As Episode 1 of "Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan" (2021 release; 4 episodes of about 1 hour each) opens, we are in "Columbus, Ohio 1977" and the campus of Ohio State University is on edge as a result of a string of rapes. But the OSU campus police catch a break when the rapist leaves his finger prints at one of the rape scenes (inside of a car), and in just a matter of days, they arrest Billy Milligan, a 23 yr old with a previous record of rape and other crimes...
Couple of comments: this is the surprising latest from French director Olivier Megaton, best known for "Taken 2" and "Taken 3". Here he revisits the events that started in October, 1977 when Milligan brutally raped a number of women in Columbus. The focus of the series is much broader than that, though, as this really becomes an assessment of the "multiple personalities disorder" and to what extent, if any, it can be used as a defense. Please note that all of this is played out in Ohio, and hence that Ohio law applies to the assessment of Milligan. Talking heads include Milligan's brother and sister, the prosecutor, the public defenders, Columbus Dispatch journalists, etc. However, this TV documentary series is sunk by the 1970s re-enactments (and there are plenty of them), which for reasons unknown and incomprehensible are show and edited in overdrive (changing shots incessantly, as in: multiple times per second). They gave me a headache, to be honest.
I had never heard of "Monsters Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan". That is, until the other night when Netflix "suggested" it to me, based on my viewing habits (I love documentaries, and I love true crime). My rating would be higher if it wasn't for the inexplainable mess that are these re-enactments. Of course you don't have to take my word for it, so if you are a fan of true crime documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.
