The Jinx Obsession

I admit it, it snuck up on me. I like documentaries and used to groove on CourtTV when it was still around, but I didn't think I could be this obsessed or compelled as I am by HBO's "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst."

The gist is this: Robert Durst, millionaire real estate heir has been accused of at least three murders in his life, yet been convicted of none. His sketchy low mild calm and emotionless tones infuriate prosecutors and interrogators alike. He appears to be a monster albeit with Teflon skin. And he has always shunned the press.

After seeing a movie made of his infamous adventures, All Good Things..., Durst sought out the director, Andrew Jarecki, who also had a crime documentary background. With Jarecki, Durst consented to be interviewed. The sequences with Durst and Jarecki are the highlight of this six-part documentary series.

I recently had a chance to see the movie All Good Things..., with names changed but much of the voiceover narration taken from court transcripts, and Ryan Gosling starring as the thinly renamed Durst. The film also stars Kirsten Dunst as his doomed wife and Kristen Wiig in a rare but brief serious role. Gosling captures realistically (or as real as can be believed) Durst's odd behavior patterns and tics.

The film features excellent performances all around, vastly superior to the average Lifetime movie it resembles at first glance. When you get right down to it, this is an unbelievable story, which is what makes the fact it's based on real events all the more chilling. This also makes the documentary even scarier, because it's real. This creepy guy got away with at least three murders.

When you see the real Robert Durst on "The Jinx," not realizing the camera is still running and his mike is still live, practicing and rehearsing his answers out loud - that's the core of this national obsession with the show. Here we have a mild mannered twitchy monster who has done unspeakable things, and continues to get away with it and lie about it.

Yes, I'm rushing to judgment. Yes, I'm forming opinion on circumstantial evidence. And yes, I'm basing it all on a TV show and a movie. But that's all part of the game, is it not? That's what they want us to do, and in inviting this documentary, it's what Robert Durst and Andrew Jarecki want us to do as well.

One of the more emotional moments in this series is when Durst's late first wife's mother expressed hope that this documentary will produce evidence to put away her daughter's murderer. I'm with her. "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" concludes this Sunday evening on HBO.

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart

Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart ~ Before CourtTV, before O.J. Simpson, this was the trial that in the age of tabloid television started it all. There's To Die For, Anatomy of a Murder, and my favorite with Helen Hunt and Chad Allen, Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story. At least three films before this, numerous books, and dozens of TV shows - Pamela Smart is the godmother of television murder trials, and one could say it was almost by design.

Pamela Smart was a media teacher at her local high school, who conned her fifteen year old student boyfriend to murder her husband of less than a year. When the media storm started, before she was a suspect, Smart was the fashionable victim, always looking good for the camera, sometimes even directing the interviews. She was a natural, until she was caught, and then for the camera at least, she went from predator to prey. The media devoured her.

This is the aspect that filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar takes on in his HBO documentary Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart, how the media covered this super tabloid circus, and how it reflects on us today. He also contends that the sensationalism of the coverage decided the trial's outcome in the public eye no matter what occurred in the courtroom. This is done with the help of interviews with many involved, including Pamela Smart.

This is not a bad documentary, very watchable for folks who both know the story and those who weren't around when it was happening. My only complaint is that Zagar drives home his thesis like jackhammer in the early morning. It gets old and annoying very quickly. I don't think there's any doubt that Pamela Smart had her husband murdered, or that she was given a fair trial, but there you go.

Dominick Dunne 1925-2009

Bestselling author Dominick Dunne passed away yesterday in his home from complications of bladder cancer. He was 83.

An advocate for victims' rights, a WWII veteran, a stage manager for the original Howdy Doody show, a movie producer and a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, Dunne was many things, but what he will be most of all, is missed. We've lost one of the good ones.

Actuality??

Starting on the first day of 2008, CourtTV changed its name to TruTV with the tagline: "Not Reality. Actuality."

What the F?

If they wanted to avoid the stigma that reality television has created in its recent reign the last thing they should have done is make up a word. Remember a couple decades ago when some radio stations tried out a format called "infotainment"? I think that word was responsible for more people tuning out than any actual programming.

The main thing that puzzles me, a frequent CourtTV viewer, is that the programming has remained much the same as it was before, save the annoying frequency of those "Actuality" commercials every break.

The real story is that Time-Warner and Turner Broadcasting acquired the network last year and have been uncomfortable with its 'legal format.' The real 'excitement' will begin when the new shows debut. Now in development are the unscripted "Neighbors 911," "Black Gold," "Outlaw Chasers" and, wait for it, "Ski Patrol." It bears repeating at this point that they wanted to stress that this isn't reality TV. As Bill Cosby used to say, Riiight.

Luckily, the TruTV network will continue the six-hour block of court coverage on weekdays that was the trademark and meat of CourtTV. I think that'll be all the TruTV I'll be watching.

"The Groom Reaper"

I love John Waters. And not just his work, I love him. He's one of those individuals like George Orwell or Ernest Hemmingway or Paris Hilton that is as a person just as interesting (for good or bad) as their body of work. For John, it's for good. he's funny, quirky, smart and sly - my kind of person.

Like I said, I love John Waters, so imagine my surprise when I came across "'Til Death Do Us Part" on CourtTV. Now I don't normally watch CourtTV when they're not exploiting a case trial while in progress. I usually have the channel on while I'm writing during the day, or while on the gazelle with my iPod on - the advantage being if I look up I can always see the news crawl while concentrating on something else. And sometimes the trials get nutty. And Nancy Grace's biting sarcasm is always worth a hoot. Other than that, I pay it no mind.

But while surfing through the cable today I saw my man John Waters and stopped on CourtTV. "'Til Death Do Us Part" shows true cases where one spouse has murdered another, in dramatization form, with the names changed to protect the innocent, and John Waters is the host. He plays the, are you sitting down? - The Groom Reaper.

You could stop right there as far as I am concerned. That alone is a laugh worth having over and over again. It's beautiful. And the stories, told in twenty-two minute form are sooo campy. Campy enough to make John Waters or any John Waters fan proud. The acting and the writing actually remind me of "Divorce Court." Not the "DC" of today with a semi-real judge and real couples burnt in the "People's Court" mold, the "Divorce Court" of yesteryear. Back in the 1960s and 70s, "DC" was the master of melodrama, making even the soap operas green with envy - that's what this show is like.

Now I'm not sure if this is a new show or an old show but there were about eight of them that aired today. So check out your TV schedule for "'Til Death Do Us Part," it's a hoot!