The Keepers Season 1

6.5/10 If you need another reason to feel depressed and disgusted with the state of the world, look no further than the Netflix original docu-series, “The Keeper”. While there is some good that comes out of this series, “The Keepers” starts off as what you think will be a murder mystery but then evolves into a shocking, in depth analysis of pedophilia, rape, abuse, etc. at the hands of the Catholic church and the authorities that have covered it all up. Before I get to the positive aspects of this seven-episode series, I will get the negatives out of the way first. Usually in a docu-series the film makers will slowly trickle out information, ending each episode on a new, shocking revelation that shakes you to your core so you have to keep watching. While director Ryan White does slowly trickle out relevant and meaningful information, I strongly felt that the most horrific and emotion inducing, shocking elements all came relatively early on in the series. The second episode alone had the greatest impact on me while watching, making the remainder of the season seem slightly less intriguing overall in comparison. Not to say there were not revelations later on in the season, but the meat and potatoes of the series comes out pretty early. While not downplaying the immense importance of what this series covers, I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed that the focus of a lot of the series shifts from the unsolved murder(s) to the Catholic pedophilia, only because I knew nothing of this murder case and was curious to learn more, yet I already knew a great deal about the pedophilia in the Catholic church. Best Picture Oscar winner, “Spotlight” came out less than two years before this series, which, to no fault of the people working on this series, stole a lot of the thunder in bringing awareness to how vastly rampant the crimes of the Catholic church were. It is never a bad thing to remind people of evil and spark enough outrage for people to demand justice, so I am glad this series exists, despite how saddening and horrifying watching it can be. If you yourself are a survivor of sexual assault, you will have to make up your own mind about watching a series like this or not. As for where this series succeeds, White and company do accomplish a lot and bring about some much needed hope to an otherwise heart breaking subject matter. While Facebook has largely become a steaming dumpster fire, breeding negativity and division, this series highlights a group of brave men and women who are either survivors of the horrific abuse that took place in their Catholic high school or attended the school in general. Thanks to Facebook, this group of people have been able to communicate, swap information, provide tips and lift each other up, letting people know they are not alone, all through a couple of Facebook groups, which was uplifting to see. The music in this series is extremely well done and the B roll footage was brilliant. White used black and white reenactment footage when people were talking about what went on back in the late 1960s, blurring the pedophiles’ faces to match how memories can become repressed or foggy when faced with post-traumatic stress disorder. Everyone relevant to the subject matter was either interviewed, declined interview requests or were too traumatized to take part, which the film makers kindly respected. Besides exposing what happened, this series is a great reminder of how corrupt the FBI was, is and forever will be (they refuse to legally hand over Freedom of Information Act documents going on seven years now) and how the city of Baltimore too has extreme corruption problems (not shocking considering the same political party has controlled it for decades). In the years since this series debuted, public outrage has caused some mild steps to be taken but the Catholic church still refuses to cooperate and covers up evidence. You may be an everyday, God loving Catholic who is a good person but the absolute disgusting corruption and pedophilia still ravages the sick bastards at the highest levels of the clergy and there still seems to be very little accountability. A well made docu-series that might be a hard watch but is enlightening and important, “The Keepers” is worth keeping an eye on.

#CesNikAtNite / #JeepersKeepers / #MassCorruption / #ThrowOffTheMaskell / #PedoFilesOfEvidence / #WeNeedLessTalkBaltiMoreAction