Don't blame Netflix

*I wrote this blog on April 08, 2019

Human brains are hot wired to feel emotions for others, a quality that came in real handy for the survival of our species hence individuals who lack this human trait are always a subject of our morbid fascination. Case in point “Conversations with a Killer: #TheTedBundyTapes” a 4 part documentary series on #Netflix; that provides “A unique look” inside the mind of the infamous American #seriakiller Theodore Robert Bundy or #TedBundy.

Ted Bundy was an “all American boy” who grew up in an average white American family and was on his way to become a lawyer with a pretty good nag for politics as well but somewhere down the line something snapped inside Bundy’s brains and in a span of just 4 years he killed more than 2 dozen women over 7 states. Just Like a ‘spider tailed viper’ Bundy would lure unsuspecting prey in and when the timing was just about right Bundy attacked with such ferocity that blurred the lines between humanity and animality.

Ted Bundy was arrested in 1975; followed by a lengthy trial that was filled with so many twists and turns that one can make a documentary series out of that only. Finally Bundy was awarded the death penalty (death by electrocution) and on the 24th of Jan 1989 Ted Bundy was executed via electric chair.

This miniseries has gone mad viral and caused a major public outcry for sexualizing Ted Bundy’s image while reducing his victims to mere numbers, sort of a score card if you will. Type in “Ted Bundy” on twitter and you will come across comments such as:

“Stop romanticizing Ted Bundy”

“Think Bundy was hot? You need to be on an international watch list”

“Ted Bundy was a monster, plain and simple, who took innocent lives”

“Is Netflix trying to make serial killing cool again?”

And it was due to this socialmedia buzz that poor Netflix had to tweet about how “creeped out” it was of its own project;

But is the criticism fair? Did Netflix actually sexualized Bundy’s image? In my opinion it is a big NO because it is an established fact that Bundy was indeed a handsome clean cut guy who, with his deep blue eyes and a charming smile, had an almost hypnotic effect on the opposite sex.

This was evident during his trials where Bundy faced charges of brutally assaulting women yet those court rooms were filled with women, outnumbering their male counterparts and sure one can make an argument that those women were there out of curiosity and I will talk about this later on but for now have a look at this archival news pkg from the late 70’s, listen to these women bearing in mind that they were witnessing the trial of a man accused of bludgeoning multiple women to death…

So in my opinion Netflix is not to blame here; they are only making money out of an already bestselling product -Serial Killers, it is a simple case of demand and supply hence “The Ted Bundy Tapes” is not the only project of its kind available on Netflix, browse through their list and you will come across series such as “Mindhunters” where infamous serial killer like Ed Kemper or Richard Speck are waiting for you.

It has been 30 years since Bundy was executed but his enigma is still going strong which for a guy who was a rapist, a cold blooded killer and a necrophile is quite a feat to achieve. Even after all this time the grizzly tales of his crimes are still selling like hot cakes.

But it is not just Ted Bundy who is an eternal part of our pop culture; there is Dahmer, Ed Gein, Kürten, Chikatilo, Onoprienko, Jack the Ripper and many many more like them. There is no denying that these monsters have a huge fan following around the globe but for an average joe having an interest in their life stories is by no mean an early sign of a mental breakdown but is due to a simple fact that it is un-comprehensible for a decent member of any society to even imagine a person that lacks basic human emotions such as pity, empathy or remorse and then to imagine such a person indulging in abducting another human being to torture or rape or kill or even cannibalize hence the curiosity to know more about such individuals.

And maybe it was this curiosity that led scientists to study serial killers and come to several conclusions; such murderers have damaged brains which causes them to be disconnected with emotions such as remorse or empathy. Environment also plays an important part, e.g. a person who was abused as a child, physically or mentally, has more of chance to become a killer than the one who was not abused. Then there is a gene called MAOA which is attached to the X chromosome and passed on to a child from the mother and since a female has 2 sets of X chromosomes the MAOA gene gets diluted but a male baby is stuck with it hence more serial killers are men than women.

Bundy could never explain his lust for blood; in the end he blamed watching too much pornography for his behavior. Whatever the case was, whether it was genetics or brain damage that made Bundy the way he was but just hours before his execution Bundy uttered a line that was hauntingly accurate…

“We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere.”