Nine years after we first heard Robert Durst mutter “Killed them all, of course,” “The Jinx” is back, with a new six-episode Part Two that premiered Sunday on HBO. And why not?
Maybe it feels bad, or like old news, with Durst having died in prison in 2022 after the original series helped get him convicted of murder. But in the meantime a lot happened. You can imagine that director Andrew Jarecki, who directed both parts, felt responsible for a story that he has now lived with for 20 years. And since “The Jinx” has virtually erased the line between itself and the case it chronicles, you’d hope it felt a responsibility to examine its own role in the prosecution and conviction of Durst, the wealthy and eccentric heir New York real estate.
That examination doesn’t come in the four episodes HBO provided for review, but Jarecki acknowledges the show’s continuing influence with a wry, “Can you believe that happened?” fashion.
It is noted, once again, that in 2013 the producers of “Jinx” shared with prosecutors information about the disappearance and two deaths involving Durst, starting the investigation that led to his conviction and life in prison in 2021 for his murder. friend Susan Berman. The original show’s impact on the popular imagination is conveyed when a young lawyer recalls exclaiming “He killed them all of course!” in mentioning Durst’s name, quoting his words as mistakenly recorded by the chilling final moments of the original series.
This theme comes to a head early on in a scene filmed at a March 2015 screening of that final episode in Jarecki’s apartment, the same day the fugitive Durst — who was watching the show with the rest of us — was found and arrested in New Orleans. Relatives of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack, who had disappeared 33 years earlier, listen to his apparent confession with remarkable composure, presumably well aware of the cameras a few feet away waiting to capture their reactions.
This scene, more subdued than you might expect, is typical of the effect of “The Jinx Part Two,” which is as fluidly and beautifully crafted as the original but, at first, lacks its weirdness and surprises. Taking place after Durst’s arrest, the new episodes are very much a procedural and courtroom law enforcement drama rather than an exploration of Durst’s life and consciousness in the twilight zone. (Durst had 20 hours of interviews for the first series, but declined to speak with Jarecki for the second part.)
Even more limiting is the self-awareness brought to the screen by nearly every character—prosecutor, defense attorney, witness, reporter, Jarecki himself. Everyone has seen “The Jinx”. Everyone knows how it contributed to Durst’s downfall. everyone is in on the joke. And the show’s general foray into its own narrative, while it can be interesting and sometimes entertaining, isn’t, in these episodes, dramatic or moving.
Jarecki approaches this problem in several ways. One is to play up Durst’s comedic potential. The strangeness that could be creepy and frustrating in the first series plays out here, especially in the prison videos, as more childish and playful. Durst fixes his prison uniform for a visitor or oddly shows off his workout routine. Everyone, including the prosecutors, calls him Bob. The staff relax listening to his phone calls to the prison, laughing as he starts each one, “This is a prepaid call from…” “Bahb.”
Another, more central, tactic is to focus on the Durst demimonde – the collection of would-be directors, hangers-on and assistants who gathered around him because of his money (with which he could be generous) and the money he gave him. Proclaiming their allegiances, goading Durst into his machinations, barely suppressing their inner jealousies and hatreds, and ultimately exasperating each other and Durst himself, they provide most of the new installment’s dramatic and emotional high points.
There are aspects of Part Two that are as familiar, in the wake of the original, as they are typical. Facilitating our progress through them is the mastery that Jarecki and his crew wield over their particular true-crime documentary business. The melding of informal narration (often by former New York Times reporter Charles V. Bagli) and live footage with meticulously staged snippets of dramatic re-creation is seamless. The material may not be as absorbing as that of the original, but the editing still gives it a pace and style that could be strictly hypnotic.
With HBO holding back two episodes (in 2015 it held back four), there’s a chance the second installment will deliver a surprise the size of Durst’s apparent confession, though it’s hard to see how. We can assume that the final two episodes will include Durst testifying at Berman’s trial and playing the “Killed them all” tape for the jury. Maybe we’ll see Jarecki’s unsuccessful attempt to talk to Durst outside a Louisiana prison, which he filmed with his phone. Perhaps we’ll hear Jarecki say something more introspective about the show’s impact. In any case, it seems almost certain that we’ll be back here in six weeks, talking about “The Jinx.”