I know it's a month after Halloween, but is there ever a time where a documentary about a serial killer is not in season? My vote is for serial killer docs to always be in season. So, let's talk about the Netflix documentary, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. 

This doc tells the story of "The Night Stalker" and dives deep into the details of the The Night Stalker killings in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California from 1984 to 1985 and, wow is this doc a trip. It's formatted in a TV series style, episodic adventure and it really gets you hooked with the cliffhangers at the end of each episode. Richard Ramirez, AKA The Night Stalker, might be the worst serial killer that I've seen. The doc details all of the violence that he caused, which started when he was a young man and doesn't only involve murdering people. 

What I really liked about this doc is that it not only details the carnage left in Ramirez's footsteps, but it also details some of the struggles that he went through as a child which likely led him down this road of misery, drugs and murder. It also dives into the media frenzy that caused the capture of The Night Stalker to be a lot more difficult than it needed to be. This doc is very detailed and the pacing of the doc is very well done as well. 

This is such a crazy story and Ramirez's story is such a wild ride. As you'll see in the doc, he was set up for failure in his childhood. Nothing will excuse what he did and all of the people and families that he affected in such a negative way. Period, full stop. The way he grew up and his early life molded him into the monster he became and he had so many chances to not be this monster, but he leaned into it and, the rest of infamous history. Good news is that he died of cancer so he's not a waste of oxygen any longer. That is covered in the doc, but it's also public record and he's been dead for over 10 years so we don't consider that a spoiler around here.