NIGHT STALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER. Excellent!

He murdered without rhyme or reason, without a specific type of victim or one established modus operandi. Most often he simply broke into random houses at night to rape, torture, and kill women, men, children. As if his goal was simply evil itself, chaos in its purest form. He spread terror in California, in 1984 and 1985 he killed a total of fourteen people, and assaulted or beat another similar number: that is the count of crimes proven against him, though most likely there were more. Newspapers dubbed him The Night Stalker. His real name was Richard Ramirez. It is the story of his pursuit and capture that is told by the four-episode miniseries Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.

This true crime production is watched not like a documentary, but like an excellent crime drama or thriller. For it is in such a convention that the creators chose to tell us this story, reconstructing step by step the events from the perspective of the police and gradually, together with the investigators, unveiling the serial killer’s successive secrets. We can therefore feel as if we were participating with them in the chase after the degenerate.

The excellent pace of the production is sustained not only by the well-structured storylines, but also by the dynamic, non-documentary editing, the multitude of people speaking and their perspectives, numerous reconstructions, and authentic photographs. At the same time, the creators managed to avoid overwhelming the viewer with an overload of information. Perhaps only at times the overly sensational, shock-oriented editing and the music, which manipulates emotions too suggestively, are irritating – yet they too ultimately contribute to building tension and a nervous, fear-tinged atmosphere.

Another advantage of telling the story from the perspective of the pursuers, not the pursued, is that the perpetrator himself is pushed into the background. There is no question of glorifying the murderer. We learn only what is necessary about Ramirez. That he was a loner with an unpleasant smell and horribly decayed teeth, but had a certain dark charisma that the journalistic flashes liked once he was caught; that in court he behaved like a rock star and that he did not live to see his own death sentence carried out, because he managed to die of cancer before it was executed.

The reasons why he might have done what he did are only suggested: a traumatic childhood, drugs, a desire to pay homage to Satan. The protagonists of the documentary are other people: the victims’ families, witnesses, police officers. All those on whose lives Ramirez left a painful mark, and all those who contributed to his capture.

In the attentive eye of the creators’ camera, all their individual features were skillfully highlighted, thanks to which they remain memorable and do not turn into an impersonal crowd.

Some move us – like the woman Ramirez raped when she was only six years old, who decided to testify against him in court so that he would never do the same to any other girl. Others immediately win our sympathy – like the energetic elderly lady who sums up Ramirez’s female fans sending naked pictures and love letters to his cell with the unceremonious words: for me they are the stupidest women in the world.

But perhaps the most important reason why the miniseries is so engaging is the figure of the main protagonist, who instantly wins sympathy and interest in his next steps. By no means do I mean Ramirez here, but the modest, likable Mexican policeman, Gil Carillo. He was the one who hunted and caught the Night Stalker, and it is from his perspective that we get to know the events. When the very experienced detective Frank Salerno chose him as his partner in the Ramirez case, Carillo was a district officer with no experience in such serious crimes.

Yet he carried out the task completely, because it was thanks to his and his partner’s dedication and thoroughness that the Night Stalker was captured so quickly and so many crimes were proven against him.

And we simply like this good, chubby guy devoted to his work and family. Netflix’s true crime documentaries are widely – and rightly – considered among the best original productions of the streaming giant. And yet Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer has since its premiere already met with criticism from some viewers and sparked controversy on Twitter.

The reason? Too much brutality in the series and too frequent display of authentic crime scene photos. I am tempted to ask the outraged what they expected from a documentary about one of California’s most depraved murderers. A comforting little tale after which one can sleep peacefully? How else were the creators supposed to make the viewer grasp the enormity of the evil inflicted by Ramirez, how at least partially to let them feel the suffering of the victims and their families?

Looking into the eyes of a monster is not pleasant, it should not be, it also forces one to look inside oneself and reflect. The creators do not avoid Ramirez’s terrible, dark gaze, but much more often they show us the good and honest eyes of policeman Carillo: the symbol of all those decent, normal people whose small world people like the Night Stalker try to destroy.