The true-crime thriller is hard to nail down. If you embellish the truth too much, you undermine the terror of what actually happened. If you stick to reality, you risk losing narrative tension. But every so often we get a true-crime thriller fictionalized just enough that when you research the real story afterward, you’re shocked at how much was pulled from real life. Netflix’s latest crime thriller is exactly this, but with one huge twist. It’s bright, cheery, and floral, but it never lets you forget that as normal as its environment looks, it’s full of terror.
Woman of the Hour is a thriller based on the real-life events surrounding serial murderer Rodney Alcala. In between his brutal murders of dozens of victims, he made an appearance on The Dating Game. Even wilder, he won, but the impression he left on the unlucky bachelorette was less than flattering.
