“The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” made an important point, then missed it horribly
Netflix’s trending docuseries and the exploitation of mental illness
If you have heard about Netflix’s new true crime docuseries featuring the story of Elisa Lam, you’ve also likely heard scathing reviews detailing the many ways in which the producers missed the mark. If you plan to watch the series, I don’t feel bad for spoiling the end. The documentary should not have been aired as a mystery in the first place.
A summary of the story can be found in many other articles.
The tragedy of Elisa Lam is that, like 5.7 million adults in the U.S. and 45 million individuals world-wide, she suffered from bipolar disorder. It is suspected that a lack of medical treatment led her into a manic episode with psychosis, erratic behavior, feelings of being chased and, ultimately, her accidental death. When law enforcement began investigating her disappearance from the Cecil Hotel, detectives suspected she was attacked or influenced by any of the many seedy people living in the hotel or in the surrounding Skid Row.
It almost seems like a zombie film, the undead coming after the young, innocent tourists.
