UNSOLVED MYSTERIES: BIZARRE MURDERS
Unsolved Mysteries:
Ghosts
Starring: Robert Stack
Number of discs:
4
Encoding: Region 1 (Canada and US)
DVD special features: Introduction by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer;
Audio Commentary for select episodes by series
Producers/Creators/Directors; Motion menus; 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
Sound; Original 4:3 Full Screen Format
Episode Listing:
Disc 1 -- Cop Killer plus Update; Boston Strangler II; Texas Most
Wanted plus Update; Trailer Terror; Bad Chief plus Update; Marie Hilley;
Journalists? Murder
Disc 2 --
Scared To Death; Murdered Heiress; Unicorn's Secret plus Update; Women's
Prison Killing; Skull Duggery
Backyard Bones; World Leaders; Burning Bed
Disc 3 -- Mistake Hit; Friends To The End; Whistle Blown; Richard's
Rampage plus Update; Plane Crash Sabotage; Burned Evidence; Jesse James
Hollywood; Two Mary Murders
Disc 4 -- Bordello Murders; Campus Murder Expose; Dakota's Double
Death; Margo Freshwater plus Update; Zodiac/Unabomber; The Other Intern;
Social Security Murder plus Update; Civil Rights Murders; Campus Calamity
Movie:
 
Disc:
 Unsolved
Mysteries'
latest disc set continues its appeal as a guilty pleasure for those who
love to watch true crime dramas and re-creations.
Hosted by the late Robert Stack, the ?Bizarre Murder? series suffers from
feeling like an out-of-date America's Most Wanted -
the TV show that broadcast crime re-creations, looking for the public's
help in catching the criminal. Some of these murders happened years ago so
even their ?updates? were made years past.
This 4-disc set contains 33 episodes of bizarre murders. It's not really
clear why these murders were classified as bizarre. Some of them remain
unresolved; all of them were tragic. Some of the murders were very high
profile, making national and international news -
The Boston Strangler? The Unabomber? But this disc set feels very uneven
as both small town murders and splashy, notorious murders get the earnest
re-creation and next-of-kin interviews treatment.
The problem with this Bizarre Murders series is that, unlike the
paranormal topics (UFOs,
psychics, and ghosts)
covered by Unsolved Mysteries, these murders are tragedies with
little mystery aside from a whodunit or an elusive motive. When aired
originally on TV, Unsolved Mysteries would have a mishmash of
vignettes -
a variety of oddities. By grouping them into genres, Bizarre Murders
gets short shrift as the most grounded. Murders are terrible things, but
aliens, ghosts or psychics aren't committing them. So unless true crime is
a passion, watching Unsolved Mysteries: Bizarre Mysteries is like
reading old newspapers.
However, one cool thing about watching a TV series like this is to spot
some future celebrity pay his/her dues. In Texas Most Wanted you'll
spot none other than a very young Matthew McConaughey (Contact,
Reign of Fire) playing a murder victim.
- Harrison Cheung
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