review
Dead bodies in the garden and poisoned food
True Crime: “The Worst Roommate Ever” is not for people looking for an apartment
In each episode, the survivors of the victims also have their say
© Netflix © 2022
When the roommate becomes a murderer: The new Netflix documentary series “The Worst Roommate Ever” shows true crime cases from flat shares.
One thing should be said in advance: This mini-series on Netflix is not for people who are currently looking for a room in a shared flat. Because anyone who has seen the new format would probably prefer to live alone. Netflix sums it up like this: “Four horror stories about seemingly harmless roommates whose malicious and sometimes violent intentions are exposed and become real-life nightmares for their unsuspecting victims. The disturbing true stories deal with the hidden dangers that may lurk in the room lurking next door.”
Episode one is about a woman who buried several bodies in the garden. literally. Bones and fingers and rags of clothing appear. The woman ran a boarding house in California for people in need under the name Dorothea Puente. She regularly drugged her victims, stole their Social Security checks and cashed them for her own purposes. Until her clients finally died of overdoses. She was always able to evade the authorities because she had been married several times and had a number of surnames to choose from. And she changed them as she liked. She looked like a nice grandma on the outside, but in reality she was a brutal serial killer. Archive images and interviews with investigators and survivors make the cases on the screen real again.
New on Netflix: “The Worst Roommate Ever”
At the beginning of each episode, short audio recordings can be heard, such as student Maribel Ramos asking for help. She was a college student in Orange County about to graduate and was looking for a quiet roommate. KC Joy got in touch with her. He said he had no friends or relatives, so he never had visitors. So perfect for learning. He was soon allowed to move into the free room. At first the two became friends. Maribel felt sorry because he really didn’t seem to have any friends. She also took him to family celebrations. When it became clear that they could not become a couple, KC Joy became a killer.
The series sends shivers down your spine, because it’s a setting that many of you should be familiar with, at least from your student or apprenticeship days: you meet your future roommates for maybe half an hour in the shared kitchen and then you’re supposed to decide whether you want to spend the next few years with them. Sometimes it’s just a Skype call beforehand. And with the current housing market, one is grateful for every opportunity.
True crime fans will definitely get their money’s worth with this series. Anxious people might not want to tune in. And as a reminder, it’s statistically pretty unlikely that the roommate could be a murderer.