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Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054' On Netflix, A Docuseries About Latin America's Deadliest Air Disaster And The Families Who Still Want Answers
A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054is a three-part docuseries, directed by Angelo Defanti, that examines the deadliest air disaster in Latin American history and its aftermath 18 years later. On a rainy night in July 2007, TAM Airlines flight 3054 skidded down the runway as it tried to land at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil. It ended up crashing into a building owned by TAM Airlines, and exploded. A total of 199 people were killed: all 187 passengers and crew on the plane, and 12 people on the ground. Opening Shot: A shot of a plane flying through rain clouds. The Gist: In the docuseries, director Angelo Defanti talks to survivors of the accident, namely people who worked in the building the plane crashed into, as well as families of people who died in the crash. There are also CGI reenactments that depict how authorities believe the accident proceeded, including just how the plane briefly went airborne again before crashing into the building. But much of the docuseries focuses on how an accident at Congohas Airport was almost bound to happen. Congohas is situated in São Paulo's city center, surrounded by city blocks with businesses and residences, and has a short runway with little room for pilots to course correct. While there is a newer international airport on the city's outskirts that was supposed to lighten the load on Congohas, the outmoded city airport was busier than ever by 2007, due to its central location. This caused overcrowded terminals, loaded planes and short tempers on the part of passengers and staff. The country's air infrastructure in general was strained at the time, suffering from delays and accidents. The victims' families are angry about the accident to this day, and blame Brazilian transportation authorities and the airline for letting the situation at Conhogas continue to get worse over time. In the third episode, Denise Abreu, chairman of Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (the Brazilian equivalent of the NTSB) at the time, is interviewed; she faced federal charges in the aftermath of the accident. What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A Tragedy Foretold: Flight3054 reminds us of another Netflix docuseries about an air disaster: MH370: The Plane That Disappeared. Our Take: Given that we're not at all familiar with the TAM flight 3054 crash, despite its horrific circumstances, A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 was certainly informative, giving us more than enough context about the accident without getting into the weeds about everything that preceded it. In so many docuseries about mass casualty events, things plod along because the producers and director want us to get all the context surrounding the time period first, then move on to the stories of some of the victims. In this series, though, the crash is at the outset of the first episode, with the filmmakers' goal to backfill information about the airport's shortcomings, the aviation crisis in Brazil at the time, and other contextual information as the investigation is examined. The tone of the storytelling from the first minute — even the title of the series — tells viewers that the idea of this accident's inevitability is going to be the major thrust of the show. Just the overview shots of Congohas, surrounded by city blocks, shows just how tenuous the situation was there — if you've ever flown in or out of Reagan National in DC, you know how tenuous that is. But it seemed like there was a perfect storm of events, no pun intended given the weather conditions the night of the crash, that made conditions ripe for an accident like this. Given the context about Brazil's aviation crisis that's filled in as the investigation unfolds — and the really awful way that the airline handled things in the aftermath — it's no wonder why the victims' families are still so angry 18 years later. Sex and Skin: None. Parting Shot: Clips of the second episode, where victims' families accuse TAM of disregarding passenger Star: The account of how Paulo Zani, who was working in the TAM Express building when the plane crashed into it, and a coworker escaped with their lives was harrowing to listen Pilot-y Line: While we're not huge fans of reenactments, we were impressed with the reenactments of the crash, likely done via detailed CGI. Our Call: STREAM IT. A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 is an impressive recounting of the deadliest airline crash in Latin American history, with the context of missteps that led to the crash doled out in a way that mirrors the crash's investigation. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn't kid himself: he's a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, Fast Company and elsewhere.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Yahoo
Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer' On Netflix, About The Stop-And-Start Search For The Gilgo Beach Killer
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer is a three-part docuseries, directed by Liz Garbus, that examines the case of the alleged Gilgo Beach Killer, Rex Heuermann, from the perspective of his victims and their families. Ten sets of remains were found in a relatively small area between December of 2010 and April of 2011, but Heuermann wasn't arrested for the murders until 2023. Opening Shot: 'May 1, 2010. Long Island, New York.' As we look at beach-side brush, we hear a 911 call from Shannan Gilbert. The Gist: The the search for Gilbert is what ended up being the catalyst that led law enforcement in Suffolk County on Long Island to find the remains of ten different women, all in the same area of brush alongside a highway on the southern shore of the island. But that search would not have happened without the constant pressure of Gilbert's mother Mari. Because Shannan Gilbert was a sex worker, finding her seemed like a low priority for the Suffolk County police. Mari Gilbert's consistent pressure via press conference and other media coverage finally prompted them to start looking. In December, 2010, a full skeletal set of remains were found, then in short order three other sets of skeletal remains were unearthed. None of them were Gilbert, though. Through DNA, officials were able to identify the 'Gilgo Four' as Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, all of whom are sex workers who disappeared between 2007 and 2010. During the press conference where they were identified, the Suffolk County police commissioner wanted to allay fears by saying the women engaged in 'risky activity,' but all that did was offend the families that mourned their deaths. What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Garbus also directed Lost Girls, a 2020 scripted feature film about this case. The tone of Gone Girls is reminiscent of another Garbus project, I'll Be Gone In The Dark. Our Take: We approached Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer a little warily; as residents of the New York metropolitan area, we have read and heard the extensive coverage of the Gilgo Beach murders and know well how much law enforcement dragged their feet on the case because the victims — as well as Gilbert, whose body was found miles away and isn't a direct victim of the the killer — were sex workers. Garbus wanted to make sure the victims, especially Gilbert and the 'Gilgo Four' are given their proper due, which is why the first episode has friends and family of the five women discussing their lives and who they were as people. That approach is giving the docuseries a slant that's different than what we usually see in true-crime serial-killer genre. Too many times, the killer is the one who gets the biographical treatment, and the victims are given a momentary nod and little else. It's alarming but not surprising that law enforcement downplayed the victims because of what they did for a living, and Mari Gilbert's constant media presence pressuring Suffolk County law enforcement officials to act was a major component of this case. Without Mari's efforts, those remains might still be out there, and ten families of missing women might have never gotten the closure they deserved. The other two episodes in this series will concentrate on the search for Gilbert, as well as how law enforcement needed over a decade to pin most of these murders on Heuermann; he was an architect who hid in plain sight, working in Manhattan and living in Massapequa Park. What we hope, though, is that Garbus will continue to keep the victims in the front of the viewers' minds, because that's where they need to be in order to appreciate just how many people the killer's actions affected. Sex and Skin: Shot: A shot of Heuermann's house, with a prosecutor saying 'I learned [the killer] was living among us the whole time.' Sleeper Star: Long Island Press reporter Jaclyn Gallucci gives a really local viewpoint of the case, talking about how the area were the bodies were found shattered her sense that nothing bad could happen along the beaches on the south shore. Most Pilot-y Line: As always, we are not fans of reenactments, but they're merely annoying instead of distracting here. Our Call: STREAM IT. Because Liz Garbus incorporates stories about the victims in the narrative of the Gilgo Beach story, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer give viewers a much fuller picture of the horrors that the killer wrought. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn't kid himself: he's a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, Fast Company and elsewhere.
