All the facts are laid out chronologically. This documentary draws you in. I watched all four episodes in one sitting. More than once I felt goosebumps at the depravity of a man who seemed so normal, yet was downright evil. I have seen many Netflix docs. This one is well worth a watch.
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twright-5140224 January 2019
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aeternusmalum-8066318 February 2019Watching this docu-series, I hadn't done any research on Ted Bundy at all. So I essentially went in blind. I watched all 4 episodes back to back in one sitting because I couldn't believe what I was watching. For only happening a few decades ago, it blows my mind how far we have come in the way we detain and process criminals for trial. This man, was disgusting and psychotic, but also very strategic and smart. Knowing some human beings are capable of things like this, gives me nightmares. After finishing the show, I turned on Resident Evil 2 and STILL went to bed more scared knowing Ted Bundy was an ACTUAL, REAL person.
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monsmer27 January 2019This was a pretty solid documentary. Nice and stylized production. I think it's very noteworthy that they were able to get the investigators, detectives, attorneys, agents, etc. that they did for the documentary. It's also cool how they put together all the press from across the states and counties about Bundy. On this note it was quite thorough. However, the documentary never hits got into the details of Bundy's murders; it felt like there was some sort of lack of depth in that aspect. It's not that I wanted to relish in the details of the ways he carried what he did and on his life. But for all the times it was repeated what a downright monster he was, the documentary didn't really give the true reasons why. (Perhaps our of respect for the victims? I don't know). Heck, even the Wikipedia page has an immense amount of detail on his life.
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shannonkrystalgoss26 January 2019First of all, you can totally watch this alone, but...prewarning...you won't be able to stop. It's 3 AM, and I was not going to sleep until I had finished it. I honestly never really knew much about Ted Bundy. I just knew of him and that he was an infamous serial killer. I had no idea how extensive his killings were, and I'm honestly dumbfounded. I don't know how he got away with it for as long as he did. It makes me wonder how long he would have made it today. He is...by far...the worst, but it makes me wonder how many people out there are just like him. This documentary was one of the best I've seen. I would definitely put it up there with Making a Murderer. I'm really going to need Netflix to make this a series and add some more seasons on the rest of these guys, i.e. Manson and Dahmer. Please and Thank You!
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I first learned of Ted Bundy when I was studying criminal psychology and taking abnormal psychology classes in college. I've read numerous books and have seen just about every documentary about Ted Bundy, but this one really takes the cake. Of all the serial killers I studied in school Ted Bundy was the one I spent the most time researching because of how heinous his crimes were and the fact that he managed to postpone his execution for nearly 10 years by proclaiming his innocence and turning his trial into a media frenzy.
Initially I wasn't expecting much because I had just about seen everything and knew everything there was to know about the man, but I was shocked to find out there was a lot of unseen footage and tape recordings I had never encountered before during my research. This is by far the most informative and descriptive documentary about Ted Bundy. It will give you chills and an insight into the mind of one of the most evil murderers to ever walk this Earth. -
Slick production value. I learned some things I didn't know, but I would have liked more actual audio of the interviews. He had 100 hours of tape but you hear only the tiniest fraction of it in the documentary.
Also, if you watch on Neflix, there's a podcast available of an interview with the author where the interviewer goes off the deep end with some new-age-"woke"-social-justice nonsensical buzzwords. Yes, Ted Bundy benefited by being white, but that's only the beginning. He was white AND clean-cut, intelligent, college educated, careful about how he came across, etc. If Bundy was some grungy long-haired tatooed guy, white or not, he would not have evaded punishment for so long. But if you like hearing words like "identity" , "intersectional", and "whiteness" bandied about as though they have any practical application to the real world, by all means give it a listen. -
kofila24 January 2019The Bundy tapes are very well put together series with everything you need to know about the era, the crimes and the guy himself in it. No need to cram yourself with the facts beforehand. Nice dense vibe, good craftmanship, all in all very well done.
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grad12427 January 2019A Ted Bundu Wikipedia search will give you ten times the information and insight in a fraction of the time. This isn't a bad docuseries, it just doesn't hold a lot of entertainment value and it downplayed his crimes massively. This wasn't a show about his confessions, it was a show about him
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Med-Jasta18 May 2020Sometimes these documentaries can have too much style and over edit. But this did not. Everything that was done did not distraction from the story or test your patience.
I am fairly knowledgeable about Bundy already. I read "The Only Living Witness," years and years ago. In addition to being interested in this kinda stuff anyway, I even live in Tacoma and went to the same high school as Bundy. Of course there are many rumors about where his locker was, haha. I've seen his childhood home, my dad went to school with him and my mom worked with his Mom at UPS.
Seeing the actual people that were integral in the Bundy investigation was nice. Up until this point I had only read things, so seeing footage of Bundy and names that I've only read was nice. And seeing not only old footage of America but Seattle and Tacoma was nice. I even got to see my childhood home in Ruston and the smoke stack.
There are a few gruesome pictures but nothing really bad. A face down bloody body and some sessional skeletal remains.
Really the most fascinating part is that you can see how people believed Bundy. He doesn't come across as fake or smarmy. Before it was over, since Bundy maintained his Innocents for so long I even wondered if there was a possibility that he was innocent. Of course this is just like wondering if you're in the matrix and you realize how stupid you sound after 15 seconds.
I think the most important thing to learn from Bundy is that crazy people don't look or act crazy. And that your childhood doesn't make you a killer. There's just something wrong in their brain. -
Bertaut17 July 2019In many ways, Ted Bundy is the archetypal serial killer, embodying many of the characteristics we today associate with such criminals. Most significantly, perhaps, is that he was the first celebrity serial killer, and remains the best-known example (Charles Manson doesn't count; he wasn't a serial killer). Bundy was a man whom the media fell all over itself to profile, fascinated with his charm, humour, and intelligence. Most importantly, he embodies something we take as given today - media and cultural fixation with killers, almost always at the expense of their victims. And although Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes certainly has merit, and is extremely well-made, it's also somewhat guilty of the same thing - focusing on the killer whilst giving little time over to the victims. Written and directed by Joe Berlinger, one gets the distinct impression that Bundy himself, with all his narcissism, sense of the dramatic, and delusions of grandeur, would have been immensely happy with it. And that's not really a good thing.
Conversations is derived from over 100 hours of audio recordings of Bundy, the transcripts of which have been available online for many years, but which have never actually been heard before. In early 1980, sitting on death row and vehemently maintaining his innocence, Bundy began to seek someone to write a biography that he hoped would disprove his guilt. Enter Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth; whilst Aynesworth set about re-examining the evidence, Michaud began interviewing Bundy. Neither had any doubts as to Bundy's guilt, but they recognised how good a story it was.
One of the most important aspects of the series, is that Bundy would not discuss the murders, and so, to trick him into talking about them, Michaud asked him to act as a kind of consultant and to speculate as to the killer's motives and sociopathy. Not recognising that Michaud was exploiting his narcissism, Bundy immediately began to talk about the murderer in the third person.
And to say that some of his statements are fascinating is a major understatement. For example, conjecturing as to the origins of the murderer's psychopathy, he states, "perhaps this person hoped that through violence, through this violent series of acts, with every murder leaving a person of this type hungry. Unfulfilled. But also leave him with the obviously irrational belief that the next time he did it he would be fulfilled." Speaking of the killer's attitude to women, he states, "women are merchandise. From the pornographic to Playboy right on up to the evening news. So there is no denying the sexual component. However, sex has significance only in the context of a much broader scheme of things. That is, possession, control, violence." Concerning the killer's sexual urges, he states, "the early manifestations of this condition, which is an interest concerning sexual images, your standard fare that you'd see in the movie house or in Playboy magazine. The interest becomes skewed toward a more specialised literature, some of it pretty grotesque, which would preoccupy him more and more. It would reach a point where the anger, the frustration, the anxiety, the poor self-image, feeling cheated, wronged, insecure, he decides upon young attractive women being his victims."
However, despite quotes such as this, the promise of an unprecedented deep dive into Bundy's psyche is never really followed through, with Conversations more of a conventional documentary than you might expect. This is not necessarily a criticism, as the chosen biographical material, whilst never earth-shatteringly original, is interesting and extremely well put together; his involvement with the Vietnam Anti-war Movement, his work on Daniel J. Evans's 1972 re-election campaign for Governor of Washington, his volunteering for a Suicide Hotline, his work as Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission (where he wrote a well-received pamphlet for women on, of all things, rape prevention),
A very interesting moment is that during his 1979 trial, where he acted as his own co-council, Bundy repeatedly made Officer Ray Crew go into minute detail about the murder scene at the Chi Omega sorority house. It's a fascinatingly disturbing scene, with Bundy not just relishing his power, but vicariously reliving the night of perhaps his most savage murders. Also interesting is that as he sat on death row, Dorothy Otnow Lewis, Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, examined him and diagnosed bipolar disorder and possible multiple personality disorder, arguing there was something unique about his brain which made him literally incapable of empathy.
An equally fascinating aspect of the series, but one which is under-explored, is how Bundy's white privilege factored into his murders. As a well-educated, well-dressed, humorous, respectable middle-class white man, obviously intelligent, and seemingly charming, he was able to hide in plain sight, because no one could conceive of a man like him being a sadistic murderer. Even after his initial conviction and double death sentence, Judge Edward Cowart told him, "you'd have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. I don't feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Take care of yourself." In this sense, Bundy's reign of terror is, in effect, an indictment of American society and the importance of inherited privilege, as he set about charming all with whom he came into contact.
The problem with the series, however, is that it falls into the same trap; Bundy's wit and charm appears to win Berlinger over. The last episode, "Burn Bundy Burn (2019)", in particular, is guilty of giving him the ball and letting him run with it, especially in the extensive use of court footage, with Bundy turning the trial into his own personal variety show. Any hint of getting under his skin completely fades away at this point, as Berlinger seems to be just as fascinated with Bundy's antics as the media and public were at the time. To be fair, the show doesn't glorify him; Berlinger ensures the audience knows he was a monster. However, he is clearly enamoured, raising the question of when does documenting a violent narcissist transition into giving them a platform?
With this in mind, unfortunately (but predictably), the victims receive relatively little attention. All of his 26 known victims are mentioned by name at least once and at least one photo of each is shown, but many are never mentioned beyond this. Some, like his youngest victim, 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, receive a fair bit of attention, but others are lumped together. Berlinger makes no real effort to characterise them. Instead of giving us a vivid illustration of who they were by interviewing family and friends, Berlinger gives us a rough pencil sketch made up of contemporary news reports.
Aside from the side-lining of victims, the most obvious issue with Conversations is that it's a far more conventional piece than a deep dive into previously untapped reservoirs of Bundy's psyche. Part of the reason for this is the dearth of actual audio material, as from the 100 hours available, Berlinger uses about 20 minutes all told. Pretty much everything else is standard bio material, nothing that anyone familiar with the case won't already know.
There are also some very strange aesthetic choices. For example, as Bundy discusses his relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer, a montage of contemporaneous footage depicts exactly what he's talking about (so, for example, when me mentions eating dinner, there's a shot of a family sitting around the dinner table and a close up of a can of soup being opened; when he mentions being nervous, we see someone biting their nails). It's a spectacularly on-the-nose montage that accomplishes nothing other than drawing attention to itself. A similar moment sees Bundy discussing sexuality, and Berlinger shows us a rapid montage of hardcore S&M porn, which is not only distasteful, it's ideologically reductionist. The worst example is when Carol DaRonch, one of five victims to survive Bundy, mentions that when he tried to handcuff her, her life flashed before her, and Berlinger literally inserts a montage of quaint home movie footage.
If all that sounds very negative, however, let me be clear, I did enjoy Conversations, I was just a little disappointed in it. People already familiar with the case won't learn anything new, and those looking for a unique entry-point into the mind of a killer will be left wanting. Nevertheless, this is the story of a sociopathic narcissist that comments not just on societal privilege, but which also interrogates our own ghoulish fascination with such monsters. And yes, Berlinger seems unaware of the glaring irony here, but that doesn't change the fact that he has fashioned the ramblings of a mad man into a fascinating piece of work. -
raudafitriani17 February 2019I can't believe I've just watched all the episodes in one day - it's already 4AM. Horrifying, fascinating, and absolute dark. You won't able to stop watching it. I've read a bunch of an article about him a years ago before I've watched this documentary. What he did was horrifying, and the worst - I did read other serial killers but for me he is the worst of the worst. We, as an audience can understand about the horror of him, the other side of him, how dark the time when it happened - and this guy don't deserve any credit at all. I felt goosebumps just saw him smile. Very well put, and descriptive. But between this documentary and wikipedia - the wikipedia describes more about how he did all the horrifying things than the documentary. People may find this documentary boring because Ted won't tell his secret at all in his tapes - he was very careful. This documentary can't tell how scary this man was but if we're going deeply into that - I think I only can watch one eps. Recommended.
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sasho_mladenovic21 March 2019Although I found this informative and entertaining, I couldnt help wonder why we as a society are glorifying this psychopath, who so clearly loved the attention and spotlight. May he burn in hell with all the others like him.
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frenkrp6 February 2021This documentary promises a 'view inside the mind of serial killer Bundy' by releasing tapes of conversations with him on death row. The 2 journalists involved claim to have 'roughly 100 hours of tape'. However, I estimate that about 10 to 15 minutes of these tapes are actually being included in this series, which has a length of about 4 (!) hours total. That horribly falls short of the premise. Above that, the parts of the tapes included are merely factual remarks by Bundy telling us that he went into court, that he escaped court, that he drove a car, even several weather remarks! Utterly uninteresting. Nothing new here, just facts being summed. Also, some of the recordings included in this series to me were oddly questionable. For instance there was a segment when Bundy says how he feels tired about what happened to him "this afternoon". That was the day he was sentenced to death in the first trail. However, the tapes referred to in the title were not recorded until 1980, when Bundy was already on death row after his second trial! So, how could that segment be part of the tapes the 2 journalists made? Very strange and dubious. I guess, if you're not all to familiar with the case of Bundy, like I was myself, these 4 hours are a decent summing up of events that happenened. But that's it, you get nothing more. Almost no information about the victims (which to me was frustratingly disrespectful) and a somewhat half-baked recount of the investigation that included interviews with some really self-involved people that were in some way connected to it, which had me sometimes wondering if Bundy was the only narcissist portrayed. Then, you finally arrive at the endgame of it all, the day of the execution, where you see everything wrong in American society: a serial killer is being executed, people are grieving their lost ones, and outside the prison drunken students are partying and people are selling and buying 'deathchair'-pins and Bundy T-shirts. As if it was some kind of streetfair!? There was absolutely nothing to party about. Dozens of people died. Even more people's lifes were destroyed! Disgusting. To me it felt that not only Bundy's crimes were vile and sickening ... (Although I can't blame the documentarymakers for this last bit, it was just how it went down that day, but still, the documentary and the people portrayed did not seem to have any unease with it either) To conclude: if you are familiar with the case of Bundy and are looking for new insights, forget this misleading series. It's not worth your time.
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farwa-5637429 January 2019There are so many myths surrounding Ted Bundy, but this documentary stuck to the facts and made a compelling case. I'm embarressed to admit I even found Ted charming but he is sick, twisted, and dark; a real life Lucifer. What a metaphor for pure evil in the appearance of charm, even handsomeness. VERY interesting watch.
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danielmanson25 January 2019Chances are, just like me, you are watching this because you love crime docs and somewhat interested in serial killers. This is by far one of the best documentaries out there based on this topic.
It's all in chronological order, it has so many various tape recordings and film footage of Ted himself, it interviews so many different people associated with him. It just overall covers absolutely all basis you would want.
Obviously being interested in serial killers I knew a little on Ted Bundy, but this 4 part documentary added so much more information and went into real depth into the parts that I did know about him. If you are into this kind of thing, just like me, or you want a new documentary or Netflix series to watch I highly recommend this. 4 episodes as well so isn't overly dragged out like a lot of recent crime series have been.
Must watch and highly recommend. -
stardust_particles26 January 2019No details on the crimes, no details on his deviant activities before he started murdering (he was a peeping tom, an alcoholic, a stalker..).
This series doesn't truly show how deeply disturbed and scary this man was.. Yes, he had an above average IQ and neat appearance but he wasn't a genius and he was clearly delusional and psychopathic..
There are far better documentaries on YouTube that portray Bundy much more intimate..
p.s. Netflix docs and movies are so disappointing, lacking any depth and originality.. they all feel so industrial, so superficial, so meh.. -
clintstevens27 January 2019If ever there was a reason to keep the death penalty, Ted Bundy is it.
Whatever possesses women to become killer groupies like the woman that 'marries' Bundy and has his child is anyone's guess.
Is it any wonder defense attorneys are despised when they argue the innocence of someone as despicable and guilty as Ted Bundy?
All in all, an informative docuseries that shows what a despicable human being Ted Bundy was. -
After 4 hours of seeing and listening to this man, you have the chance to get inside his mind and it is really not pleasing. Not that he gets into too much details about the things he's done or anything, but still you get to know him a little bit, taking the concept of human evil to a whole new level.
I have to admit sometimes I am somewhat curious about serial killers, which is what made me want to see this in the first place, but I really regret I did... I see no artistic or informational purpose for doing this , it just makes you feel sick.
The documentary is very well-edited, in a very addictive style that makes you keep watching. You can tell immediately that this horrific man would be extremely happy to see this well-marketed big shot documentary about his life.
After watching the whole thing, you still don't really know specifically what was wrong inside his head... you can feel it a little bit, but not really know it. I don't want to know anyway, there's no need. I wouldn't recommend watching this to anyone I know. -
brynsyfi24 January 2019Another great crime series by Netflix. Well made. Super interesting.
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Loma7225 January 2019Slow start but as it unfolds the tension grows along with the interest towards the image and the persona Ted manages to create, and speaking as someone who knew him only by name, this docu-series deliver in its attempt to let you know him and his story better. The best part of it all is how short & easy of a watch it is to sit through, with episodes ranging from 50 to 75 minutes for the big finale, that underdelivers with a Climax not fitting of the whole set up spanned in the 4 episodes. The effects (both visual & acoustic) are good but do not peak that often, as you would expect from a high level production coming from Netflix. All in all a good installment and another feather to the cap of good Netflix productions.
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hellebenzon-2636728 January 2019It's an okay documentary, but in no way more informative, than what else is out there. Maybe better compiled. We do hear a Ted Bundy voice-over from time to time - but mostly recorded in the time he still denied all the crimes. It seems a weird choice, but must have been the only material, they had to use. Since he confessed in great details post-conviction, in my opinion it was unwise not to include more of this material. It feels like most of the docu is made right after the trails, but before the confession, and therefore sheds no light on motive and/or the actual modus operandi (i.e staying with several dead victims all night cuddling, coming back and repeatedly washing their hair or applying make-up, the five heads he keept in his apartment for a period of time ect.). We hear Bundy speak about the motive in the 3rd person for maybe 5 minutes altogether. Not what I had expected, since they stated in the first episode, they have 80-100 hours of interview. I've seen a lot of documentaries about Bundy, where we followed the investigation, and about 90% of this docu is about and/or the same as this - recaps of the crimes and interviews with lawyers, police and press. So not that much "interview with a killer". The most interesting is the last episode, where we see a lot of raw material from the trial, that I hadn't seen before. It didn't really offer something new, but it was somewhat interesting to watch - maybe because I favore courtroom-drama. All in all, I got absolutely no new information, and I would actually say, you would learn more reading the wikipedia page :-/ But if you know nothing or very little about Ted Bundy, are interested in serial killers and have lived under a rock (or is very young), this could probably be very interesting to you.
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zack_gideon25 January 2019This was a well constructed, highly disturbing recount of one of the sickest sociopaths in modern history. The fact that he was able to murder 30+ young women and not be caught is astounding. I have a headache after watching this because of the thought of those poor women and what horrors they had to go thru.
It's hard to watch but hopefully his psychopathic sickness will help the law find these sick people before they can do so much harm. In this case they failed miserably and many young souls were taken because of it. God bless all the women who were murdered by this coward and I hope they're at peace. -
evilista-8210924 March 2019It was a Long nice journey, it gets boring from time to time, but Ted was in fact one Charming Guy - he got Charisma that drowns you in. He can Manipulate you easily- but his Ego got the best of him, he definitely got God Complex.
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JasonXIX1 February 2019Tacky 'documentary', that is looking to entertain first, and inform second. Basically every talking head that is interviewed repeatedly tells the audience how handsome and charismatic Bundy was. Thanks, we get it. Ultimately, listening to Bundy on these tapes is a waste of time because he was nothing more than a lying sociopath, and these tapes are just another chance for him to try and manipulate naive people, in this case, the audience.
The rest of the story is handled like a bad courtroom drama on cable TV. The inappropriate use of overdramatic music, combined with quick cut editing, takes away from the reality of the case, and instead sensationalizes these horrible murders.
I feel bad for the victims and their families as Bundy gets more unwarranted attention and the murders are basically exploited for entertainment purposes. If you have any sense of empathy for the victims, you will not enjoy this series. -
I thought it was a great summary of the case and had an efficient corporation of both news reports and the jailhouse interviews. Most of the negative reviews mention a lack of information given the large scope of the case... but the whole series is only 4 episodes. Regarding the case, it's interesting that the first conviction was reached primarily on bite mark science, which could almost never be used as a major piece of evidence in today's time due to its extreme objectivity.