Nightmare fathers and father figures have been featured in a sobering number of documentaries this year, from “Girl in the Picture” to “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey” to “Our Father” to “Captive Audience” as well as the fictional but fact-based limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven” and “The Staircase” — and the pattern continues with the Netflix series “I Just Killed My Dad.” This is a thorough look at a notorious case in which a 17-year-old in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called 911 on June 3, 2019, and confessed to killing his father.
Directed by true-crime documentary master Skye Borgman (“Abducted in Plain Sight,” “The Girl in the Picture”), the three-part series begins with 18-year-old Anthony Templet sitting down for an interview and saying it’s important for him to tell his story because “my life is on the line and I want people to know that I’m not crazy, and I’m not a murderer and I’m innocent.” Cut to the audio of that 911 call, with then 17-year-old Templet saying in a matter-of-fact voice, “I just killed my dad. What do I need to tell you?”
