Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Vol. 4 on Netflix, Where The Legacy Docuseries Tackles More Intrigue From The Annals Of True Crime

Unsolved Mysteries returns to Netflix for the fourth volume of its reboot at the hands of executive producer Shawn Levy – also an exec producer of Stranger Things , among many other things – this time with five new episodes that, in keeping with series tradition, run the gamut from historical subjects, modern-day cold case murders, and whiffs of the paranormal. There is no Robert Stack lending gravity as an intoning host/narrator. But the iconic, quavering theme music remains, and there’s more connective tissue with the involvement of Terry Dunn Meurer and John Cosgrove, creators of the original Unsolved Mysteries . One interesting note: the series titles have been tweaked with a nod toward the color palette, typography and visual aesthetic of Stranger Things.

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Opening Shot: Footage from the 1959 film Jack the Ripper appears before a cut to contemporary London and a double-decker bus emblazoned with ads for a Jack the Ripper site tour. “People have heard the name of Jack the Ripper, even if they don’t know what Jack the Ripper did…”

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The Gist: The first installment in the fourth volume of the rebooted Unsolved Mysteries takes a methodical approach to the 19th century serial killer’s crimes. In the wee hours of August 31, 1888, Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols was found murdered in the streets of Whitechapel, a poor district in London’s East End, with a deep wound running from her breastone to her abdomen. It was a ghastly discovery, but the side streets and dark alleys of Whitechapel were quickly struck by another, equally horrific murder. Like Nichols, Annie Chapman was impoverished, and had turned to sex work in order to earn a meager living, or at least the cost of a bed for the night. She was found horribly mutilated, with her womb removed. And as Scotland Yard’s investigation floundered, word of the killings went viral in the news media of 19th century London.

Guiding us through the Jack the Ripper story in Unsolved Mysteries are crime historians Lindsay Siviter and Adam Wood, author and historian Paul Begg, and author and tour guide Richard Jones, who point out how the public fixated on the grisly facts of the crimes as much as the shreds of circumstantial evidence, like a leather apron discovered near one of the murder scenes, or a bloody swatch of fabric thought to belong to one of the victims. Moody reenactments account for much of the visuals here, with frequent cutaways to the experts interviewed, and Unsolved draws on both current true crime docs and procedural-style murder shows to represent the movements of Jack the Ripper’s victims, like onscreen timelines and visits to the original crime scenes in the East End of today.

“Dear boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me. But they won’t fix me just yet.” As letters attributed to “Jack the Ripper” began to circulate, police were no closer to determining either the identity of the murderer or the reasons for their actions. But as the death toll continued to climb and efforts to stop it continued, investigators also utilized techniques that were either in their infancy or completely unknown at the time, like crime scene photography and attempts to discern a mental profile of the killer.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take your pick. When it debuted in 1987, Unsolved Mysteries was the only network series doing this kind of thing. But in our era, true crime is an industry unto itself. Recent examples include Never Seen Again , No One Saw a Thing , and Files of the Unexplained .

Our Take: Another innovative element of the original Unsolved Mysteries was its ability to crowdsource answers to its queries, and that angle is successfully revived in this new version. It’s a little bit of old news to dig back into the Victorian-era saga of Jack the Ripper without any new leads or fresh evidence in the mix. But then again, the grisly killings remain one of the most prominent unsolved cases of all time. Could someone streaming the series have Jack the Ripper’s identity tucked away in an old steamer trunk, or a stack of physical evidence sitting forgotten in some corner? Maybe, maybe not. But even as Jack the Ripper has become lore, the killer’s story also includes many of the bullet points favored by today’s true crime docs. Bloody murder scenes with tons of unique and godawful details (“The killer made off with her uterus and left kidney”), a group of people targeted for their gender and occupation, and a certain amount of hysteria, in both the news of the day and as the legend has grown across numerous works of fiction. It’s no wonder we’ve also got docuseries about serial killers named “Ripper” in a kind of dark homage to the original culprit.

In other words, a subject like Jack the Ripper remains as true crime-worthy as Unsolved Mysteries itself does, as it offers sturdy, straightforward episodes, easily consumable in one sitting, that don’t sensationalize and keep the focus on how the profiled crimes could still be solved.

Sex and Skin: Nothing here, but observers’ descriptions of the bodily harm Jack the Ripper inflicted on the killer’s female victims are fittingly gruesome.

Parting Shot: Just as the original series did, the rebooted Unsolved Mysteries closes with an entreaty from the producers. (No cuts to a live call center like in the old days, but still.) “If you have any documents or artifacts related to the Jack the Ripper murders, go to Unsolved.com…”

Sleeper Star: At one point, crime historian Lindsay Siviter recites from memory a portion of the 1888 “From Hell” letter, often attributed to the real Jack the Ripper. Siviter even rolls her R’s for maximum effect. “I send you half the kidney I took from one woman. Preserved it for you. T’other piece I fried and ate. It was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out…”

Most Pilot-y Line: “It happened over 135 years ago, and yet we’re still trying to solve the mystery.” Truly one of history’s most infamous “unsolved mysteries.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The new version of Unsolved Mysteries has kept what made the original series so compelling while refreshing itself with techniques taken from true crime storytelling in the modern streaming era.

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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