Critic Reviews

It’s a daring, immersive undertaking by USA, while also being far removed from the usual true crime suspects--lately the Menendez Brothers and Waco-based cult leader David Koresh.

While Unsolved isn’t quite as slick and incisive as that FX series [American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson], it is an absorbing, provocative, and extraordinarily well-acted work of television that takes a narrative approach just novel enough to make you feel like you’re seeing these long-cold cases through fresh eyes.

[Unsolved] manages to permeate the layers upon layers of conspiracy theory, mythology and true crime intrigue that still envelops the unsolved crimes, with a painstaking recall of key events. With compassion and respect for the victims of these crimes, they explore what may have happened, and the results are intriguing, especially if you've followed the case over the decades.

Long and Hemingway take a lot of chances with Unsolved, and sometimes come dangerously close to confusing their audience. But their collective drive pays off. Even if we don’t always know where we’re going, the ride is never less than exciting and challenging.

Where all this ends up, you already know. But at least Unsolved does a good job of making you care about the failure. Engaging, interesting, watchable.

Unsolved is equal parts appealingly pulpy and workmanlike, sometimes paced like a procedural and sometimes like a prestige drama.

Unsolved is a surprisingly entertaining watch. It’s not as thematically dense as “ACS” but it’s incredibly watchable--I busted through the seven episodes sent for review in a sitting and was totally engaged. Watching in a single chunk reveals some tonal inconsistencies and the structure of the show will be too frustrating for some viewers--there are also some regrettable decisions to soften the rappers’ realities to heighten their legacies--but the performances here are uniformly strong and the mystery around these two murders remains fascinating all these years later.

Free of fact-checking chores, Unsolved does fine by luring viewers along as a decently written and well-acted crime procedural, as Kading and his crew chase new and old leads that both affirm and contradict the work that Poole and others did a decade earlier.

In the end, despite its the ungainly amount of information it tries to unload and parse, for reasonably long stretches, Unsolved has the propulsive energy and stylish pop of a pretty good nighttime soap. But it’s one that, to its credit, never loses sight of the untimely deaths that brought this whole complicated story to life.

The absence of justice crackles with real-world energy, but the show lacks a dramatic center, cycling through musical-biopic hagiography and procedural-miniseries dullness.