The documentary series is watchable and interesting on multiple levels. On the surface, the mystery behind the death of Casolaro, an investigative journalist who dies while in pursuit of his journalistic White Whale. Did he take his own life? Or was he murdered?
The second layer, not obvious at first, is the perilous prospect of diving head first into a rabbit hole, and the affect on a person's sanity and grip on reality, when one rabbit hole inevitably leads to more.
The third tragic layer is the damage you can feel from all the peripheral players. Family and friends of Casolaro's as well as the investigators involved (including the documentarians) are haunted by his death, and the labyrinthian tentacles of a corrupt network too big to solve.
The unreliable narratives, shady interviewees and second hand (sometimes third or fourth) information spin wheels that often go nowhere. We even get a bizarre claim about the veracity of the Zapruder film that will cause thousands of internet searches.
What can't be argued are the disturbing patterns of convenient missing data, witnesses and disinterested authorities. In the last episode, the file on Casolaro's death is opened, revealing a key piece of information that was hidden/ignored/forgotten that would have changed the entire course of his murder investigation.
The internecine threads of government corruption, illegal and immoral surveillance are, by turns, shocking but unsurprising.
Ultimately, as a documentary there are quality issues that can't be ignored, and more than a few confusing photo montages that don't shed any light...on anything.
But, in the end, tantalized by another random phone call, our investigator, who has seemed to break away from the demented allure of mass conspiracy, allows himself to be drawn in once again.
A cautionary tale to be sure.
