Unsolved Mysteries has been around since 1987, making it an early pioneer in true crime TV—a genre that’s only gotten more popular in recent years thanks to streaming. Netflix revived Unsolved Mysteries in 2020, with a fifth entry in that format arriving this week. While volume five is the shortest season yet, it might also be pound for pound the weirdest, which is saying a lot because Unsolved Mysteries is no stranger to freaky oddities.
This time around, just one episode, “Park Bench Murders,” hews to the classic true-crime formula, tracing an exceptionally baffling double murder. It’s the kind of case that old-school host Robert Stack would have framed by addressing the audience and solemnly asking for their help in solving the crime, a task now handled by on-screen text at the end of the episode.
Elsewhere, however, things lean even harder into the “mystery” part of Unsolved Mysteries; while it would have been nice to see more bizarre true-crime cases included—frankly, those are often the scariest stories—it feels like this grouping was carefully selected for a pre-Halloween binge.
“My Paranormal Partner” follows a paranormal researcher whose spirit guide (improbably named “Becky”) helps him investigate hauntings, and the fellow researchers who tag along to verify his findings. “Mysterious Mutilations” digs into a rash of recent cattle mutilations on ranches across Oregon, and “The Roswell UFO Incident” examines the famous claims that an alien craft crash-landed in 1947 New Mexico.
In each instance, questions are raised and evidence is puzzled through, but—as is always true of Unsolved Mysteries—it’s left to the viewer to ponder what they believe is true. Most everyone who appears in “My Paranormal Partner” seems convinced that Don Philips is indeed communicating with a spirit, but the viewer doesn’t get much in the way of proof. We hear a fellow researcher speak about Don’s ability to ascertain an image inside a sealed envelope (with Becky’s help), but we don’t actually see the test take place. The biggest howler, though, is probably when someone fact-checks what Don claims to be the ghostly Becky’s account of her demise, comes up with nothing, and decides Becky lied to Don and is probably a demon, while the audience is left wondering if perhaps Don made her up instead.
The other episodes deliver more satisfaction, with “The Roswell UFO Incident” repurposing footage from a 1989 Unsolved Mysteries episode on the same topic (complete with a vintage Robert Stack cameo!), but updated with—well, unfortunately not really any new evidence, but proof positive that people are just as fascinated by Roswell as they were decades ago. The episode shares archival interviews with Roswell eyewitnesses as well as tales passed down across generations of their descendants; it also lays out the government response over the years, from the perceived initial cover-up to the more recent “declassification of” reports on UFOs, or as they’re called now, “UAPs.” A certain amount of the episode is devoted to UFO believers debunking the debunkers, and while—again—no definitive answers emerge, it more than makes good on its claim that Roswell is “the grandaddy of them all” when it comes to cold cases.
But the most oddly compelling episode is “Mysterious Mutilations,” which opens with a warning about gruesome animal violence—well-earned thanks to photos and video documenting disturbing cattle mutilations from the past few years. The whole segment is shot through with an unnerving blend of folksiness, in its interviews with ranchers matter-of-factly describing what it was like to find one of their cows horribly mangled, and genuine what-the-fuck-ness, as highly credible experts explain that in every instance, the animals were found drained of blood (but with no blood around their bodies), and no tracks or evidence that a predator caused their demise. UFOs? Sinister cultists? Top-secret government experiments? Unsolved Mysteries doesn’t even pretend to know, but in this episode especially, the terrifying thrill of not knowing becomes the main reason to watch.
Unsolved Mysteries is streaming now on Netflix.
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