Rosario Monachino
Netflix viewers are furious over a ‘grim’ true crime series that is ‘making them feel sick.’
While it may be argued that it’s a red flag that some people relax by watching true crime series, it is undoubtedly a hugely popular genre.
This is largely due to Netflix’s massive catalog of horrific stories, including The Imposter, I Am A Stalker, and The Good Nurse.
Now a new series has dropped based on an awful true story.
People have been left feeling saddened and angered by the controversial documentary.
One person says: “Just watched on Netflix and I still to this day remember it being on TV remember the red Man United red tops and the story!
“Still makes me sick to this day even after watching that my thoughts still go out to Holly and Jessica’s families.”
Another viewer adds: “Grim grim grim!
“What awful people I remember it being on the news like it was yesterday, and I was only young.”
Someone else pens: “It’s wild to me that the new Netflix show has a character in it based on my actual old head teacher. Really shows how close to home the Soham murders were.”
“Just watched on Netflix. Evil scum, both of them. Hits hard, especially as a father,” says a fourth.
“Just finished watching on Netflix. It’s really made my blood boil,” a fifth comments.
While another viewer writes: “This is grim watching. Are we meant to feel sorry for her?”
Someone else adds: “If producers had any decency they would pull the plug on this. Really not fair on Holly and Jessica’s families.”
“I must be getting old because I’m struggling not to find it all in the most absurdly bad taste,” agrees another.
The show is a three-part series that explores the investigation into Maxine Carr and her boyfriend Ian Huntley, now aged 49, who was imprisoned for the murders of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.
Huntley was a school caretaker at Soham Village College, where he lured 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells into his home and murdered them both – before getting rid of their bodies in a ditch at an airbase in Suffolk.
Carr worked as a teaching assistant at the school and provided Huntley with a false alibi to help cover up his crimes.
In one interview, she called Holly ‘a little angel’ and described Jessica as a ‘very funny’ little girl.
She also joined in with search parties that looked for the two schoolchildren, as per The Mirror.
Huntley was eventually caught and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with the High Court later imposing a minimum term of 40 years.
Carr received three-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice by knowingly providing her boyfriend with a false alibi.
However, she only served 21 months of her sentence and was released under a new identity in 2004.
After serving her sentence, Carr changed her identity and went into hiding due to the intense public and media scrutiny surrounding her case.
The details of her life since then are not widely known, as she has remained out of the public eye to maintain her anonymity and safety.
Huntley is now described as a ‘skinny old man’ with a troubled prison life in the Mirror.
Huntley, currently housed in HMP Frankland, has faced significant hardships in prison, including multiple attacks from fellow inmates and health issues.
He has had a history of erratic behavior, showing both arrogance and deep remorse at different times.
Despite his attempts to appear remorseful in recorded messages, Huntley remains a highly controversial figure, known for his violent past and the brutal nature of his crimes.
Huntley and Carr met each other in 1999 when she was 22 and Huntley was 25, at a nightclub in Grimsby.
According to Carr, she was ‘instantly attracted’ to him because of his pleasant personality and they soon began dating, as per The Sun.
Maxine was originally released on Channel 5 in 2022 and it stars Jemma Carlton – in her first television role – as Maxine Carr, and Scott Reid (Line Of Duty) as Huntley.
At the time of its release, the true crime series was poorly received by critics – with many slamming Maxine for portraying Carr as a sympathetic character in the show.
As James Hibbs writes for the Radio Times: “Perhaps because the creatives behind Maxine were so aware of how contentious it would be, the series never quite gets to any larger point.
“Instead, it skirts around numerous potential insights, but never fully commits to them.”
Channel 5’s director of programmes Ben Frow defended the documentary at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, saying: “We did debate, should we [or] shouldn’t we, how do we [approach it].
“I am confident that we are in a very good space with it. I feel very proud of it. I think we have been deeply respectful to the victims, whilst shining a light on some very challenging issues that Maxine Carr lived with.
“I’m not making any excuses for her, but it’s an interesting way of looking at a very well-told story. This is a different prism through which we’re telling that story.”
The show has since dropped on Netflix in the UK, and Britbox in the US, meaning the backlash looks set to continue.
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