Should I Marry a Murderer just dropped on Netflix, and honestly… it’s one of those true crime docs that kind of sits in your head afterward in an uncomfortable way.
It’s only two parts, but it doesn’t feel “small.” The whole thing revolves around Dr Caroline Muirhead, a forensic pathologist, which already gives it this weird layered perspective because she’s not just connected emotionally—she’s literally someone who understands death professionally. And then you get the central twist: her fiancé, Alexander “Sandy” McKellar, admitting (in 2020) that he and his twin brother were involved in a hit-and-run death of cyclist Tony Parsons back in 2017 and allegedly buried the body afterward. That’s… a lot, even before the documentary starts unpacking it.
What struck me most is how low-key the storytelling is. It’s not doing that over-stylized true crime thing with constant dramatic music stings every five seconds. It feels more like someone slowly opening a file you maybe didn’t want opened in the first place. Interviews are calm, almost too calm sometimes, which somehow makes everything feel worse, not better.
The emotional center isn’t the crime itself as much as the relationship collapse around it. Like, how do you even process being engaged to someone and then finding out that? The doc doesn’t really push you toward a simple answer, which is kind of the point, but also a bit frustrating if you want clean closure.
That said, it’s not perfect. At two episodes, it sometimes feels like it’s holding back just a little—like there’s more context somewhere that didn’t fully make it in. And a couple of moments repeat information in a way that makes you think, yeah okay, I got it already.
But overall, it works because it’s not trying to turn the story into entertainment candy. It’s more uncomfortable, more reflective. The title sounds a bit sensational (“Should I Marry a Murderer?” feels like clickbait honestly), but the actual tone of the series is more restrained than that.
If you’re into true crime that’s more about the human mess around the case than just the crime mechanics, this is worth a watch. Just don’t expect it to leave you feeling neat and satisfied at the end—it kind of just leaves you sitting there thinking about trust, and how little you ever really know someone.
