Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
OnThe Jinx: Part Two, we spend no small amount of time watching people watch television.
This is a fitting motif, since so much about the Durst saga is inextricably linked to public spectacle.
Killed them all, of course.
Its a shame, then, thatPart Twoswerves away from unpacking any of that.
Well, not entirely.
You had investigators, prosecutors; you had witnesses.
What unfolds in this scene is utterly captivating.
We see the crowd laugh at the right beats.
We see them grow quiet as the episode builds to the climax we know is coming.
When Dursts hot-mic moment plays, the room stirs.
People audibly exclaim; someone else shushes them.
The camera, meanwhile, stays focused on McCormacks face, emotion gradually percolating.
Indeed, Ive never known what to make ofThe Jinx.
These self-references are used as flavor beats, andPart Twonever exploresThe Jinxsrole in the story further.
How did the creators and participants of the original series feel going through that maelstrom?
What do they think it all means within the context of their lives and society around them?
This isnt to sayPart Twois bad.
It just feels unnecessary, arriving somewhat out of nowhere after all these years.
The effort is laudable, but it all feels pro forma.
Nor do you get any huge new material or emotional revelations.
(In a nice mirror to Dursts hot-mic burps, Chavins sorta-guilt manifests in uncontrollable yawns.)
Its notreallyacknowledging the world as it exists.
In that sense, turning the camera back on ones self shouldnt qualify as navel-gazing.
