Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes is worth watching if:

You are interested in the history of crime and don’t know much about Ted Bundy.

You are more interested in learning than seeing a crazy plot twist.

You can’t get enough of the true crime genre.

Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes is not worth watching if:

You know everything about Ted Bundy.

You need your true crime stories to be truly spectacular.

You’re expecting to find some groundbreaking new material.

Pros:

A fascinating look at one of history’s most notorious yet charismatic killers.

Doesn’t overstay its welcome at only 4 episodes and less than a 4 hour run time.

Lots of rare archival footage from the 70s and 80s.

Cons:

The taped ‘conversations’ are just a small part of the package.

Doesn’t uncover anything brand new.

Nothing original or amazing in terms of presentation.

score: 75% CHILLIN

Another day, another true crime doc available for streaming. This time it’s a short four-episode series on the notorious murderer Ted Bundy.

Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes takes a historic look in chronological order at the societal wrecking ball that was Ted Bundy. It starts with the very first time police suspected a string of disappearing women could be the result of a murderer, moves to the ensuing panic and manhunt, proceeds to the court case, then goes into all the aftermath.

Going off the title you might expect the show to be mainly clips of Bundy diving into his inner-most sadistic thoughts, but that really isn’t the case. Clips of Bundy are used frequently, but usually it’s just to give some context to an event, not explain his thoughts or feelings.

The show really is more about the event that was the killings rather than Bundy himself. It focuses on stuff like how the media was reacting at the time, what local women were thinking at the time, how emerging technologies played a role in solving the case, etc…

For those who weren’t alive at the time of peak Bundy hysteria, the show does a great job at framing the societal scene, giving you a much better perspective on the events than you’d get from quickly scanning Wikipedia.

If you aren’t very familiar with the story of Ted Bundy you’ll enjoy a handful of twists and turns that took place in the real-life story. Even if you are familiar, you’re sure to discover some new things.

While it doesn’t set the true crime doc on its head, Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes is a well-made and fascinating documentary for anyone interested in criminology or the history of crime.