The Yogurt Shop Murders
HBO Max
Well, Max is now back to being called HBO Max, after switching from that name years ago. So, here we are, talking about the best new show on HBO Max. Until they change it again back to just HBO, which I have to believe is coming.
The show in question is The Yogurt Shop Murders, a docuseries that has landed a rare perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, which is not really something you see all that much in the genre.
The Yogurt Shop Murders is based on a true story of a horrific crime back in 1991, one that many people may not have heard of. Here’s what happened. A content warning follows:
“The 1991 Austin yogurt shop killings are an unsolved quadruple homicide which took place at an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas, United States on Friday, December 6, 1991. The victims were four teenage girls: 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Eliza Thomas, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, and Jennifer’s 15-year-old sister Sarah.”
There ended up being a fire in the shop, and police discovered the victims (again, content warning for a violent crime), naked, tied up, burned, shot in the head with at least one of them having been raped. Evidence pointed toward a hardened criminal, but despite DNA evidence, they were never able to be identified, and the case remains unsolved. I am frankly surprised I’ve never heard of this, as it seems just absolutely horrible. Granted, I was four back when this happened.
The documentary was not dropped a binge watch, and the four episodes will be out over the course of the next months. But critics who have seen it all already believe it’s an effective covering of the crime. Here are some quotes:
Slate: “Brown’s series is less preoccupied with cracking a long-unsolved case than it is with gently probing the wounds that have never been allowed to heal.”
Pajiba: “It’s also a riveting watch. People hollowed out by 30 years of grief recount what happened in raw, wrenching detail. For some, it’s a chance at closure, if such a thing is even possible in cases that never find justice.”
Wall Street Journal: “The best documentaries, including nonfiction series such as “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” can be based on great stories, or be told in brilliant ways, or, in the case of this Margaret Brown-directed epic, both.”
There have been some comparisons in reviews to Netflix’s famed Making a Murderer series. But there is no pointing toward a specific induvial here, and the goal is not to solve the crime, but rather show its after-effects. Its interesting that this is directed by an almost exclusively film director, Margaret Brown, who has done such gripping projects like Descendant in the past, and a True Crime series is wildly different. But she’s made one very much worth watching, if you can stomach the tale.
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