The Confession Killer

In “Confession Killer,” Kenner methodically lays out the faults in the system, taking no prisoners. He leaves viewers with a very clear message: while Lucas was a despicable human being, there’s true culpability found in the officers who so wanted to mark cases closed that they ignored the very real evidence to the contrary.

At the beginning of the series, it’s unclear what story “The Confession Killer” can possibly be telling that requires five episodes and as many hours. Lucas isn’t that interesting. But as it turns out, the story is not just about crime, truth and justice, but journalism, the politics of law enforcement, celebrity culture, and the gift that was represented by Henry Lee Lucas—not just to the police and media, but to all the killers of all those women who were given someone else to take the blame.

Overflowing with cannily edited archival footage (dominated by Lucas police-confession videos, and TV news reports) and illuminating chats with principal players. ... The Confession Killer is awash in heartbreaking stories about the collateral damage wrought by this sham.

It’s well-constructed and a quick watch, the kind of thing that fans of “The Keepers,” “The Staircase,” and other Netflix true crime hits should eat up this holiday season.

An eyebrow-raising premise amounts to too much information. This is the sort of series that lacked a storyteller’s touch.