Who Killed Little Gregory? (2019) User Reviews (33)

Sad documentation about humanity

[LucasFeindt · 8/10 · 23 November 2019]

As I've just finished this series in one sitting, I feel nothing but anger and disgust. But I can not imagine what anger the parents must feel. This documentary shows how greedy human beings are in terms of fame and money. So greedy, that they are willing to use the case of a murdered child for their own advantage.

Of course I'm speaking about judge Jean-Michel Lambert, who's goal was clearly not solving the case, but to gain reputation and money from it. Not only was he very easy influenced by fortune tellers and other weird people from outside, who had NOTHING to do with the case, but he was the one turning the focus to an innocent person, Grégory's mother, making her life even more a living hell. He is in many terms responsible for the case failing.

On the other side are the paparrazi and reporter. Never will I forget the picture of them standing on grave stones, just to get the perfect picture of the funeral. Even more disgusting was the portraiting of Christine, the child's mother, who was demonstrated as the witch who killed her own child. This, and the people's wrong opinion resulting from that, shows how stupidly easy it is to influence society.

This case could have been solved in my opinion, if professionals had been on this job and if the media hadn't lead the father to kill the child's uncle and possible murder.

Netflix shows again that they can transform storys like this into crime documentaries perfectly. The whole series never gets boring at any point and the music and pictures are beautiful dark and fitting.

I felt angry

[reebokroot · 8/10 · 23 November 2019]

Jean Kerr only cares about pictures and journalism and laughs on a sad and painful occasion, how ridiculous and provocative, but the documentary is very excellent

Classic Who Done It....for real!

[rbrb · 8/10 · 16 December 2019]

Intense and morbidly fascinating documentary series about the murder of a child in France. I found it preferable to view the episodes over different days due to the total length.

The film-makers have done an excellent job in presenting the story with English narrative and sub titles and a lot of real life footage.

Journalists are shown to have significantly contributed to the failings in the case aided by incompetence from the police, judges, lawyers and legal system.

By the end of my viewing its is clear to me who was the murderer though the accomplices if any remain questionable. And in life sometimes victims need to take the law into their own hands to get justice...

For those who like true life crime documentaries this series is compelling; well done Netflix!

8/10

8/10.

excellent documentary, sad display of humanity (and the 80s).

[esthermennen · 9/10 · 24 November 2019]

Another great true crime documentary by Netflix. Enjoyed hearing the different perspectives, and that to this day, people will do anything to keep their fame and money (particularly true for Gerard Welzer).

Also captures the different attitudes of public thinking in the 80s, and makes me (for once) happy with the more critical world we live in today. Example was the Head of the Nancy Criminal Police stating he felt the mom must have done it bak then because 'he found her attractive and she wore quite a tight black sweater, which was suspicion'. Absolutely insane how she was convicted by 'theories' alone, with a Judge completely making up a motive and method with absolutely no proof at all (literally, 0 proof). I feel extremely sad for both Jean-Marie and Christine, and I hope they are in a better place today.

Superb and harrowing.

[admhr-04373 · 9/10 · 21 November 2019]

Home with a cold so I binge watched this in the morning and it is a truly harrowing and shocking documentary. It explores not just grief, a judiciary gone astray but the ability of the public to act as like a mob with pitchfork in in one hand and burning torch in another. A study of humanity I suppose.

Somewhere around okay

[morrislindholm · 7/10 · 18 March 2020]

For me it's obvious that the ginger girl knows it all.

Pushes the envelope as far as crime docuseries are concerned

[peterkowalski · 10/10 · 21 November 2019]

Netflix has become known for its fair share of real crime docuseries, and while some of them were less successful than others, the new documentary based on the famous "l'affair Gregory" pushes the boundaries of how well the genre can be executed, joining Making the Murderer and The Keepers in the fall of fame.

The original crime - the kidnapping and killing a 4-year-old in the small French village quickly becomes virtually nothing but a beginning of the now-35-years-and-counting saga of lies, power abuse, violence and despair, with twist and turns on every corner. That alone guarantees a good watch, but the makers were able to somehow push the envelope further; the story telling is powerful here, production is solid and the final result is the most fully realized, self-confident piece of document making I have seen in a long time. One has to constantly remind oneself it is a death of a child we are getting further and further away from - and from finding the person(s) responsible for it.

It may not be 100% perfect, but I had to give it a ten - if for not the brilliant job done, then for allowing the memory of little Gregory to live on a bit longer. And without finding the person culpable for the crime, that might just have to do.

Disgusted with the policeman who judged the mother based on appearance.

[evebandler · 7/10 · 20 June 2022]

As a mother who lost a child, and knows of many others like myself, his comments were offensive, even worse. There is NO way for anyone to know what's in the heart of a grief-stricken mother. Every grieving mother I know mourned differently, especially in public. Sometimes donning a nice outfit, applying make-up, doing one's hair, is the only thing you can do to keep yourself from drowning. 'Fake it til you make it.'

The fact that he even commented on her 'prettiness'. Oh my.

A Farse of an investigation but a good documentary

[CroMarduk · 9/10 · 25 November 2019]

Watching episode five and you still can't understand why was the mother accused? Police is completely incompetent, and that judge-absolute joke. It's like a bunch of idiots discussing their ludicrous theories. No one asks what motive would a mother have. And up to episode five it's like everyone forgot that there was a lunatic who called the whole familyforyears threatening them. It is just horrific case of incompetence and moronism. Poor child.

Just ok.

[spongedanis · 6/10 · 25 November 2019]

It would have been fine with 3 episodes only. Five was just too much. Not that it was bad,but it just got repetitive by the third episode. Watch it if you are bored and enjoy documentaries.

More proof the media are horrible people

[hcurrie77 · 10/10 · 24 November 2019]

Here is proof the media need to be stopped. This family was persecuted for lies the media made up. Throw in a corrupt judge and he took the only course that would bring justice to his son.

Tragic....

[jacplaydon · 7/10 · 20 November 2019]

Completely messed up by a bunch of bungling police, journalists and so called witnesses. It's not at all surprising that the murder of this poor little boy has never been solved. The judge was an attention seeking little man...more concerned with his public image than solving this case.

Well Done, But What Was The Point?

[melanierose927 · 5/10 · 11 December 2019]

Five hour-long episodes for there to be no more information now than there was in 1984? So what was the point of making this? I kept hoping that Gregory would have been exhumed, or that The Raven would have been identified - something! But no. They didn't know who killed him back then, and they've found out nothing since then. How boring... don't waste your time.

What A Circus

[Mehki_Girl · 10/10 · 3 November 2020]

Mysterious relatives, years of phone calls and letters threatening the family. Why wasn't this taken seriously by the family? Why wasn't the child not kept of anyone's eyesight? Why weren't the cops called?

I think the niece's claims were credible, that she was in the car with her uncle (interestingly she described a house they drove to, but no mention whether the house was located).

I believe her original story was true. She told that story to the cops before any pressure was applied to her and schoolmates did say she wasn't on the school bus (something else comes to mind. The uncle is having sex with her.) Of course the family pressured her to change the story.

Anyway, what happened to the handwriting samples? Has anyone reexamined the evidence forensically? Has a profiler be brought in to read the keys and listen to the phone calls? Have they determined if it's a male or female voice? The family would recognize the voice of a family member, right?

Brilliant, surprising and colorful

[don_nazarino · 10/10 · 8 January 2020]

A brilliant and breathtaking reconstitution of a multifaceted investigation, an allegorical epic on media and justice, secrets and lies, ambitions and misfortunes, community and individualism, violence and envy. All through highly fanciful, quixotic and controversial real-life characters. This documentary series is one of the best Netflix has ever produced.

A documentary not about crime, but about media

[shanayneigh · 6/10 · 21 January 2020]

This series fails as a true crime documentary, it is far too messy and poorly structured. But it triumphs as a scathing indictment of sensationalist media and fame seeking. These blood sucking vultures are a cancer on our society, hiding behind the freedom of the press in their quest for a quick buck and exploitation of civilians. The prime example in this documentary is Jean Ker, a laughable excuse for a "journalist", deserving nothing but scorn and directly responsible for someone getting killed. The one moment which made me feel warm inside was in the penultimate episode where a photographer got his a** kicked.

Insanity of human emotions

[sangavia · 10/10 · 18 March 2021]

Seeing the media creating a murderer while destroying families is the most questionable insanity of human.. And the information filling the air with destructive motive Is horrifying truth.

Episode 1&2 where great

[saigan-82599 · 6/10 · 24 November 2019]

The first two episodes where really great they kept the suspense and mystery but after that the show became really slow and had no more context to add to the suspense. Just a bunch of he said she said afair. Also the amount of names you had to memorize was getting really confusing.

Five hours to cover a very complex story

[gerryprimate · 8/10 · 19 February 2020]

I listen to French news radio and heard a lot of coverage of this decades-old crime when the case was reopened a couple of years ago. But I couldn't make heads or tails of it. The names and relationships and who did what to whom were so confusing. Reading current French news articles did not clear up the confusion. Neither did English-language coverage. It wasn't until I got through all five episodes of this documentary that I was finally able to comprehend the story and why it has captivated the French for so long.

If you opt to watch in French, be advised that the subtitles move along at a rapid clip.

Good overview, clouded by opinions

[Calicodreamin · 6/10 · 9 December 2019]

I felt this documentary gave a good overview of the case, major milestones, heaps of controversies, and timeline. However I felt like the choice to mainly showcase interviews from the journalists and advocates made the focus on people's opinions not the facts. This case is crazy and really does read as a soap opera plot, the doc does a good job of not getting lost in the details. It's sad that meddling from the press and judge incompetency led to Gregorys murder going unsolved.

Likely what any true crime documentary should strive for

[Michael Fargo · 10/10 · 2 August 2021]

First, there is he declaration that no one has ever been convicted of the crime of killing a four-year-old child. That is repeated at the beginning and of each episode. Then follows 13 years (plus) of archival news footage and interviews laying out a more complicated than usual conflict within clans of a small French village. We're left feeling all avenues have been explored and due to the length of time that has passed, the consequences of various players in the drama (and it's quite a drama), we accept that the likelihood of ever knowing who, what and where the crime occurred seems oddly justified. In short it's a huge mess. The filmmaker's frequently return to a portrait of the victim to keep bringing us back to the innocent victim, who often gets lost in the drama that unfolds.

It's rare that so much news footage exists around a crime of ordinary--even banal--people. But the circumstances and the pathos created by the victim(s) electrified not just a nation but also the tabloid press which pushed the narrative in (often) the wrong direction. And the byzantine legal system in France would have to back-track, and any particular iron that was hot had cooled, and new targets of the public and the investigation would be concocted.

This is a sad, haunting series with very vivid players both in the courts, the tabloid press, and the family...which likely hides the perpetrator(s). And the motive (envy or jealousy or retaliation) hints at a desperately troubled--and petty--mind.

If there's any fault it's the number of leads and interviewers. But that is the heart of this particular case: too many cooks stirring and sensationalizing a heartbreaking situation, and we would have felt betrayed by the filmmakers for withholding any of it.

True crime aspect once again neglected...

[cakyolcu · 6/10 · 10 January 2021]

Once again Netflix promised a true crime story and ended up showing us mostly the memories of a particular french reporter on the case and the miserable approach of the media in 1980ies. So many questions left unanswered. No focus on the details of the murder and its investigation at all. 6 points only because of the craziness of the story itself and definetly not because of the way how Netflix failed to cover it.

Most rediculous case.

[leger-63603 · 1/10 · 19 May 2021]

I couldn't believe the clowns running around not really doing anything. My cat would have been better organized.....the Mother went to the mailbox...so they say, and that makes her guilty.

Anybody can change handwriting. The journalist friend should have reported the intended shooting by the father,,,there is so much more to add...just a big circus show. People snickering, smiling, laughing...while they just pulled an innocent small child, feet and hands bound and dead!!! Out of a river???!! Weird people.. And the most disgusting and shameful of all was that small judge running around with a smile on his face looking for notoriety...who cares about the death of a small child...as long as he was on TV and his smug face in the papers. Sure glad I dont live there. They had no clue what they were doing.

In the 80s you could pull off anything...

[gfunkbsafe · 9/10 · 21 August 2020]

This docu-series had the potential to get 10/10 had it been 3 episodes in total. The crime itself and the mystery surrounding it are enough to fascinate the viewer, and the first couple episodes are really powerful.

It presents the immense media sensationalism of the time, the lack of means for detective work needed to be done by the police, the incompetence of the judge, the emotional pain of the family. If only they had DNA testing back and/or cameras back then... Haunting and disturbing stuff.

Sadly, they shot themselves in the foot by dragging this to a total of 5 episodes, making the film boring and repetitive at some points, especially in episode 4.

Still, a very well made documentary about the horrible murder of a child and the turmoil it caused throughout the country of France.

The perfect docu series

[guy-366 · 10/10 · 28 November 2019]

This is it. The alleged killer is dead. But what a great war between the gendarmes, the police and a young narcissist idiot who is the DA. We'll never know the truth... or do we?