Interesting story. Glad to become more familiar with the history. Certainly no need to drag it over 8 episodes. Very slow and repetitive at times.
Add a Review
-
philipryburn26 March 2019
-
zecaf-9172718 March 2019Mixed feelings about this. A lot of repetition but the way the scenes were recreate gave me goosebumps. It clarified a lot of a my previous and naive thoughts about the case and it's up to each one of us believing in one of the versions !!
-
lawnmorgan17 March 2019Overall it was very thorough and well assembled. I do believe the story could have been told in 4-6 episodes, instead of 8. It is hard to imagine the horror that this set of parents, their family and friends have experienced. We can pray for their well-being, but more importantly we should pray for Madeleine's safe return.
-
minnickmatt21 March 2019It's intriguing at first but it just drags on through every episode. Could've been maybe two or three and it would've been fine
-
helenahandbasket-937341 July 20201. UK media are hacktivitsts masquerading as journalists.
They're so easily whipped into a frenzy by the slightest (unsubstantiated, I might add) shift in the wind, and will run wildly with accusations and innuendo without so much as an ounce of research.
It's no wonder the US media has become such a spectacle after seeing so much of this nonsense for so long.
The moronic female media member talking about how even SHE would know to secure the scene as a crime scene immediately just proves how out of their depth these supposed professionals are; how could you possibly know it's a crime scene when the little girl could have just wandered into the resort on her own? They searched the villa first, which is what I'd expect a family to do, with all hands on deck.
2. Portuguese authorities are every bit as inept as the media they used for their own benefit. These complete morons have zero idea how to conduct a proper/thorough investigation, much less work with media as a tool.
The moment the idiot compares himself to the FBI, I knew how completely incapable they were to solve this case, much less stating that releasing the stripe in Madeleine's eye would put her in danger? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
They arrived far too late, bungled the investigation as much as possible, and when they knew how utterly out of their depth they were, refused to get out of their own way and ask for help from far superior agencies.
3. Dogs as investigators is PROVEN junk science- much like handwriting analysis, analyzing reactions as proving guilt/innocence, etc.
Far too many people have been tossed in the trash heap based on these and other methods and later proven innocent to ever take this supposed evidence as anything but junk ever again.
Dogs simply want to please their trainers/owners and will react whichever way they feel will get them the best results. Without PROPER certification on the actual abilities of a dog/animal, there should never be another animal allowed to investigate a crime. You might as well be using a psychic.
This doc series does a solid job of exploiting all of these aspects, and shining a light on the ineptitude of all involved here.
I understand the McCanns simply wanted their daughter found, but letting Gerry speak at all was a mistake of immeasurable proportions, much less going to dinner while allowing your unsupervised children to sleep in another area of an unfamiliar resort.
I keep going back to this last bit- how do you avoid a tragedy? In most cases, common sense.
No, you absolutely cannot stop someone hell bent on making you a victim 24/7, but, as my mother always said "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The sheer fact that these seemingly intelligent people (most of their group were doctors) felt perfectly justified in leaving eight sleeping toddlers/small children asleep outside of the watchful eye of at least one capable adult still boggles the mind.
In what world does this seem remotely rational? If you can't get to your child within 1 minute of a cry/scream/waking/etc., you're too far. Coupled with being in a country they're unfamiliar with, at a resort you have zero clue of the intentions of all employees, in the dark, at a place that OFFERED childcare services, just so you could have a meal and drink yourself silly with your doctor buddies?
For sobbing out loud, they had a GRANDMOTHER along, why wasn't she supervising the children in a single room? I don't care how 'tired/exhausted' the kids were, or how much of an inconvenience it would have been to have to be bothered with picking up your child(ren) and carry then back to your room- as a parent, your first responsibility ALWAYS lies with your child. Period.
This absolute dumpster fire was completely avoidable, and I'm very sorry they're still awaiting the return of their daughter. If nothing else ever comes of this tragedy, I sincerely hope it is a cautionary tale of how not to behave on vacation. -
SpacemanBob20 March 2019I was very interested through the first couple of episodes, I knew of this case but had forgotten many details. After the basics are established there's a mountain of speculation, which is often repeated in multiples, and comes from the press, the police, and any number of interviewees with an opinion.
They use a lot of clips from old news and talk show broadcasts from early on in the case, which didn't offer much then and still don't. The press, and interviews with members of it, are heavily featured while also clearly showing how awful they behaved. It spends far too much time on the Portuguese police. They lost any credibility on day one and that keeps getting massively worse thereafter.. The police investigation was laughable, but that doesn't stop the audience from hearing from them. All of this repetition eventually starts feeling like filler and the film unnecessarily long .
The series wraps up mostly focusing on the hired investigators which to me at least was the most interesting part of the film although not offering much of anything in terms of new leads, suspects, or even a direction to follow from here. -
kjkaur22 March 2019I got my closure watching just first 30 minutes of the show. When you are putting your 3 yr old kids to sleep in separate building alone without any sitter and dine out with friends in a foreign city what do you expect. Predators are lurking everywhere in the world and have very keen eyes. They can snatch your kid in an instant if you are not with them.I put all blame on the parents to put a toddler to sleep alone in an unlocked apartment and doing long dinner so far away. It's like an open invitation to strangers to come take their kids. This is beyond my understanding. My heart cries for beautiful child Madeleine.
-
stevelomas-6940123 March 2019Stuffed full of padding from grandstanding 'almost involveds' this could've been done in less episodes. I wouldn't say it's biased more that it's sitting on a fence built out of shaky evidence either way. Still a tragedy though.
-
rebeccau-7683224 March 2019I was a hard core staunch believer that the McCanns had accidentally killed their daughter and covered it up. I had read the book, The Truth of the Lie, and I read case files found on the internet. I also watched lots of YouTube documentaries on how to tell when people are lying and how Gerry McCann was a great example of a liar, which compounded my opinion. I was convinced. They did it!
However now, after watching this Netflix documentary I'm not so sure. Other reviews are critizing this saying there's nothing new being said but that's simply not true. There are episodes that go into what the private dectectives found and uncovered that I would suspect most people didn't know about, etc.
So yes there will be new information you'll learn. Will it be a lot? Probably doubtful as it's been such a high profile case for over a decade, however the information I found interesting was enough to make me question my personal opinions.
Is there a conclusion? Of course not. We all know that. So people complaining about that aspect need to get real!
I do agree however that this could have been a much shorter documentary. They definitely dragged it out way too long. But if you're interested in the case then you'll watch it. -
lukemaliknara1 September 2019Lots of reviewers hate this because it's just a retelling of stuff everyone already knows. But actually I didn't know much about the story (being in Japan for the last 20 years or so), so it was very enlightening for me.
-
clintstevens21 March 2019I will state right upfront there isn't a reason to watch this documentary miniseries. Madeleine is never found, the culprit (or culprits) are never arrested. The series is repetitive, boring and you will go away not knowing any more than when you started watching.
The biggest question is why these parents leave toddlers alone at night while they drink and dine. It isn't because they couldn't afford a babysitter. To me, that is the biggest mystery of all. Although it is a terrible tragedy, what happened here is not surprising in the least.
Bottom line, search online for this subject and read a few news accounts. You'll end up with just as much knowledge as you would watching this, while saving yourself 8 hours of your life. -
freejoyhart18 March 2019Some people feel this series was too long and could have been told in fewer episodes. But I found the delivery of the story extremely thorough! It felt like I was along for the ride of the investigation, leaving no stone unturned! I was riveted to the story, and I became aware early on that there was a story within a story. And then another story would arise! And each story had a life if it's own! I thought I was going to be disappointed at the end when I learned that Madeline has not yet been found, but I wasn't because of how the writers of the series delivered the last episode! It was brilliant. Instead of sadness I had hope! The visuals of all of the countries covered added even more interest for me. Hopefully we've learned something about politics, law inforcement, journalism and how we communicate from country to country! We can do so much better! And hopefully with all this effort and awareness Madelaine will found!
-
djmpaterson121 March 2019After watching this i agree Kate and Gerry McCann had nothing to do with Madeline being taken. They were guilty of negligence. The Portuguese Police tried to pin it on Kate due to them acting so slow from the get go. Very sad and i think the abductor killed Madeline due to the scale of the media coverage. Feel sorry for the parents.
-
kyle-523-11331422 March 2019Seemly the media beforehand sumed this series up to be really good! However it was was just an utter recap of what was in the media before, I could not keep by eyes open. 8 episodes was far too long, a lot of information like 1920s and playing tennis with Gerry was totally irrelevant.
-
lee_eisenberg19 May 2021I had loosely heard about Madeleine McCann prior to watching "The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann". The miniseries looks at the disappearance, the investigation, and the various theories that arose. What I can say is that this is one shocking story, and I can't imagine what Madeleine's parents have gone through over the past 14 years.
It's not the greatest series ever, but I still recommend it, just to hear about the intricacies and and sheer mystery of the case. -
susieguti29 March 2020Okay so, I didn't watch the last two episodes cause I lost interest. If you are not familiar with this case, I would definitely recommend this. If you've followed the case extensively over the years, you most likely will not learn anything earth-shattering in this docu-series. However, I am very happy for all involved that the truth seems to be coming out.
-
Diogo_Verde17 March 2019I was interested in this documentary for several reasons but most of all because I'm portuguese and I clearly remember this case from 11 years ago. Even today, after watching this I still feel embarassed by the police work that was done in this particular case and I sure hope they learned from their mistakes (probably they didn't but anyway).
Without spoiling anything about the documentary, I think it was well directed and it wasn't bias towards any particular theory in my opinion (even shows the progression from several different theories). Honestly I came here with one opinion (the same I had from back in the day) and after watching this series I left with a complete different interpretation. The sole reason for this is not because the documenatry is ground-breaking in terms of new discoveries but because it tries to tell the complete story that the portuguese media didn't fully tell at the time.
However, even though it was an interesting doc-series I felt it was maybe 1-2 episodes too long and it dragged a bit since they had no new information about the case so they tried to branch out to other cases from Portugal and other countries wich can be interesting but not fundamental to this particular case.
Overall, it's an interesting documentary to anyone who is interested in learning about the case but for those who already know a little bit about it I would skip it since it offers no new evidence or ground-breaking update on the case unfortunately. -
jim303-416-51035121 March 2019The problem is the inclusion of the proven liar Kelvin Mackenzie. Why anyone would ask his opinion on anything is beyond me. He also refers to Madeleine as "very attractive" *eugh*
-
StarGP18 March 2019Before I watched this documentary I believed the McCanns were scum and were highly likely to have been involved in her disappearance. I wanted this programme to confirm my suspicions about them. I wanted to see how guilty they truly were. But having watched this I've done a U turn and now firmly believe they weren't. It is a real game changer.
This documentary contains so many items of interest and nuggets of knowledge which were kept out of the media or were overlooked because people had made up their minds on the McCanns already. There is very interesting detail about previous cases of sexual predators operating on the algarve and also of a case a few years prior in which the Portuguese police conduct was very questionable. All the sightings of various suspicious characters in the area around the time of the abduction are laid out in detail too. The Portuguese had a tourist industry to protect and obviously wanted to pin it on the McCanns from day one. It was never investigated properly at all and valuable time was spent just trying to pin it on the parents. The parts of the film which focus on the private investigators are a real eye opener too. Whilst the use of private investigators was reported at the time, it is only in this film that you really get information on what investigations were actually undertaken. Essentially the McCanns had to hire these people because the Portuguese police were nothing short of useless and barely investigated at all.
Over the 8 hours of this I have genuinely gone on a journey of hating the McCanns to now feeling sorry for the plight they found them self in and believing that they genuinely had noting to do with her disappearance. And as the programme draws to a close it even provides a renewed sense of hope that one day Madeleine could be found. -
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
SERIES ONE
Over a decade ago, three year old Madeleine McCann disappeared without trace from the Praia de Luz apartment complex in Portugal, left alone while her doctor parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends in a restaurant around the corner. This sparked a high profile, worldwide campaign to find her, from as far afield as the FBI in America, during which the competence of the Portugese police was called into question, as well as the culpability of the McCanns themselves.
Over a decade after it happened, Madeleine McCann's disappearance undoubtedly remains the greatest unsolved mystery of recent times, rivalling even Lord Lucan in terms of where she might have gone. In light of this, speculation and suspicion have fallen at the feet of her parents, whose judgement, at least, in leaving such a young child on her own was called in to question, although they have even faced accusations (which some police evidence seems to back up) of direct involvement in her vanishing. And so, Netflix have given us this daring documentary, which to it's credit, avoids sensationalising such a traumatic incident.
Fact always managing to be stranger than fiction, there's certainly a lot of interesting ground to explore, with various toing and froing in the case and red herrings popping up that make the case more than it seems on the surface. Gerry and Kate were a couple from working class backgrounds, who worked their way into the middle class, and so their plight (and photogenic appearance) attracted more coverage than anyone who might have remained in a less prominent position. What this shows is that Netflix really needs to learn the art of condensing, because as riveting as the case is, there's too many episodes and too much crammed into each of them, a lot of it unnecessary and irrelevant.
Somehow, it probes well enough into an already well documented case to hold your attention to the end just about, but you are left with the feeling that something a little more compact and digestible would have done justice to the subject matter better. *** -
pauleaglen23 March 2019Drawn out rubbbish. Repetitive images and video to try and make a series. All speculation, opinion and no facts at all utterly pointless. Someone just trying to make money out of an event they don't know about. All just people trying to cash in on a news story. Disappointing that it's been able to get this far. Pointless and boring nothing new here. Don't waste you're time like I did.
-
nicole-groves17 March 2019I found this series to be very watchable, it didn't repeat itself very much and I think it was pretty well balanced. I thought it would try to paint the Mccanns as guilty, but in fact I think on balance it showed their genuine pain at the situation they have found themselves in. I hope for everyone's sake who is close to Maddie that they can find the truth and have, if not a happy ending, then closure.
-
Majikat7619 March 2019Worthy of a watch for those who have followed the case, but was there anything throughout the 8 episodes that was groundbreaking? I think not! I learned maybe 2 or 3 things I hadn't known previously.
Perhaps it may change people's opinions regarding Robert Murat?
This is one case where a high majority of the general public feel that the parents had some involvement in the disappearance of their daughter. Will the document-series change that opinion for people, probably not.
A case that has no further answers, but perhaps keeps the story alive. -
Eightiesboy18 March 2019I watched all 8 episodes. If you have a strong interest in the case, then you are more than likely going to watch it regardless. Typical Netflix documentary. Slick titles, quite nicely shot, albeit a lot of repetitive scenes and drone footage of the beach and town.
However, I'm afraid to say that you are not going to learn a lot from it, if you have already followed the story from the outset.
A fairly good watch though, if it's a week before payday and you're skint and you have absolutely nothing else to do. -
nli-6813918 March 2019The show provides a comprehensive summary of how this all progressed - it's hard to remember from the time, but the investigation moved from sympathy and search, to nearby weirdo, accuse the parents and finally trafficking.
In the end, there is obviously no conclusion, but also no new information.
Like most Netflix shows, it's jusy too long - 8 hours where 2 would have done.
I found the most interesting aspect of the retrospective was not actually the case itself, but the media coverage and how it swings between support, accusation and disinterest - if the show does one thing, it proves that you hope you are never in this situation - you'll need the media to attract attention, but once there's no resolution, they turn on you to keep the story fresh.
As such, I found this more a scathing indictment of the media than a story about the headline title case.