'Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer' takeaway- The portrait of a city's perversion

Trigger warning: Mentions of death, brutality.

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, Netflix's three-part docu-series, sheds light on one of the most prolific serial killers and one of the worst historical times in the history of New York City. Beginning with the brutal double murder that came to be known as the Torso Killings, this documentary starts reliving the case in classic exploratory fashion.

While delving deeper into the TImes Square killer's psyche and the brutal fashion of his victim's deaths, the documentary also addresses the history of the iconic Times Square, which was the capital of the nation's perversion, fuelling an inherent toxic masculinity and obsession with owning the female form.

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'Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer' summary

Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer starts with the brutal murder of two victims in a hotel on West 42nd Street and Tenth Avenue. The bodies were dismembered, and the crime scene devoid of any evidence. This starts a string of investigations that eventually connects to other murders in New Jersey.

Through various interviews with ex-cops, s*x workers, activists, the Times Square Killer's coworkers, and original tapes of the man himself, the docu-series explores the history of the killer and the city's central area, Times Square, which was considered to be the worst part of the city then.

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Cultural and psychological impact of New York as a city

Times Square is the business and cultural capital of NYC. Times Square's development is traced over a long historical period, starting from the first peep shows in the city that aired there, to the development of fully functional s*x clubs. The interview of the "Porno King's" daughter is used to describe the history in a brilliant fashion.

The lives of the s*x workers involved in this are also traced well, even if the jump back and forth is often abrupt. However, what this documentary does manage to achieve is the portrayal of the place and the change it goes through in the years termed as the "golden age of serial killers".

Times Square almost serves as the protagonist of the series along with the TImes Square killer. As perversion, crime and lawlessness is shown through a dramatized lens, the city becomes the main factor behind the rise of The TImes Square killer. Other angles are barely explored while the role of the city to drive off its citizens into a loop of sadomachocism is put above everything else.

Another important historical truth shown in the series is the mistreatment of prostitutes, police brutality and manipulation. It depicted the inherent fear s*x workers faced due to police harassment that made it so much easier for the sadistic men to do the things they did without the fear of law enforcement.

Social reforms do come in the form of rising awareness, women-centric movements and overall stringent laws, however, the real threat to Times Square's s*x culture comes in the form of AIDS. This follows the city's Disneyficiation and one of the interviewees remarks at the end of the series, "It's just like any other city now".

The Times Square killer is well examined, but the portrait of the city, its fall into depravity and its obsession with female form was the driving force in the creation of many such killers or could-have-been killers.