The Tylenol Murders seems like a distant memory of something that happened in Chicago, USA, during the 80s. But it’s obvious that it’s much more than that, as some of the victims’ relatives are still with us. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders follows standard procedure with Netflix’ true crime output as it focuses on survivors. Those like Michelle Rosen who miss their mothers or Jean Regula Leavengood who miss their work best friends. Part of that standard procedure is showing investigators telling them what they did to get evidence from suspects. Another aspect of that standard procedure is the music, reminding us of how menacing some of these suspects are.

But this documentary series comes back to Paula Prince, one of the victims, who most remember through photos. It probably says something about me that this series’ first episode’s first forty minutes felt like a lull. That it may take every ounce of willpower for viewers to not look at Wikipedia on their phone. Besides, the intro already gives away that there may be something more to the case’s early conclusions. That perhaps, Johnson and Johnson, as Rosen speculates, are hiding their involvement and pinned it on some lone wolf. But then Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders introduces the FBI’s main suspect and suddenly, lightning in a bottle.

That suspect is James Lewis, who inches his way to the center of the camera in The Tylenol Murders. A different version of this documentary series is just him for three episodes, each forty minutes long. But it’s understandable that those behind this documentary series didn’t want to reflect the FBI’s tunnel vision. Thus, viewers get to see B-roll of the airline tickets that the FBI gathered, hoping to place Lewis within Chicago. To break Lewis’ alibi, that he can still be in New York while delivering the Tylenol capsules with cyanide. Or, it returns to Rosen, who becomes an amateur investigator who floats her Johnson and Johnson theory.

Yes, Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders has the same tendencies viewers see in other true crime documentary series. Cue the dramatic music as it reveals that John Lewis is a main suspect in two other crimes. But it also has something inherent within other examples of the true crime industrial complex and its contradictions. Crimes beg for solutions, and time provides fresh eyes, especially ones like Rosen and her valid theories. But the longer a perpetrator gets away with crime, the more likely the evidence pieces disappear within the ether. And we watch partly because we want that solution but also because some mysteries have more, well, mystery to them.

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders is available to stream on Netflix.