Review: The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness

The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness (2021) is a four-part, true crime docu-series from Netflix. The series was directed by Joshua Zeman.

Between 1976-77, New York City was gripped in the clutches of fear. Someone going by the moniker the Son of Sam was murdering people with a .44 caliber revolver. Police were immediately on the case. However, when it comes to acts of violence that seem purely random, solving these things can take some time. Eventually, the NYPD arrested a man, name of David Berkowitz, who confessed to, and was sentenced to jail for the Son of Sam killings. Case closed, right?

Maury Terry, an investigative journalist had been following the Son of Sam case since the very beginning. While they NYPD, and thus the people of NYC were satisfied with Berkowitz’s conviction, Terry was not. There were too many discrepancies between witness accounts, police sketches, and the details of Berkowitz’s movements for Terry to completely believe the narrative that not only was Berkowitz the Son of Sam, but that he had acted alone in the brutal slayings.

With the help of a few individuals who were pertinent to the case, Terry continued his investigation unabated, long after Berkowitz was locked up. As Terry followed various clues, and tips from his sources, he found himself going down a rabbit hole that was larger and stranger than he ever could have imagined. A rabbit hole that was connected to a series of other rabbit holes that found him popping his head up out of them, in all sorts of crazy places. Eventually, Terry would end up proposing a scenario that was almost too bonkers to be true. Almost.

The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness takes the audience through the entire story. From the first killing, to the conviction of Berkowitz, to every utterly insane detail and connection that Terry unearths, covering a span of over 40 years. Was it any good you ask? Excellent question. This ain’t gonna take long.

Right off the bat, there are likely plenty of others, like myself, who enjoyed their first experience with one of these four-part, true crime docu-series’ from Netflix, that they will automatically be into the next one, no prodding nor trailers necessary. I, my own self, personally was thoroughly impressed with most of the ones I have watched. Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019), The Ripper (2020), and Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021) were all, in my estimation, very good television. Absolutely riveting stuff, thorough and provocative, delivered in a successfully dramatic fashion.

I think the only other one I watched was Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021). That one was definitely not as good as the others. It started strong, but goes off the rails, and, in my opinion, became quite stupid before the thing concluded. So stupid in fact, that I almost contemplated not finishing it. I did finish it, however, and my opinion remained unchanged.

But what about the new one? Even though one of the four was a stinker, Netflix is still batting .750 with these things. Does The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness pack the same punch as Ted Bundy, or Richard Ramirez did? Or was it less of a descent into darkness, and more of a descent into bullshit, like Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel was?

I am pleased to be able to tell you that The Sons of Sam was on par with Netflix’s other serial killer docs. When I realized that I was getting a chance to preview this series, I was instantly excited. I looked at my clock and thought to myself, there is no way I have the time to watch this whole thing right now, maybe I’ll just check out the first episode. However, as the series began to unfold, I was absolutely hooked, and over four hours later, I had finished the whole series, appointments and commitments be damned. I couldn’t turn the Goddamn thing off.

At first, I was surprised by how few of the details of the Son of Sam case I was aware of. I knew the basics, but that was about it. Something I was even less aware of, was how much uncertainty there was regarding this case. The series takes you down the same rabbit hole that Maury Terry went down, and as the details start unfolding, the whole thing becomes more and more bizarre as the series advances. It’s likely that my jaw hung agape for a greater chunk of the runtime than it stayed closed. Admittedly, I’m an absolute sucker for well-constructed drama, so your experience may not be quite as intense as mine was, but yeah. Solid work here. Solid, strong work.

Now, before I let you go, I should mention that there was one caveat that kept The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness from being equally as successful as the others I liked. And before we proceed, I will add the disclaimer that, while I don’t plan to spoil anything directly, I will be talking about something that happened about two-thirds of the way through that bothered me. If you want to remain completely unspoiled, bail out now.

So, the show is cruising along nicely, the story unfolding like a black rose in bloom, when we, the audience, find out that not only was Maury Terry investigating this case, he was also writing a book about it. In fact, as far as I can tell, The Sons of Sam is basically the movie version of Maury Terry’s book The Ultimate Evil. All of the evidence that Terry uncovered was documented in his book, which was originally published in 1989.

At first, it didn’t bother me too much. Then as things wore on, it kind of got under my skin a little bit. On a whim, I looked up Terry’s book on Amazon. I wanted to see how much it is going for now, so I can see how much copies of it start going for once the series drops. Wouldn’t you know it, there is a brand new printing of the book, with an ad for the Netflix series right on the cover. No shit. All of a sudden, this gigantic puzzle that I had believed was skillfully assembled by one or more extremely talented editors and their director, now began to seem like the world’s longest, most entertaining infomercial.

I don’t quite know what the deal is, but if I didn’t know any better (and I don’t know whether I do or not), I’d wager a guess that one of the higher-ups at Netflix owned the rights to reprint Terry’s book, and decided to use the global presence of Netflix to advertise it. Certainly when this thing is released, The Ultimate Evil is going to shoot to the top of the Amazon bestseller list. My inner cynic sez: well played Netflix.

In conclusion, The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness is an excellent mini-series. I enjoyed almost every minute of it. Engrossing and riveting, viewers the world over will spend the duration of this series bolted to their chairs, their minds afire with attempts to debunk, bunk, or re-bunk the assertions made by Maury Terry via this series. Most will not be bothered by the connection to the book in the way that I was, and that’s fine.

To be as fair as I can be about it, the commercial connection did not demean nor diminish the value of the show, nor did it lessen it’s dramatic impact. It was just that for me, this docu-series evolved into one whose goal was not necessarily to set any kind of historical record straight, but also, and probably more importantly, to sell books. Regardless, The Sons of Sam succeeds at being marvelously entertaining, and educational, even if there are a few extra bucks to be made on this one. And come on, isn’t that the only reason to produce anything in 2021 and beyond?