Netflix’s American Nightmare Review | The New Age of True Crime Content

Summary

• American Nightmare expertly tells a full story with all the evidence, emphasizing the failures of the justice system.
• The focus is on the victims, not the perpetrator, maintaining their agency and keeping the audience engaged.
• The series lays out the evidence in a way that leaves little room for speculation, closing the door on unanswered questions and building dread and tension along the way.

Netflix has made a name for itself with its true crime docu-series. From Making a Murderer to The Tinder Swindler, audiences can watch as some of the oddest and most controversial criminal cases from around the world are put under a microscope on the streaming service. American Nightmare is no different.

The series outlines the events related to the kidnapping of Denise Huskins, a woman living in California with her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, in 2015. After a strange home invasion results in Denise’s kidnapping and eventual release 48 hours later, the couple and their families experience the worst possible outcome: the police department believes they’ve made the whole thing up. They accuse them of creating a story similar to the plot of the movie Gone Girl, which had just come out the year before.

American Nightmare does an exceptional job of focusing on the victims and the impact it has on their lives while contextualizing the absurdity of the situation from all sides. Though not the first docuseries to highlight injustice in the system, it shows the level at which it can run and the headstrong nature that often appears in these situations.

American Nightmare

Release Date January 17, 2024

Creator Bernadette Higgins, Felicity Morris

Seasons 1

Studio Netflix

Pros

• American Nightmare expertly lays out all the evidence to tell a full story.
• The editing and archival footage is expertly edited for emotional effect.
• The series’ focus on the victims and the justice system is fulfilling.

Cons

• It’s a great true crime series but lacks the ambition of a masterpiece.

Breaking Down a Nearly Unbelievable Story

American Nightmare highlights several key failures of the American justice system: confirmation bias, victim blaming, and impeding your own investigation. As soon as investigators hear Aaron’s recount of the home invasion, from the intruders being in wetsuits to the delay in his reporting, they think something is fishy. Why would the intruders wear wetsuits? Why would they say they were actually after his ex-girlfriend? Sure, it seems odd, but every crime is unique. That’s not how the investigators see it.

Going in order of events, American Nightmare uses interrogation and television footage and public documents to reinforce the issues with the investigation, rather than just relying on testimony from the individuals involved. It’s more impactful to watch the investigators tell Aaron they’re trying to understand how he’s a monster than to simply hear Aaron recount the event. Every step of the way, documentation appears, crafting an emotional and compelling narrative that leaves audiences wondering how the ball was dropped so many times.

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While Denise and Aaron’s story is the main focus, other victims are featured, reinforcing that the couple’s story isn’t that far-fetched. With several similar cases, what initially came off as odd appears more and more normal (and real). When Misty Carausu, one of the officers with the Dublin Police Department that catches the perpetrator of the crimes, sees the links between her case and others, it causes the audience to question how often connections like this are missed.

With a series so carefully crafted, slowly dripping information just as it really happened, a subtle feeling of dread creeps in. You don’t know if the kidnappers are really going to let Denise go, what Aaron’s fate is, or why the police aren’t doing more. Even when the final episode comes to a close, that feeling never really goes away, because this isn’t the first time this situation has happened, and it won’t be the last. Denise and Aaron got a mostly happy ending, but that is rarely the case.

A Focus on the Victims, Not the Perpetrator

American Nightmare is a series that centers itself on the victims, with very little mention of the perpetrator until the last few minutes. We don’t get to see interrogation footage as he tries to explain why he committed his crimes. There isn’t footage of him walking into the courtroom for the first time. What audiences do get is a few pictures as investigators briefly discuss his past.

There is a growing trend to not give the perpetrators of crime a platform by acknowledging them by name in the media. In barely featuring Denise’s kidnapper and not including courtroom footage, American Nightmare maintains its focus on the victims and not the person that hurt them. The victims keep their agency in this way, forcing the audience to watch them and their story and not be distracted by anything else.

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In an age where every new true crime series or movie sparks newfound interest in a case, it was nice for the evidence to be laid out in a way that leaves little to discuss. This isn’t like the new Unsolved Mysteries, with a Google Drive of the evidence waiting for audiences to peruse. All that’s left is to feel some type of way about how the entire investigation and aftermath were handled. There are loose ends, but the series makes it clear we will never get those answers, closing the door on speculation.

American Nightmare is the start of what could be a new age of true crime content. Only providing what you need to know about the kidnapper while laying out all the information in Denise and Aaron’s favor, the series forces you to pay attention to their story and not be drawn into the sensationalism of trying to solve the case. It’s a model others should mimic moving forward.

All three episodes of American Nightmare are available to stream on Netflix now.

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