Th show opens with the frantic search for Rob Piest after his parents report him missing. Gacy is identified as the man last seen with him but nothing is found. When cops decide to trail him for few days, slowly truth starts to emerge and by the end of first episode, the investigation of Gacy shifts from surveillance of the contractor’s day-to-day activities to the revelation of what is hidden in the crawlspace of his home. Following this, each episode focuses on one or more of his victims showing us details of them as humans and how they got trapped by Gacy. Each episode bears the name of one of Gacy’s victims, flashing back to show their lives leading to their deaths. And along we see the lawyers on both sides doing their jobs to see what can be done to get him to death bed or to put him under insanity. We dont see the killings here, most of the series centers on the investigators and the trauma they experienced, as well as the attorneys on both sides. As Gacy tries to claim all of the killings were in self-defense, we watch the lives of the officers and lawyers change forever. However, it’s the focus on the victims and their families reminds us what could have been. The show spends a lot of time showing the significant gaps in how law enforcement treated missing children, as well as the stigma against homosexuals that could have prevented countless Gacy victims from meeting their deaths.
Michael Chernus gives the best performance to date as John Wayne Gacy, but it is the ensemble of actors playing the victims, family, and investigators that elevate this series. The writing team clearly do their research to bring the boys who went missing to life. In addition to small details about their mothers and families, they also let us see kids who might have been growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. Some of the cast members are based on real people, but the series also features fictional characters meant to represent the broader experiences of the poor, troubled, and vulnerable young men, many of them LGBTQ+, whom the killer primarily targeted. It also addresses the systemic failures in Chicago's law enforcement at the time, which allowed him to live in plain sight. This includes their failure to share the killer's criminal past with other police departments, and its dismissal of male sexual assault victims and missing person reports because of the victims' ages, criminal histories, and sexuality. The overall storytelling approach is less sensational than other serial killer-themed TV docudramas, but it still relies on detailed descriptions of violence and some gruesome imagery to establish the killer's psychopathy and the heinousness of his crimes. But it's the way the series portrays the suffering of his victims, their loved ones, and the photographic reminders of who they were that's the hardest to watch. For lovers of fast paced serial killer dramas, they may be disappointed, but I think the idea here was different. The show did test my patience at multiple points , where I wished the series would move fast and show some court proceedings but I would attribute all that to my paste and not the makers. They took a different approach, more humane and with empathy. It will work for most and may not for others. It is certainly more empathetic of Gacy’s victims and their families than many other serial killer dramatic series have been. (7/10)
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