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Chaos: The Manson Murders - Netflix

Posted on 3/13/25 at 7:58 pm
Posted by Geaux17
Member since Jan 2006
1650 posts
Posted on 3/13/25 at 7:58 pm
This may be one of the worst book adaptations I have seen in a long time. What was this even trying to be? A documentary? They left out like half the book.

The whole origin story of that book is that it started as a magazine article then turned into a 20 year long investigation by the author and Netflix said, “Yea, let’s do this in an hour and half” ?
This should have been a limited series.
Posted by JW
Los Angeles
Member since Jul 2004
5154 posts
Posted on 3/13/25 at 8:07 pm to
Agreed .... it felt like just a stylized revisitation of what people generally know about the crimes and barely connected to the book.
Posted by Geaux17
Member since Jan 2006
1650 posts
Posted on 3/16/25 at 9:31 am to
Very disappointing…was looking forward to this
Posted by Lawyered
The Sip
Member since Oct 2016
36775 posts
Posted on 3/16/25 at 9:40 am to
I didn’t care for the book and wondered how on earth they would show all
Those mini threads and tangents of connection between Manson/CIA in the miniseries

Guess they didn’t at all. I knew that would be terrible
Posted by facher08
Baton Rouge
Member since Aug 2011
5580 posts
Posted on 3/16/25 at 8:31 pm to
This is disappointing. I'm on the last chapter of the book, and was really looking forward to this. I read somewhere online that a doc based on CHAOS was supposed to come out years ago, but O'Neil pulled out over creative differences. I can't imagine how bad that one was if this is the one they green lit, and it's still underwhelming.
Posted by Geaux17
Member since Jan 2006
1650 posts
Posted on 3/16/25 at 9:05 pm to
I can’t believe O’Neil agreed to this
Posted by hogcard1964
Alabama
Member since Jan 2017
17141 posts
Posted on 3/16/25 at 9:08 pm to
It was extremely silly.
Posted by facher08
Baton Rouge
Member since Aug 2011
5580 posts
Posted on 3/24/25 at 4:24 pm to
quote:

This should have been a limited series.


I just finished the book and though I had previously read these reviews, I decided to watch anyway. I completely agree. There was way too much pertinent information to cover in only 90 minutes.

Apart from a casual tie in to MKUltra and West, the doc was basically a rehashing of what everyone already knew about the Manson murders. They barely touched on the two Smiths. I'm not sure if the mentioned David Smith at all apart from showing his name on the clinic door. Perhaps most glaringly, they glossed over all of the lapses in communication (possibly on purpose) between all the branches of law enforcement throughout the process. Bugliosi ignored so much evidence in order to have his Helter Skelter narrative make sense. Guenther and Whatley weren't even mentioned once.
Posted by TheTideMustRoll
Birmingham, AL
Member since Dec 2009
10003 posts
Posted on 3/24/25 at 4:53 pm to
I haven't read the book and didn't even know there was a book. But I checked out the documentary anyway because it looked interesting. It started promisingly enough, bringing MK ULTRA into the picture, but then it dropped that angle completely after doing nothing more than mentioning that Manson had been a regular at the same clinic that one of the CIA doctors was known to have worked at. From that point forward it was just a straight retelling of the murders themselves. I turned it off about 15 or 20 minutes from the end when it became clear that the whole "Manson was working for the CIA" angle was not going to be paid off, at all.
Posted by dallastiger55
Jennings, LA
Member since Jan 2010
32874 posts
Posted on 3/24/25 at 5:14 pm to
the book is top 5 all time for me. Its such a long and in-depth book.

They tried to do that in 90 minutes and barely scratched the surface.
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