This review contains spoilers. Don't read on if you don't want to know anything about the documentary. You can read it again when you see the whole series of documentaries.
For several years now, documentary series about real crimes have been in fashion. Parallel to the rise of streaming platforms, documentary series that narrate unsolved crimes and mysteries have become popular among audiovisual consumers.
Murder on Middle Beach is a documentary about the terrible murder of Barbara Hamburg, which took place outside her home on Middle Beach Road, Connecticut, in 2010.
Barbara Beach Hamburg was forty-eight years old when she was brutally murdered, with multiple stab wounds to various parts of her body. The killer had acted with much rage, it was not a random crime, because of the way she was killed and how they found the body, with some cushions on top, the killer was someone close to her.
She was a mother of two, had been divorced in 2002 from Jeffrey Hamburg and on the day of the crime, March 3, 2010, she was due in family court for a hearing against her ex-husband, who would be forced to pay a large amount of money for child support, or risk being held in contempt and imprisoned.
Three years after Barbara's death, the documentary began to be filmed. This is where the novelty of this true docusery of crime lies. The director of the documentary is Madison Hamburg, the oldest son of the victim.
Madison Hamburg was a teenager when her mother was murdered. Because he was interested in becoming a filmmaker, three years later he decided to embark on making a documentary about his mother's unsolved murder.
The young director has been very brave, facing this adventure, directing the research for the documentary, facing those emotions and the mourning he still carries in his heart, for the loss of the person he loved most at that time.
Madison is confident and determined at all times, even when nerves and fear of what she might discover are dormant in the air. He is the one who interviews everyone in the documentary. Most of the people he knows and his own family.
Did you have anything to do with my mother's death? This is a question that Madison asks of all the suspects in the crime, which includes her father, as well as all the members of her family.
No one is clean. We all have secrets. As Madison progresses through the documentary, she will make discoveries about her mother's life that she didn't know completely.
Madison's father was a wealthy man, CEO of a successful company, a blessed family, economically privileged. But after he was fired and paid $3.5 million, the problems began that would end with the Hamburg family's divorce. For quite some time Barbara became addicted to drinking and attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Madison's most surprising discovery about her mother was her involvement in organizing a ponzi scheme called the Gift Tables. A pyramid scheme made up of only women, who had to recruit new members who would contribute five thousand dollars each, but as she progressed within the recruitment system, the day came when she was paid approximately forty thousand dollars.
Barbara became one of the most successful recruiters, even inviting women she knew to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. But some time before the murder, an investigation was underway against this organization and the Gift Tables. Someone had filed a complaint for loss of money and a story had appeared in a local newspaper, exposing the entire scam.
**The search for the director, the victim's son, is an exciting journey that brings out the secrets of his relatives. Everyone is a suspect; any of the family members or acquaintances you interview may be your mother's killer. Conway Beach, Barbara's sister. Jeffrey Hamburg, the ex-husband. Jill Platt, a great aunt who was involved in the gift table scams and spent four years in prison for that crime. Even Ali Hamburg, the victim's youngest daughter and Madison's sister, is a possible suspect.
The documentary also makes clear that mistakes were made in the murder investigation, something the police will never be willing to confirm. Mistakes were made in the lab where the DNA tests were done, corrupt police officers, clues that were not investigated, such as a hooded man the day before the murder lurking around the house, and detectives who did not delve into the women at the gift tables who may have felt cheated, giving them a strong motive to commit the crime.
Being in front of the people you love, but at the same time thinking that this person might have murdered your mother, has been the director's big job. This documentary is a way of trying to solve her murder. On the tenth anniversary of the crime, Madison wants to get answers and justice.
The documentary series consists of four moving episodes and is airing on HBO.
My Ranking: 3.4/5
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