7 / 10
A famous FBI cold case file about an art heist in Boston that turns into a four-episode-long docuseries and is completely worth an investigative watch.
A super interesting case to follow, and one that made waves in headlines and criminal history. This case stands out as one of the most historic art heists in American history.
The Gardner Museum got the world's attention the day after St. Patrick's Day in 1990 after 13 world-famous paintings were brutally ripped from the museum's clutches. It is calculated that roughly $500 million worth of art went was stolen and made its way into criminal secrecy.
I appreciated the documentary's step-by-step narrative of how the heist went down on March 18, 1990. The 3D graphic visuals to display the map of the museum made it easier to follow the calculated moves of the crooks.
It's astonishing how 81 minutes could go by in a heist without a whistleblowing alarm to halt the entire operation. You would imagine that if a similar heist went down in 2021 that it would have gone completely different with the advancement in security systems and forensic investigation techniques.
My one complaint about this docuseries is the redundant repetition of facts over and over to the point of beating a dead horse. The creators of the doc certainly could have trimmed the fat a bit more on the editing floor. Then again, we are talking about the same producers as The Irishman, so you know, they like to drag the show on a little bit. Glad that this was only four episodes long rather than stretching it further than it needed to be. Even with four episodes, there was an element of dragging on.
Found it interesting that the same FBI agent from the College Admissions Scandal docuseries has an appearance in this one. I assume he has a special Netflix / media clearance or something?
Netflix must have stacks of criminal documentaries that they bought the rights to and have mini-series and documentaries coming down the pipeline. Hey, I wouldn’t be surprised.
// tl;dr //
Was it good? - Yeah it was pretty good, but not my first documentary recommendation.
Date flick? - Sorta, this could be a decent binge-watch with your date.
