Hulu’s How I Caught My Killer, returns for a riveting season two with ten new cases profiled, and ten new victims who get to shine as people and not just statistics. Following the same format established in the first season the show returns with new stories to tell and profiles of new people who have fallen victim to the highest of crimes.
Just like season one, each episode starts with a brief introduction of the profiled victim, who they are and where they are from. We then meet the friends or family of the victim, which gives the audience time to understand who the victim was, and why we should connect with them. Once the person has gone missing and authorities are called, the investigating officers join the story describing what they experienced on the case. While each episode gives plenty of opportunity to show the victim as the person they were, the show also highlights how the victims’ actions help lead to the arrest of their killers.
How I Caught My Killer will probably never run out of stories to tell, and in the newest season we meet ten individuals from across the country who through one event or another were murdered. Sasha Krause, Laura Wallen, Jholie Moussa, Julie Gonzalez, Mindy Morganstern, Brittany Clardy, Morgan Fox, Rahim Grant, Jodi Sanderholm, and Kevin Bacon take center stage, as the show dives into what happened to these people, and how their case was resolved.
True crime stories are difficult to watch, because the viewer is forced to experience the last moments of someone’s life. How I Caught My Killer is a true crime show that doesn’t dwell in the grizzly aspects of the crime, nor does it appear to exploit the tragedy of someone’s final moments by sensationalizing the crime. Rather, How I Caught My Killer spends much of its narrative focusing on the victims, telling their stories, and remembering who these people are. This is a true crime story that wants you to know the victim more than the killer.
Watching How I Caught My Killer the audience meets these wonderful people at the start of each episode and quickly learns how each one meets their untimely end. The brutal nature of how life is taken so easily and quickly by some, and the devastating impact these violent crimes have on the family and friends of the victims is something that the show demonstrates well. How I Caught My Killer may celebrate the victims and attempt to bring closure to the cases but also shows how the effects of the crime are long lasting and forever. Jholie Moussa’s mom never leaves the house without taking her ashes with her, because she feels guilty for leaving her daughter. For all the celebration of the people, the heartbreak and pain sit close to the surface, and are unmissable to the viewer.
This season, viewers will meet a wide variety of people. Sasha Krause had an incredible curiosity about the world, and even though she was a Mennonite, her cell phone and connection to the world is what helped her convict her killer. Jholie Moussa was older than her twin sister by 2 minutes, but it was her unique bond with her twin and the secrets they would share that helped find her killer. Kevin Bacon was a hair stylist who was looking for love and forced to settle for online hookups. It was his caution and text messaging that led to his murderer and probably stopped a potential serial killer.
Krause, Moussa, Bacon and the other cases profiled on the sophomore season of the show allow the audience to see these people for who they were, and not the fate that befell them. There is a level of dignity and humanity that is given to the victims that seems out of the ordinary in a world driven by clickbait headlines.
How I Caught My Killer is an elegant and insightful detailing of people the world didn’t get enough time with, and the people left behind in the wake of such tragedy.