Where the series goes horribly, offensively awry is in the lurid packaging of the very solid interviews with the police, journalists, surviving victims, and families. Real crime-scene photos are used throughout the series, a choice that is profoundly upsetting but necessary to illustrate the animalistic horror. (As wild as your imagination is, it would not be enough.) What is not necessary, at all, are director Tiller Russell’s re-enactments of the crimes supported by cheesy B-movie grade visuals. We do not need to see a single drop of blood in slow-motion as it falls to the ground. We do not need to see a blood-covered hammer drop alongside it. (This shot repeats multiple times.) We do not need to see scenes of ominous animals looming in the dark — it’s not symbolism, it’s tawdry, scare-tactic filler. We do not need Ramirez’s recorded words bulleted across the scene in hot pink over scenes of nighttime Los Angeles traffic. This isn’t a Patrick Nagel exhibition. In the last episode, when Ramirez is finally identified as a suspect, his name and photograph are splashed all over the media. Arriving back from Arizona on a Greyhound bus, Ramirez soon realizes he’s at real risk of being apprehended and starts on a frantic chase through East Los Angeles, including running across all the lanes — in both directions — of the 5 freeway. The tale of this final, desperate bid for freedom is intercut with, God help me, a scene of Pac-Man chasing and about to eat a ghost. (It’s the ‘80s, get it?) blogherads.adq.push(function () { blogherads .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-iw-article-mid-article2-uid1' ) .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid","mid-article2","mid-articleX"] ) .setSubAdUnitPath("ros\/mid-article2") .addSize([[300,250],[300,251],[620,350],[2,4],[4,2]]) ; }); It’s profoundly, jarringly tone-deaf, and it’s a problem throughout the series. When you use the actual photo of a bloodied bedspread of a 16-year-old girl who was beaten almost to death with a tire iron, you don’t get cute.