'Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer' - Harrowing and overly dark portrait of a city

Joe Berlinger's anthology series Crime Scene returns with a dramatized representation of the Times Square killer, often referred to as the Torso killer. The three-part documentary partly covers the killer's story, his journey and his killing methods and partly focuses on the city of New York itself.

The majority of the three-part documentary seems to be focused on more than one perspective, often jumping between the killer and the city that caused the ripple in the direction of developing the killer's sadomasochistic tendencies.

Shot in Netflix's signature style, the videography and the presentation is eye-catching as usual, but overly-dramatized at times considering the overall pace.

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Crime Scene: Times Square Killer - The city as a protagonist in a killer's build-up

One of the most fascinating things in a crime documentary series like Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer is the exact portrayal of the circumstances that played out for the killers to become who they did become. However, for the Times Square killer, at times it felt like the entire city was being blamed for that.

Through a series of interviews with ex-cops, s*x workers, relatives of the affected, activists and co-workers of Richard Cottingham, the sadistic killer who primarily targeted prostitutes in the bustling "s*x market" of Times Square in 1970s and 1980s.

The portrayal of Times Square and 42nd Street is breathtaking, and it delves a lot into the inherent perversion of the time. The slow development with some great interviews, including one from the daughter of the fabled "P*rno King," paints a genuine picture of the slowly changing mentality of the society, especially men, who would go on to consider women as a part of their property.

Though the city's story and development come in the form of numerous reforms and social changes that mark the decades (called the "Golden age of Serial Killers"), Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer almost appears to blame the entire development of Richard Cottingham on the circumstances created by the streets of Times Square.

Though certainly fueled by it, this cannot be the only circumstance to generate enough perversion to turn someone into a killer who claims his victim count is in the hundreds, and that is exactly what the Netflix documentary about the Times Square killer lacks.

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The perfect murderer's past - What was missing from 'Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer'?

The obvious flaw of the documentary, as will be evident to veterans of the genre, is that it delves too little into the history and personal life of the Times Square Killer. The lack of this is evident and makes the show a tad directionless. The constant jump between the city's story and the killer's gruesome details makes it a little uneven while leaving out some parts that could have drawn more focus.

The confession takes up only the last quarter or so of the third episode when some of the most important details are revealed. He claims to have 80 murders totally undiscovered, and in pursuit of this truth is Jennifer Weiss, the biological daughter of Deedeh Goodrezi, one of the original victims with whose death Crime Scene: Times Square Killer began.

If this saga continued for longer, or the show delved into the past, family, and development of Cottingham, this could have made a more compelling watch.

Crime Scene: Times Square Killer, however, does manage to portray one of the darker times in New York's history and plays out the serial killer's gruesomeness with utmost honesty.

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Fans can stream Crime Scene: Times Square Killer on Netflix now!