Dirty John satisfies true-crime cravings

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This article was published 02/03/2019 (2588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

True crime is all the rage these days. The genre has long held a morbid fascination for writers (and readers), going back to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. But with the rise of podcasting and streaming, regional stories of murder and malfeasance are reaching an international audience.

Serial and My Favorite Murder intrigue podcast listeners, while Netflix’s Making a Murderer and The Keepers were watercooler moments in an era of such show saturation that the concept barely exists anymore.

So, the new eight-episode Netflix series Dirty John (which originally aired on Bravo) has a slightly different tone than other ripped-from-the-headlines movies of the week. It is based on a true story, one whose increasingly bizarre twists and turns were uncovered by the dogged reporting of Los Angeles Times writer Christopher Goffard, but Goffard also produced a popular podcast by the same name that ran in conjunction with his newspaper pieces, so the ins and outs of the case are better known to a wide audience.

Accordingly, the TV dramatization feels as if it’s hewing quite closely to reality and the facts in evidence. It doesn’t have the sheen of an HBO production, sometimes teetering on the edge of Lifetime movie melodrama, occasionally feeling a bit like a crime-story re-enactment.

But thanks to stars Connie Britton (Nashville, Friday Night Lights) and Eric Bana (Munich, Hulk), the story of a sweet, somewhat naive California woman taken advantage of by a sociopathic conman is both relatable and terrifying.

That’s not a spoiler, by the way: Dirty John lets viewers know almost immediately that handsome anesthetist John Meehan (Bana) is not the catch his online dating profile makes him appear; he basically arrives at Debra Newell’s door wrapped in a giant red flag.

But 50-ish interior designer Debra (Britton, whose warmth is essential to the character) might not be the best judge of character — she’s been married four times — and she’s suffered a string of terrible dates with overtly inappropriate people. A charming doctor who dotes on her is a nice change from her spoiled, endlessly needy daughters, who love her but treat her like an ATM (or a Gucci wallet — these girls have probably never used an ATM in their lives).

And though her pampered princesses Veronica (British actor Juno Temple, doing excellent California up-speak) and Terra (Julia Garner of Ozark) hate John pretty much on sight, their concern for their mother is secondary to their self-absorption, while her mother Arlane (Jean Smart) adores him — and Arlane has every reason to be wary of sons-in-law.

Any woman watching Debra convince herself to believe John’s practised lies will either cringe in “there but for the grace of God” recognition or pass judgment on her gullibility — or both.

But although she’s the kind of casually affluent Orange County woman who thinks nothing of having tens of thousands of dollars stashed in a Chanel bag at home “for emergencies,” Debra isn’t a born patsy. She’s a smart, successful business owner, but conflict-averse in her personal life.

And Dirty John is careful not to lay blame; the show also spotlights the string of prosecutors, detectives and hospitals that let John slip through their fingers or failed to follow up on his crimes, the college friends who laughed off his transgressions.

Bana is key here: John has to make scrubs look sexy (check!), convince us he’s head-over-heels in love (check!) and then show us the evil that’s been lurking all along (double-check!). The way the light seems to drain out of him when he’s confronted with his lies is chilling, transforming him from dreamboat to dead-eyed shark.

Even as his misdeeds are exposed — the last few episodes are shocking — John remains essentially unknowable. Dirty John might not get to the bottom of his behaviour, but true-crime lovers will appreciate the show’s attention to detail.

jill.wilson@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @dedaumier