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by EasyToAssemble_Archive
Just watched 'The Ted Bundy Tapes' both out of semi-morbid curiosity and want of anything better to watch. It's actually surprisingly good, and a cut-above the usual sensationalist serial killer documentaries where you have a bunch of voxpops telling us how "they were the embodiment of evil" as if we weren't able to grasp the scale of the crimes without someone pointing it out.I always feel a little voyeuristic and rubbernecky watching any documentary covering tragic events, but this one at least illuminates some of the more benign but important details surrounding the case, such as poor exchanges of information between state forces, and the media's part in feeding off the fear of the bogeyman (which he was, but they weren't helping...).The weirdest takewaway was Bundy himself though, centrally his refusal to believe things could ever catch up with him. Or maybe he knew, but refused to display anything other than chipper enthusiasm to the world at large (see: the numerous times he nods and winks to cameras whilst he's in chains on perp-walks). During the course of this series, he looks less like his "charming" cliche, and more like an unhinged optimist who refuses to face any negative truth about their situation. Somehow though, the worst part was the footage of crowds that gathered on the day of execution, which included car-boot traders flogging electric chair pin-badges and $5 "Tuesday is Fry-day" t-shirts to the baying mobs, the irony of all that being lost on everyone.