First, don't bother to read any review that was posted July 17, 2023. Only have the show had gone out at that point. No one can review adequately a whole story after watching half of it.
This is a very compelling story of how the system failed because the crime was happening in a sub-culture that the officials in the system did not (in many, not all, cases did not want to) understand or respect. It's a story of a very different era of extreme marginalization of LGBTQUI+ people. Much has changed since the time the events in this program transpired. Much still needs to change, but the 1980s and 1990s (certainly earlier too when the events here started) were a time that needs to be understood to get the point of how this violence fit into American culture.
Also, it's a true serial killer story that spends very little (enough, very little) time exploring the killer and a lot (there can't be enough) time exploring the impact on family and friends who lost humans they loved to this terrible man.
If you want to be transported to a time and place that is very specific to understand system failure and if you want to be moved about the impact of loss from violence, centering the lives of those who experienced the loss and their feelings about the one this killer took from them, check this out. It's only four roughly one-hour episodes. Together, they effectively tell the story the film-makers set out to tell (NOT the story of the killer -- that was included, but isn't at all the focus here). It's a powerful story, told lovingly. As a person who spend the 1980s in high school and college, this era is deeply formative for me. From my perspective in 2023, it's hard to remember the culture of those days. This series takes us to that time and helps us see how the deeply held, unquestioned, fundamental attitudes of the day shaped institutional response to crimes that left holes in families that still hurt decades later.
