TV Review: The Deliberate Stranger (1986)

Clocking in at nearly 200 minutes, you’d think this two-part miniseries on Ted Bundy would be pretty informative, and perhaps even dramatic. Don’t expect any gore or too many disturbing moments, of course, since it was made for TV. But give me something.

Mark Harmon plays Bundy, and the film goes through such an effort to show you the normal side of his life that you might almost forget he’s a notorious serial killer.

Seriously. It’s almost sympathetic towards him, and it never even tries to explain why he did what he did. The idea they were trying to latch on to here is “what if someone you knew turned out to be a serial killer,” which itself is pretty terrifying. But this is also where the lack of genuine suspense or horror really hurts it. Bundy just seems like a guy who eventually gets accused of these crimes, and then found guilty, not like someone who did them.

That having been said, Harmon does an okay job. All the performances are at least respectable. And this mineseries should be at least partially applauded for its refusal to engage in any kind of sensationalism. But it also refuses to engage in entertainment.

Rating: 4/10