featured in the documentary. Netflix was able to decode his actions from the viewpoint of people who thought they knew him and survivors of the classic Bundy attack. The documentary ultimately unravels Bundy’s past and crimes while answering the question the whole world was asking themselves at the time: how could someone who looks so ordinary could have killed any young girl?
Fyre Festival–
In 2017, Billy McFarland, an entrepreneur who previously founded Magnises and Fyre Media Inc., announced the first, supposed to be annual, Fyre Festival. After almost two years of a confused public questing how the “festival of the year” turned into one of the biggest scandals of 2017, Netflix released Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on January 18, 2019. The documentary re-traces how social media, money and manipulation lead to one of the biggest frauds of the decade.
McFarland and rapper Ja Rule envisioned a festival for the elite millennial. The festival was advertised to take place in one of Pablo Escobar’s private islands in the Bahamas, with the top artists from around the world. With little time to plan, the two entrepreneurs took the first step to ensure their festival would be the next big thing: hiring the top models of the industry to sell the fantasy. With models like Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid and more, the festival began to create a buzz. The illusion sold to the consumers worked, leading consumers to blindly buy tickets without researching the logistics. Consumers were buying tickets to hang out with top models, bask in the island sun and listen to the music industries top artists. In reality, they were paying for flooded tents, no food or water and not what was promised.
The documentary was co-produced by Jerry Media and Matte Projects who also produced promotion videos for the Fyre festival. This led to some speculation from viewers to how biased the documentary was. Netflix competitor, Hulu, released their own documentary on the festival that some viewers trust more. Unlike Netflix’s documentary, Hulu’s documentary focused more on the social media company and how it played into the collapse of the Fyre Festival. Either way, Netflix’s documentary investigates the infamous disaster and the ongoing effects it created over two years later.
