Unsolved Mysteries premieres July 1st on Netflix.
By Ariba Bhuvad
As a ’90s kid, I was ecstatic to learn that Netflix was doing an Unsolved Mysteries reboot. I recall as a child, my family and I would gather in front of our little television as the show’s cryptic theme song would begin playing and Robert Stack would grace the screens to tell us of the mystery we’d be hearing all about.
Unfortunately, the Netflix version falls extremely flat in its attempt to live up to the original. I believe the reason for this is because the stories that the 90s version would tell were exciting for that time. In the years since, we’ve been bombarded with ridiculous true crime stories that have surpassed the mysteries of Unsolved Mysteries.
This new series just doesn’t have the allure the original had. I found myself disinterested in each episode because the mystery wasn’t mysterious enough, or it wasn’t exciting or crazy enough. After watching the likes of Tiger King, it’s hard to get invested in a story about a UFO sighting. This sort of show, it would appear, belongs in the 90s, and nowhere else.
Of course, the show could have potentially been better if they decided to “update” the stories they chose to put on it. It’s not as simple as keeping the stories the same in a completely different time. People have been exposed to entirely too much and seen/heard wild things that when you sit down to watch the stories in the 2020 version of Unsolved Mysteries, they fall incredibly short and are disappointing.
With that said, I’d like to be respectful of those involved in each story, these mysteries remain unsolved to this day, and involve real people and their families. It’s commendable to give them a platform to share their unsolved stories, but I fear their call to help me go unheard due to the format of the series.
If you are a fan of the original series, don’t expect that same level of excitement you once felt as you watched the series. And if you are new to this series, I’d love to hear what you think once you’ve seen it.
I give Unsolved Mysteries a D.
TV and City 