A potentially riveting premise is squandered for no apparent reason, aside from a lack of effort.
First up is President John F. Kennedy´s assassination and the subsequent Congressional hearings (in the 1970s) to determine exactly how he died and to dispel common conspiracy theories. The problem is, with all the additional information Dr. Baden brings forth, nothing but conspiracy theories can remain. For instance, the remains of the president´s brain going to the family secretary and being buried, but not buried, leads to the question: why? Baden blames an incompetent original autopsy for all the theories about Russian involvement, yet his is a cursory regurgitation of the information. There are no interviews with the people at the scene, no precision geometric measurements about the angle of the bullets or anything else to provide in-depth analysis.
We´re instead left with archival footage to explain the situation and the events. A coroner burned some notes, then rewrote them. Autopsy photos were mismanaged and ultimately taken incorrectly. Baden is an expert, apparently, in the field. Why is there not more of an expert analysis for the audience? We´re familiar with the facts of the case, more or less. There´s no need to waste valuable time with a history lesson.
That´s a recurring theme through the rest of the profiles: not nearly enough time with the technical details of the forensics, too much time retelling known historical facts. The most fascinating case is the third on the disc, that of the Russian Romanov executions in 1918. It receives the barest of forensic fact, owing somewhat to the age of the subjects being showcased. What remains awe inspiring about the Romanov´s nearly a century after their death is the myth of Anastasia and her brother Alexi, the remains of whom were not found until late in 2007. At least one woman, Anna Anderson, claimed to be the long lost Anastasia.
With home movies to augment some of the news footage from the 1990s in which DNA was tested against known Romanov´s, Baden breaks a cardinal rule of televised media: show, don´t tell. He tells us the bone DNA was a match (not Anna´s) for the Romanov line. He tells us Anna died before a test could be done. But we´re never shown any evidence of these things. This is the biggest let down on the disc only because the story of Anastasia has been romanticized over the years. Is there any chance this girl survived a bloodbath?
Sandwiched between the assassination and execution is the case of O. J. Simpson. In short, the same investigative problems which hampered the JFK case come to pass here. Tainted evidence, a rush to judge and the inability to definitively connect Simpson with the murders of his ex-wife and her friend prompted a jury to find him not guilty. As Dr. Baden points out, this is a "not guilty" verdict, not an "innocent" one. The scene of the crime, not being properly investigated, almost sounds like an excuse for the jury verdict.
Again, the most frustrating aspect of the way the O. J. Simpson portion is presented happens to be the way footage is put together. Despite being a recent case, there are no interviews with the police officers, investigators or other personnel. No one to shed light on what happened, defend the department or break the monotony of the news coverage.
It is, therefore, surprising the final "investigation" provides a bit of forensic leg work for the audience by showing a cross section of a healthy lung and then a section of one from a 9/11 first responder. With air sacs covered in scar tissue, the chemicals and toxins inhaled during the rescue and clean up effectively cut the oxygen which can be taken in at any one time, limiting the activity a person can do.
This segment is an example of what the entire disc should have been, not the anemic Sid Vicious history or retelling of JFK´s assassination. It feels like someone finally got it right in the production or editing bays, devoting resources only to this story because, presumably, it tugs at the heartstrings. It´s my biggest-and frankly-only peeve about "Autopsy": it never lives up to its premise. Put some time and money into the production by conducting new interviews; use CGI to provide detailed inspection of each case. An entire episode could be made on the Romanov´s themselves. Surely a mini-series could be commissioned to investigate the Simpson case. What we end up getting is too short, haphazardly produced and uninformative based on the program´s mission statement.
VIDEO:
As with "The UCLA Dynasty," grading the video quality is a touch unfair. Why? Because there is so much vintage footage being used which could never hold up to anything of a younger age. What is presented looks as good as it possibly can, under the circumstances. Footage of the Romanov children looks better than it has any right to, under the circumstances. And the current interviews are on part with anything else on HBO. One note: most of the footage is presented in full frame format, yet when Baden talks to the camera, it reverts to widescreen. We´ll call it a 1.33:1 transfer since it is mostly in that aspect ratio.
AUDIO:
Unsurprisingly, "Autopsy" comes packaged with barebones audio specs. In this case, English and Spanish 2.0 tracks. Again, it is hard to accurately judge the quality of what we hear if only due to the age of the source material. The new information is crisp while all manner of audio problems plague the historical documents. Audio hissing and popping are the chief conspirators. The disc is closed captioned, but no subtitles are available.
EXTRAS:
Nothing.
PARTING THOUGHTS:
At this point, I´m not sure in how many different ways I can convey what is wrong with "Autopsy." A potentially riveting premise is squandered for no apparent reason, aside from a lack of effort. There is more in-depth coverage of the human body on any Discovery Health program than there is here. Baden is amiable, though it does sound as though he´s reading from a prompter more often than not. Thankfully, based on previous efforts from HBO Documentary Films, this is an exception-not the rule-to their productions. Skip it and go watch "Nicholas and Alexandra" or "Anastasia."
We´re instead left with archival footage to explain the situation and the events. A coroner burned some notes, then rewrote them. Autopsy photos were mismanaged and ultimately taken incorrectly. Baden is an expert, apparently, in the field. Why is there not more of an expert analysis for the audience? We´re familiar with the facts of the case, more or less. There´s no need to waste valuable time with a history lesson.
That´s a recurring theme through the rest of the profiles: not nearly enough time with the technical details of the forensics, too much time retelling known historical facts. The most fascinating case is the third on the disc, that of the Russian Romanov executions in 1918. It receives the barest of forensic fact, owing somewhat to the age of the subjects being showcased. What remains awe inspiring about the Romanov´s nearly a century after their death is the myth of Anastasia and her brother Alexi, the remains of whom were not found until late in 2007. At least one woman, Anna Anderson, claimed to be the long lost Anastasia.
With home movies to augment some of the news footage from the 1990s in which DNA was tested against known Romanov´s, Baden breaks a cardinal rule of televised media: show, don´t tell. He tells us the bone DNA was a match (not Anna´s) for the Romanov line. He tells us Anna died before a test could be done. But we´re never shown any evidence of these things. This is the biggest let down on the disc only because the story of Anastasia has been romanticized over the years. Is there any chance this girl survived a bloodbath?
Sandwiched between the assassination and execution is the case of O. J. Simpson. In short, the same investigative problems which hampered the JFK case come to pass here. Tainted evidence, a rush to judge and the inability to definitively connect Simpson with the murders of his ex-wife and her friend prompted a jury to find him not guilty. As Dr. Baden points out, this is a "not guilty" verdict, not an "innocent" one. The scene of the crime, not being properly investigated, almost sounds like an excuse for the jury verdict.
Again, the most frustrating aspect of the way the O. J. Simpson portion is presented happens to be the way footage is put together. Despite being a recent case, there are no interviews with the police officers, investigators or other personnel. No one to shed light on what happened, defend the department or break the monotony of the news coverage.
It is, therefore, surprising the final "investigation" provides a bit of forensic leg work for the audience by showing a cross section of a healthy lung and then a section of one from a 9/11 first responder. With air sacs covered in scar tissue, the chemicals and toxins inhaled during the rescue and clean up effectively cut the oxygen which can be taken in at any one time, limiting the activity a person can do.
This segment is an example of what the entire disc should have been, not the anemic Sid Vicious history or retelling of JFK´s assassination. It feels like someone finally got it right in the production or editing bays, devoting resources only to this story because, presumably, it tugs at the heartstrings. It´s my biggest-and frankly-only peeve about "Autopsy": it never lives up to its premise. Put some time and money into the production by conducting new interviews; use CGI to provide detailed inspection of each case. An entire episode could be made on the Romanov´s themselves. Surely a mini-series could be commissioned to investigate the Simpson case. What we end up getting is too short, haphazardly produced and uninformative based on the program´s mission statement.
VIDEO:
As with "The UCLA Dynasty," grading the video quality is a touch unfair. Why? Because there is so much vintage footage being used which could never hold up to anything of a younger age. What is presented looks as good as it possibly can, under the circumstances. Footage of the Romanov children looks better than it has any right to, under the circumstances. And the current interviews are on part with anything else on HBO. One note: most of the footage is presented in full frame format, yet when Baden talks to the camera, it reverts to widescreen. We´ll call it a 1.33:1 transfer since it is mostly in that aspect ratio.
AUDIO:
Unsurprisingly, "Autopsy" comes packaged with barebones audio specs. In this case, English and Spanish 2.0 tracks. Again, it is hard to accurately judge the quality of what we hear if only due to the age of the source material. The new information is crisp while all manner of audio problems plague the historical documents. Audio hissing and popping are the chief conspirators. The disc is closed captioned, but no subtitles are available.
EXTRAS:
Nothing.
PARTING THOUGHTS:
At this point, I´m not sure in how many different ways I can convey what is wrong with "Autopsy." A potentially riveting premise is squandered for no apparent reason, aside from a lack of effort. There is more in-depth coverage of the human body on any Discovery Health program than there is here. Baden is amiable, though it does sound as though he´s reading from a prompter more often than not. Thankfully, based on previous efforts from HBO Documentary Films, this is an exception-not the rule-to their productions. Skip it and go watch "Nicholas and Alexandra" or "Anastasia."
![Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The [TV Show]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=24781&sizew=70&cat=3)
![My Friends Tigger & Pooh [TV]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=24780&sizew=70&cat=3)
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.