Diego Armando Guerrero
Netflix is probably the most popular streaming on-demand service in the country and maybe the world. Netflix has many TV shows, movies, and documentaries that have all been cut off from cable TV or out of theaters. Also, Netflix has started to add its original TV shows, movies, and documentaries. CNN wrote an article about how many subscribers Netflix had and how it continues to grow through the years; as of October 16, 2019, Netflix has 158.3 million subscribers.
“Don’t F**k with Cats” is an original documentary that was recommended to me by my uncle. When he told me to watch it, I didn’t it would be that interesting. As the title reads, I thought that it was going to be a bunch of cats just fighting or cats being mean to their owners. I was completely wrong; this documentary is probably one of the most cold-hearted, crazy, and intriguing documentaries that I have ever seen. Netflix is known for having very good original documentaries about crime. For example, “Wild Wild Country” about Maclain Way and “The Keepers” about the killing of Sister Cathy Cesnik who was a nun in a catholic high school in Baltimore, and many more. “Don’t F**k with Cat” shows the journey of a group of online nerds who become amateur detectives who are trying to find a man who uploaded a video of him killing two kittens. The documentary is cut into three parts and leaves viewers wanting to watch more even though the story is really disturbing.
This story is incredible. The group of online detectives made a Facebook group where people can join and comment on their feelings about the manhunt for the Kitten Killer and try to stop him before he acts again. In the video that was uploaded, the group analyzed the video frame by frame to find clues on the whereabouts of the killer. It was cool how they paid so much attention to the smallest details like the type of plug sockets in the room, cigarette packets that were left out, etc. They also paid attention to a blanket that was on the bed of the killer’s room and tracked down the blanket through eBay to find more hints about the location of the killer.
The components of “Don’t F**k With Cats” that are used in the film are like those from the very famous TV show “Catfish.” The way the group would use Google Maps to try to pinpoint the location of the killer is sometimes used in “Catfish” to find the person who is stealing someone’s identity. The group conducted an intensive search and made many accusations about the manhunt, ultimately leading to one falsely accused suspected to commit suicide because the number of threats that he was receiving was too much for him to handle. This has the group of amateur detectives wondering if they are solving the crime or simply engaging in the game that the actual killer wants them to play. This is very important because the group is conflicted about whether they should keep going and call the authorities or just give up. Deanna Thompson is one of the documentary’s narrators and one of the key members of the group who is very skilled with computers and knows how to track things down using technology, but that could be the biggest problem with the series. She believes that the killer just wants them to follow him knowing that they will never find him.
Months have passed and the group receives an email showing another video. This video is more disturbing than the one before. It shows someone killing a man with some type of tool. The group looks very closely and sees that the killer is also the Kitten Killer! The group quickly
starts their investigation again and this time warns the authorities. They find out that the killer is in Montreal, Canada and they call their police department. The police department did not take it seriously at first, but something big happened! You need to watch to find out.
This documentary was very well done, just like all the rest of Netflix’s original crime documentaries. I feel that it could have shown a bit more about the victims and not only focus on the person who committed the crime. But at the end of the series, we find out that all the killer wanted was to be famous. And here we are watching his actions in this amazing documentary about him, giving him the infamous exposure that he was looking for. Did he win?
