There are certainly plenty of characters in the new season of The Jinx – even if Jarecki is now reliant on audio and video recordings of Durst from jail, rather than his own interviews.
New faces include two law clerk brothers who work for the prosecution (“the wonder twins”) and, most notably, Durst’s friend Nick Chavin, who would later testify against him but who, when interviewed for the show, seems remarkably blasé about his friend’s misdemeanours. “I don’t have that same moral hatred of murder and murderers,” he shrugs.
Indeed, much of this new season is focused on the people who helped Durst get away with his crimes for so long. Jarecki told Vanity Fair he was intrigued by “the idea that there’s this constellation of people who all see themselves as good, decent people… and yet here they are helping a murderer.”
There are a few crass moments in the new season – a reenactment of Bob fleeing for Cuba on a boat in a latex mask (his plan if he hadn’t had been caught), and some unnecessarily on-the-nose music cues. They feel like attempts to try and gee up the drama – not that this story needs it.
Anyone hoping for a bombshell revelation like last season is likely to be disappointed though. Only four episodes of The Jinx Part Two were made available to journalists to watch in advance, with the final two being held back, but it’s hard to imagine there will be anything even nearly as explosive as last time to reveal. No-one, not even Jarecki himself, could top that, surely?
Instead, this season of The Jinx feels more like a fable on what happens when the legal system comes up against someone with huge amounts of money, power and privilege – and plenty of hangers on prepared to stick by them, motivated by either money or fear. It’s a scenario that feels ever relevant in our world – even if Durst himself is no longer in it. “I’m not sure we’re going to find another Bob Durst,” Jarecki has said. No matter how compelling a character he might have been, considering the horrors he carried out, we should be grateful for that.
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The Jinx: Part Two is streaming in the US on HBO on Sundays, and in the UK on Sky on Mondays.
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