Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer’ On Netflix, About The Killer That Terrorized LA In The ‘80s And The Cops That Caught Him

In the summer of 1985, Los Angeles was still basking in the glow of hosting the previous year’s Olympics, and seemed to be reveling in the glamour of being the center of pop culture, of sports culture and more. But during a summer that saw record heat, the city and surrounding area was being terrorized by a serial killer the likes of which law enforcement had never encountered before. A new Netflix docuseries traces the Night Stalker as he randomly murdered and abducted people in and around the city, and focuses on the detectives that found the killer.

NIGHT STALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An old video from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, featuring Detective Gil Carrillo.

The Gist: The Night Stalker, as the serial killer that terrorized LA and the surrounding area became known, would kill people in their homes overnight, seemingly at random. There was no pattern to the age or gender of his victims; he shot some, stabbed others. But one commonality is that he wanted to see the fear in someone’s eyes before killing them. He also abducted children and sexually assaulted them, then let them go after a number of hours.

In the four-part docuseries Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer, director Tiller Russell examines the Night Stalker case from the perspective of the two LA County Sheriff’s Department detectives who doggedly hunted down and caught Richard Ramirez after an intense 5 months of investigating not only grisly murder scenes, but also bringing in cases of child abductions and sexual assaults.

The detectives that finally tracked Ramirez down were Carrillo, a young, gregarious cop who became a detective at a relatively young age, and Frank Salerno, a veteran detective who usually works the biggest murder cases. It was Carrillo who had the theory that the series of murders around the LA area, along with the child abductions and assaults, were all the product of one person. He was scoffed at by many of the LA area’s police detectives, but Salerno, respecting Carrillo’s instincts, bought into those theories, especially after the two of them became partners.

Through archival footage, crime scene photos, and interviews with Carrillo, Salerno, media members who reported on the Night Stalker case at the time, and a few of the Night Stalker’s victims, we get a picture of just how varied Ramirez’s crimes were and just how dogged Carrillo and Salerno’s pursuit of him was.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Night Stalker is similar to any number of Netflix’s true crime docuseries, from Making A Murderer to Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.

Our Take: At this point, it feels like Netflix and other cable and streaming outlets have mined infamous 1970s and ’80s serial killer cases for all they’re worth. The pattern tends to be the same: re-enactments, interviews with people who investigated and reported the crimes, mixed with archival footage and newspaper clippings. Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer is no different. But here, Tiller Russell has wisely decided to focus on the detectives that helped capture Richard Ramirez, and how they applied their knowledge and experience to finally apprehend him.

Of course, there’s plenty of the standard true crime docuseries footage, including a huge number of really bloody crime scene photos. As much as Russell managed to find photos where the victims’ faces are obscured and the amount of blood shown is selective, the photos are still pretty grisly to look at, especially if you’re particularly squeamish about seeing victims’ bodies and even a little bit of blood. Given the intensity of Ramirez’s killing spree from March 1985 until he got caught that August, there seems like there will be a constant flow of those pictures during the entire four-part series.

But what we appreciated about the series was, not only did it focus on Carrillo and Salerno, two detectives with backstories and personality to spare, but Russell doesn’t try to pad out the story to the point where the pacing slows to a crawl. We launch right into the case, get quick introductions to Carrillo and Salerno, and go from there. As many people (including our better half) have observed about these docuseries is that they feel like documentary films that are padded and stretched out to multiple parts. But Russell has more than enough material for a 4-part series, and the show’s pace reflects that.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Salerno and Carrillo discuss how fast things went when they finally were able to link all the murders and abductions to one person. “We’ve got ourselves a serial killer,” says Carrillo.

Sleeper Star: The account of Anastasia Hronas, who was abducted and sexually assaulted by Ramirez when she was six, gives a harrowing account of what happened, and the sequence of events that made us wonder how she didn’t break down while recounting them.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer might be to grisly for some viewers. But for true crime fans, it’s a well-paced series that has a different perspective than most series in the genre.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Night Stalker: The Hunt For A Serial Killer On Netflix