American Nightmare Netflix

[Umanresources]

We watched this three part series and it was unbelievable. Has anyone else seen it? I’d love to know the answers to a couple of questions that haven’t been answered. It’s well worth watching; we just binged it.

She was also the ex of the detective, I think.

Oh, I missed that! That's even worse!!

I dont normally watch shows like this but I'm glad I did, although it was horrific.

Can't believe that police guy got Officer of the Year the same year!! He should have been sacked.

And as for what one of police said about child abuse, I can't even repeat it. Absolutely disgusting. I wonder if that police force has changed at all in the 10 years since the crime.

I suspect not.

What I found interesting is that at first, the story did seem unbelievable and when Aaron called 911, he was so calm and composed ( of course, towards the end we know why he was, but we didn't at the time).
I watch a lot of true crime and often the stories are unbelievable. For example, Jonbenet Ramsay ( a ridiculous ransom note, yet child not taken) or Darlie Routier ( a man broke in, killed her 2 boys, but not her - took nothing, etc, etc - loads of holes in that case).
And yet Aaron was telling the truth. So maybe sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Regarding the lying about polygraph, they do it all the time. They did it to Baby Lisa's mum, trying to catch her out ( it didn't and as in many cases, they lawyer up and refuse to cooperate. And who can blame them ?).
I loved The Innocence Files, but haven't seen The Confession Tapes, so will look that up. Thanks.

I might have missed this, but Aaron said when he was tied up and left in the house with a camera on a wall filming him... how did he untie himself, and what about the camera?

Ooh yes he did say that. He said it was a camera like the I one in the police station.

I wondered this. Also wonder what happened to the camera and whether he actually told the police.

Yeah Aaron's ex being an ex of the fbi investigator was odd, and the fact when their lawyer picked up on that and complained they were told its was OK and not a conflict... how is that not a conflict?

And how did Muller know the ex's name?

Yeah the fact Muller was intending to target Aaron’s ex (Andrea?) is just strange and seems no explanation for it.

I enjoyed it but found a lot of stuff didn't make sense. It felt like the producers just sort of skipped over some bits without really filling in the gaps for us.

I can't believe how awful the police were. First they assumed Aaron was in the wrong and then Denise was the villain. Wtf? Apparently they got a couple of million dollars in compensation but that's a trivial amount compared to the anguish they went through.

Thank goodness for that female detective and her tenacity with the blonde hair strand.

What a phenomenal woman Denise is.
I was so moved by her at the end - there was such a strength to her.

It was also crazy how Aaron had received text messages from the kidnapper but the police didn’t bother to establish where those texts had been sent from! Surely that would be an obvious line of enquiry - even if you thought he was making it up!

Just skimming this, as don't want spoilers, but I notice there are rape references. Is that a heavy feature? I tend to avoid anything which includes this

Yes. I'd avoid it. I don't like to watch programmes with rape either, so was not happy when I realised that the programme featured it. They don't dwell on the details of it but there is enough to be disturbing.

Think Aaron was playing the 2 women off against each other. Misty Carausu was fabulous. The others no comment.

This programme was absolutely shocking. Binge watched it this morning and was just horrified. Detective Misty needs a promotion ASAP.

I think so too, it seemed like this changed him and made him grow up and realise what he had and how much he did actually care for Denise.

Same here, I don't watch anything to do with rape or child abuse, but it is handled well.

She talks about it with grace and dignity. No vile reenactments.

Another case of the victim not behaving in a way that men accept, and therefore she must be guilty.

The female officer who broke the case was brilliant, her tenacity was just brilliant.

The one thing that I didn’t understand when Misty was investigating. She was trying to find out who the blonde hair on the goggles belonged to. Why couldn’t they just have ran the hair for DNA? Surely they would have had Denise’s on file given that she had tests run by the police?

It might not have had a root on it, or been good enough quality.

I agree. It was heavily edited to make us think various people were liars, before the big reveal. And the relevance of the ex girlfriend was never explored or explained, perhaps because it took the shine off golden boy Aaron.

Still very compelling, and a terrifying insight into the utter wild west that is American law enforcement.

I thought that, too @Rollergirl11 and even if , as you say @jay55 it might not have been a good enough sample, surely the media coverage was enough to put 2 and 2 together ?
Maybe my view is a tad naive, but that bit to me seemed a bit disjointed.

Thank god for Misty anyway. Proper police work instead of jumping to wrong conclusions, tunnel visions and improper behaviour.

The standard of policing in the US is shocking. Saying to one of the first victims zip ties did she dream it? And not following up for years? The Vallejo police were also involved in a scandal where if you killed someone at work, they had a secret BBQ for you and proudly bent the corner of your badge for each kill.

The main detective was leader of the union. He campaigned to get the criteria relaxed so he could make Sargent.

how any of them kept their jobs is just unbelievable

@Whoopsadoodle erghhh, I did not know that about the bbq. Makes me feel sick.