Summary
Another true-crime hit for Netflix, this time documenting a French tragedy with riveting results.
In answer to the question posed by the title of this five-part docuseries, who, indeed? It’s a dramatic conundrum likely to be not at all familiar even to true-crime aficionados, having been plucked from the French headlines of 1984, when young Grégory Villemin was found on October 16th, in the waters of the Vologne river in Vosges, France. He was four years old. Who Killed Little Gregory explores his murder, which remains unsolved.
True-crime remains perhaps the sharpest arrow in Netflix’s quiver, and for good reason. The human-interest appeal is obvious and a binge-able series like this — Who Killed Little Gregory? has only five episodes, and ends most on a cliffhanger — is guaranteed to do numbers, despite it being in French. (Once again Netflix’s superior language and subtitle options make this a minor issue, but you know how people are.)
Directed by Gilles Marchand with great dramatic consideration, this is an absorbing docuseries chronicling an inherently involving real-life case, with its ultimate lack of resolution likely to prompt all kinds of amateur sleuthing just like how Making a Murderer did.
By genre-standards, Who Killed Little Gregory? isn’t anything out of the ordinary — which is a strength, really. The familiarity of the format — if not exactly the subject — will entice an eager crowd that the series deserves. Speculation about what really happened should give it longer legs. With Who Killed Little Gregory Netflix has another true-crime hit on its hands.
