[TV] The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst

Last week, my friend Bill over at @STCPod, brought to my attention a new TV show that has been airing on HBO Canada, stating that it would be “super up my alley”. The Jinx, a six-part docudrama was his recommendation, and he encouraged me to block time immediately to watch it.

Was The Jinx up my alley? Boy, was it ever! Being a true crime buff, not only was it up my alley, it actually resides in my alley, pushing that hobo of everything else crime related aside to make more room for the Jinx‘s time-sucking self. I binge-watched this show, and with its subject in the news just this week, everything is coming up Robert Durst. I have been reading and watching everything on this guy, including every similar late-night news exposé on Durst on competing networks. You’d think I’d be bored to death of this story by now. Not a chance.

If you are not familiar with what the Jinx is about, here’s the Coles Notes* version:

New York native, Robert Durst, heir to a fortune from his mogul father’s real estate empire, has had a sordid and suspicious history that began with the disappearance of his wife Kathie in 1982, of which he is the prime suspect (she has never been found). In 2001, he was indicted, for the murder and dismemberment of neighbour, Morris Black. Amazingly, Durst was acquitted of all charges on a self-defense plea. As of March 2015, he is up on charges of murder on the 2000 execution-style death of his best friend, Susan Berman.

At the time the Jinx was in production, Robert Durst was free as a bird. It was after he watched the drama, All Good Things, a movie based on Durst’s life that he called the director of that film, Andrew Jarecki, and offered to be interviewed+ and thus, the Jinx was born.

I am familiar with Andrew Jarecki, particularly from his other crime docs, Catfish (which I reviewed here) and Capturing the Friedmans. Robert Durst’s story, when told through Jarecki’s documentary lens, produces one heck of a yarn that gets stranger with every episode. Interviews and reenactments of the tale through acting montages, and a haunting soundtrack which includes the Eels’ “Fresh Blood,” as the title track, the Jinx is definitely a series that is both fascinating and intense. Definitely check it out!

5/5

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
Dir: Andrew Jarecki
2015 HBO

* Coles Notes (also known as Cliffs Notes in the U.S.) are student guides to literature, one could buy via Coles Bookstores in Canada.

+ Yes, you read that right!! Durst actually asked to be interviewed, and might have incriminated himself in the process…can you believe the audacity of this guy?