Netflix’s ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ reboot attempts to use true-crime fandom for good. That’s a complicated goal.
A review of the new season of Unsolved Mysteries, on Netflix July 1st.
i. Unsolved Mysteries
When Unsolved Mysteries premiered 35 years ago, there was nothing else like it on television. Unlike other true-crime news-magazine shows of the time, your Datelines and your 20/20s, Unsolved Mysteries focused on crimes without resolution; they crucially ended every segment by inviting viewers to call in should they have any information that might help solve the case. The concept of using television to crowd-source solutions to crimes was still relatively new; America’s Most Wanted was still a few years away.
And the show was a phenomenon, with viewers helping solve more than 260 cases in its original run. New information surfaced on the Unsolved Mysteries hotline that helped close the book on murders and disappearances, and fans of the show helped catch numerous wanted fugitives who had managed to escape the law. The show started as a series of specials in 1985, becoming a full show in 1988; its original run aired on NBC from 1988–2002, and then new episodes ran on SpikeTV from 2008–2010. And then the series went dark.
