The Keepers Review: God is Watching.

This guy is something f**king else.

The Keepers surprised me. That much I can say for it. From the start you seem to know what you're getting. The Baltimore Catholic church wrapped up in the murder of a nun. It's like Spotlight but with somehow even more brazenly obvious collusion with the city. Sad to say that in this world the tale of unchecked pedophile priests is actually getting kinda stale. Think about how jaded we are now; or rather think about what people like Father Maskell have forced us to become. These people made our world that much darker and untrustworthy, we should never forget what they did. For that alone, The Keepers would be this year's Making a Murderer and then some.

It mostly is, though the first 4 episodes are basically all covered in the trailer.  That compounded with a slow start began to grind on my nerves a bit. The introductions to the scooby gang of 60-something investigators are a bit much as well. You ever been the new kid in school and the first friend you make tells you folks here call him "Maverick"... and you know in your bones that no one calls him Maverick? It's initially pretty hard to root for them because they chomp down on their 15 minutes so hard. They haven't let this story go for decades and they deserve it and all... but that don't make it less hard to watch.

Ah man, the suspects episode is soooooooooo good!

Honestly, Cathy's murder is the least interesting part of the whole story. It's actually almost lame by my standards, I just got done reading about the toy box killer. A sleep aid... he wasn't. But the doc smartly treats the murder as a lead rather than a destination. It's rare, but in this case the cover up was FAR less awful than the crimes.


First you hear about Sister Cathy's death, then all about "Mr. Sunshine" Father Maskell, and then? Then it gets amazing. You see, there are some holes in the accuser's stories. Their case was thrown out of court for sound reasons. I booed at the screen the second I heard "repressed memories" and the doc heard me. Near the end it takes it's time presenting the defense. Playing devil's advocate way harder than I expected it to. That witness is the star of the show and a full 15 minutes are dedicated to essentially calling her a liar.

It takes a much more journalistic tone once all the stories are told. It presents everything they got, more evidence for one side than the other, but they make every case that can be made. Let's face it... a lot of people die in Baltimore. It's entirely possible Cathy's death had nothing to do with Maskell's abuse. I love that it lets me make that judgment. In the end, all we need to clear everything up are publicly available documents the city of Baltimore refused to hand over for 4 years straight.

That's a pretty interesting story on it's own... doncha' think?