Sandra Harris Writes

  WHEN THEY SEE US. (2019) A NETFLIX TRUE CRIME DRAMA SERIES WRITTEN, CREATED AND DIRECTED BY AVA DUVERNAY. STARRING FELICITY HUFFMAN, VERA FARMIGA, FAMKE JANNSEN AND JOHN LEGUIZAMO. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. © This is a superb four-part true crime/drama mini-series, but it’s the most harrowing thing I’ve ever seen on Netflix, and all the more harrowing for its all being true, and the fact that the stuff that happens to the young boys in it all actually happened. And, if it’s harrowing to watch, how much worse must it be to have actually lived through all this horrible stuff. Let me tell you the story. On the night of April 19 th , 1989 (can you remember where you were and what you were doing in April of that year, just to put the timeframe into context?), a young white woman, an investment banker called Patricia Meili, went for a run late in the evening in New York’s famous Central Park. Somewhere along the way, she was accosted, raped, beaten severely and left for dead in ...

  THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. (2016) BASED ON JEFFREY TOOBIN’S 1997 BOOK, THE RUN OF HIS LIFE: THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON. STARRING CUBA GOODING JR., DAVID SCHWIMMER, JOHN TRAVOLTA, NATHAN LANE, SARAH PAULSON, STERLING K. BROWN, KENNETH CHOI AND COURTNEY B. VANCE. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. © I absolutely loved this gripping ten-episode series, only on Netflix until February 28 th , 2022, which forms the first season of true crime anthology series, AMERICAN CRIME STORY. The writing is brilliant, the acting top-notch and the pacing wonderful. The series is based on the real-life murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman by acclaimed NFL (football) player and sometimes-actor, Orenthal James Simpson, better known to the public as OJ ‘The Juice’ Simpson. OJ was Nicole’s ex-husband, with whom he had two children, Sydney and Justin, and Ronald Goldman was Nicole's then boyfriend. After a widely televised low-speed car chase through Los Angeles (‘The J...

THE SERPENT. (2021) A BBC CRIME DRAMA WRITTEN BY RICHARD WARLOW AND TOBY FINLAY. DIRECTED BY TOM SHANKLAND AND HANS HERBOTS. STARRING TAHAR RAHIM, JENNA COLEMAN, BILLY HOWLE, ELLIE BAMBER, TIM MCINNERNY, MATHILDE WARNIER AND AMESH EDIREWEERA. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. © Oh boy. I had to keep reminding myself while watching this fantastic crime drama on Netflix recently that it was actually based on real life crimes and real life murders, and that real people had actually suffered terribly in real life in the timeline concerned. And why? Why did I have to keep reminding myself of these unpleasant facts? Because Tahar Rahim, the actor who portrays Charles Sobhraj in this superb dramatization of the life and crimes of a real life serial killer, is so hot that I literally forgave him all the crimes instantly, no questions asked.  Even though he didn’t personally commit them, lol. And then I had to sternly tell myself that writing to Sobhraj in prison, where he apparently still...

NIGHT STALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER. (2021) DIRECTED BY TILLER RUSSELL. STARRING GIL CARRILLO AND FRANK SALERNO AS THEMSELVES. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. © This Netflix true crime documentary is a really sinister and disturbing watch. In the 1980s, a series of horrific crimes- aggravated burglary, child molestation, child abduction and murders- in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas of the United States had the residents of those two cities on high alert. The thing is, though, that almost all of the crimes were different to the ones that preceded them, and it took a while for detectives on the case to link them together. Normally, a criminal keeps to the same MO or modus operandi and doesn’t deviate from it too much. For example, a man who shoots people from a safe distance, e.g., David Berkowitz in the ‘Son of Sam’ murders, doesn’t normally decide to suddenly stop doing this and start strangling his victims instead, which would entail up-close and personal contac...

  THE SONS OF SAM: A DESCENT INTO DARKNESS. (2021) A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY DIRECTED BY JOSHUA ZEMAN. STARRING PAUL GIAMATTI AS THE VOICE OF MAURY TERRY. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. © I’m trying not to get too excited about this four-episode Netflix crime doc, as, after all, real people were brutally murdered by the man who is its subject, but it certainly makes for gripping bloody television. So much so that I forgot, while I was watching it, to put the dinner on, and, worse, nearly forgot about the STRICTLY COME DANCING results show, lol, and that never happens.  Whatever about dinner, you do not forget about STRICTLY in this house! The documentary concerns the so-called ‘Son of Sam’ murders, which took place in New York City from July 1976 to July 1977. They held the city to ransom for that whole long horrible year, during which NYC felt to some people like a powder keg waiting to blow. The murders were committed by a gunman, dubbed the ‘Son of Sam’ because of tauntin...