The Sons of Sam, the case of the mass murderer David Berkowitz who, between 1976 and 1977, terrorized The city of New York revolved around the Descent into the Dark. The docuseries’ trailer has been released, and the complete documentary had been premiered on May 5, 2021. The documentary series is divided into four long episodes which examine whether David Berkowitz acted alone in all crimes.
About the Show
| Title | Results |
|---|---|
| TV Series Name | The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness (2021) |
| Streaming Network | Netflix |
| Director | Joshua Zeman |
| Main Star | Paul Giamatti |
| Genres | Documentary, Crime, Mystery |
| Country Origin | USA |
| Language | English |
| Release Date | 5 May 2021 (Netflix) |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 4 |
Open Shot
A shot of three file boxes battered. “I got three boxes from the journalist Maury Terry during the summer of 2017,” says Director Joshua Zeman.
The Gist
The search for the “Son of Sam” captivated the country in the late 1970s, but it’s all but forgotten that behind one of the most infamous serial killers in America is the tale. Although David Berkowitz’s arrest and prosecution led to clowning by many New Yorkers, the true mystery was only starting for journalist Maury Terry. Terry would spend decades trying to prove that the web of darkness behind the homicides was wider than anyone imagined if he became persuaded that Berkowitz had not behaved by himself, and his pursuit of this flawed reality could cost him all.
Filmmaker Joshua Zeman uses news archiving photographs to tell the cautionary tale of a man who fell into the rabbit hole and never came up with Terry’s words or case files. But it was Maury Terry who was chasing fantasies — or the real Sons of Sam are still out.
The first episode delves into the timeline of the Son of Sam case, beginning with Donna Lauria’s shooting death. Random women were shot in the next year in all three boroughs, with some surviving and others not. They were almost all in their cars late at night, and the majority of them had shoulder-length black locks.
The “.45-Caliber Killer” case terrorized the area when the murders were associated with the NYPD at a time when violence was at an all-time peak and the city was on the verge of bankruptcy. At a time when more cops were wanted, Mayor Abe Beam had to lay off thousands of people.
Our Take And Review
The show is backed by a 7.1/10 IMDb rating with 38% rotten tomatoes. However, 84% of people liked this show.
The most disappointing thing is that “Sons of Sam” is continuously shadowed by the dramatic “what’s” portrayal of the true story of Maury Terry’s events. The reality is that, before all loops were closed, the police bungled aspects of the inquiry. This does not imply, that they have come to the wrong decision. In some way, they may have been inept, but still have the right candidate. And Zeman doesn’t delve enough into how the communication between Berkowitz and Terry influenced his life. The whole life of a journalist has been derailed by a charismatic sociopath – a heck of a documentary.
The fact that Zeman chose to waste the first of his four hours rehashing the truth of the Son of Sam situation left us a little suspicious of The Sons Of Sam. Not that it isn’t well done; Zeman does a decent job of explaining the complicated case and the stranglehold it imposed on New York during one of its darkest years, using copious quantities of news video, interviews with the police involved in the case, writers, and victims’ families. However, it did not seem to be a necessary way to begin the season.
Son of Sam is now one of the most renowned serial killers ever since Berkowitz was captured about 45 years later. With a greater perspective on Terry, the general strokes of the case would have brought him to suspect the part of Berkowitz much earlier than in the last 10 minutes of the show. It’s not that much about New York’s year when Son of Sam terrorized him, as well as about the dark spots that Terry went to find out who really shot him and how much he had to pay.
This is most likely that Zeman was given four hours to share a story that should have been told in two or three hours. The emphasis should have been on Terry, the author of the book that inspired this docuseries, and his investigation from the first minute.
Since Berkowitz’s conviction, there has been widespread speculation that he would not act alone, and it would have been fascinating to hear more about Terry’s investigation and why the police closed the case so soon after Berkowitz was captured (short answer: they wanted to stem the bad publicity from not catching him earlier). Maybe we’ll see some of it in later series, but it would have been easier to see some of it in the first.
Parting Shot
Photo of John Wheat Carr, son of Sam Carr, a neighbor of Berkowitz. “What if John Wheat Carr’s real-life son, Sam Carr, had been involved, Giamatti asks, as Terry? And what if it was just starting this nightmare?”
Sleeper Star
Jimmy Breslin. The late columnist embodied the hard-boiled newsman from the middle class who regularly cranked major cities. His leading position in the case of Son of Sam thinking of simply sending him a frightening letter after Breslin wrote about him is one of the first instances of a major city newspaper that has taken on the tale.
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness Cast
- Paul Giamatti – Narrator
- Joshua Zeman – Executive Producer
- Sara Enright – Executive Producer
- Zara Duffy – Executive Producer
- Dave Sirulnick – Executive Producer
- Jon Kamen – Executive Producer
- Josh Braun – Executive Producer
- Dan Braun – Executive Producer
- Joshua Zeman – Director
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness Trailer
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness, the series immerses itself deeply in a journalist’s attempt to figure out whether Berkowitz acted by itself or whether any members of the satanic cult were involved in the killing of Berkowitz. On Wednesday, 7th April, the streaming network, Netflix, launched the four-part trailers. And it doesn’t just look awful, it has left us with a bunch of questions.
Conclusion
Stream it. Although we were upset about The Sons of Sam’s first episode: A Descent Into Darkness, we look forward to finding out about what Terry has discovered and how it is being investigated. It should take another look at one of the most famous cases of a serial killer ever.