Mind Over Murder

After nearly six hours spent examining how we can warp and ruin lives, the final 20 or 30 minutes offer a measure of hope and a truly moving testimony to what often sounds like a dead phrase, but here is on display as a living, breathing thing: the healing power of art.

Wang’s docuseries is vital, gripping, immersive, and profound. “Mind Over Murder” is everything a true-crime series should be.

Ms. Wang does a few amazing things that are more about the filmmaker than the filmmaking—she gets almost everyone important to talk, for one thing. ... The wild card in the astonishing, enthralling “Mind Over Murder”—which really deserved a more distinctive title—is the play being staged in Beatrice while Ms. Wang is in town shooting. (This is no coincidence: It was Ms. Wang’s idea and part of the HBO-powered production.) ... Understanding the importance of the play—and art itself, as it happens—will require viewers to watch the entire series. Try and stop them.

A journalistically impactful deep dive into the crime and the ripple effect that still resonates through Beatrice. ... In the wrong hands, this could have come across as crass and exploitative. But Wang is a sensitive, intuitive, empathetic filmmaker, and we can feel how many in the community come to trust her through the making of the documentary and the production of the play-within-the-movie.

Who done it is only part of the mystery in this engaging six-part true-crime docuseries. [4 - 24 Jul 2022, p.5]

The case of the Beatrice Six is an interesting one, and we’re pretty sure that once Mind Over Murder gets into the details of how the six got arrested, convicted and exonerated, it’ll move better. But you may want to have your finger on the fast forward button during the first couple of episodes.

The first side of the documentary is sometimes repetitive and the second side underserved, but Mind Over Murder remains a provocative thing, defying any kind of simple hero/villain/victim classifications.