Night Stalker's treatment of cops as gods is its biggest flaw

Vox

"To their credit, Night Stalker producers Tiller Russell and James Carroll have created a series that attempts to do exactly what true crime media should do: demystify the perpetrator and elevate the people impacted by their crimes," says Aja Romano of Netflix's Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. "Although (Richard) Ramirez’s lurid nickname gets the title credit, there’s very little of him in Night Stalker’s narrative, which is almost entirely focused on the Los Angeles and San Francisco communities Ramirez prowled during his intense 16-month period of home invasion, robbery, sexual assault, violence, and murder. But the strident erasure of Ramirez from this story of his crimes has also made Night Stalker a deeply confusing entry point for anyone who is unfamiliar with the case. And it’s opened up the series to other criticism: In its determination to avoid glorifying Ramirez, it instead glorifies the police who caught him. I’m not sure that version of the story is any less troubling."