True crime documentaries have captivated audiences worldwide for a long time. For some it’s the gripping blend of suspense and drama that draw them in. But for others, it’s the real life intrigue that prevents them from turning away. This popularity is part of the reason why when you scroll through the documentaries on Netflix, the list seems endless. The problem is, many of them are cookie cutter. Sure, the crimes are different, and the way the police solve those crimes are different. But they all slowly expose what happened through interviews with friends, family and police. While The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane follows the same premise, it does offer something different that adds a little more intrigue to the events of the case.

The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane tells the story of a recent school graduate who decides to travel the world before life gets in the way. Eventually she ends up in New Zealand where she mysteriously vanishes during her birthday. Police are baffled at first, but they slowly piece the story together thanks to a series of CCTV cameras across the city. Their suspect tells a different story, but the cameras don’t lie. There’s no doubt he is lying about a lot of things, but police are left trying to figure out what happened in places the cameras couldn’t see.

A lot of true crime stories fall into the trap of slowly telling the story by showing how the police solved the crime and giving the viewer a series of false leads. On one hand it’s rather interesting trying to solve the crime along with the police. And for many that’s at least part of the reason why they watch true crime documentaries in the first place. Unfortunately when you’ve seen hundreds of them doing the same thing (not to mention countless movies and tv shows as well) it starts to get a little dry. The Lie doesn’t really do that. There’s no doubt very early on who committed the crime, it’s just a matter of gathering enough evidence to prove it.

Watching Grace Millane’s last few hours alive is haunting to say the least. Seeing her remorseless killer is even more so. Especially during the trial where he watched everything unfold with the same blank stare on his face. We can only imagine what her parents were thinking when watching the CCTV footage the police pieced together.

True crime documentaries will continue to be popular no matter how the filmmakers make them. But it is refreshing to see an attempt to offer something just a little different. The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane is striking, simply because of the footage they had access to. And because of that, fans of the genre will undoubtedly find themselves drawn to it. Even if true crime isn’t exactly your cup of tea, this film is still worth watching.