The Case Against TV’s ‘Hillside Stranglers’

How do you turn a spectacular serial-murder case into mundane television? The “how-to” primer arrives at 9 p.m. Sunday on NBC (Channels 4, 36 and 39).

“The Case of the Hillside Stranglers” is flat, uninvolving, antiseptic and, worst of all, misleading.

It’s docudrama at its worst, juxtaposing very selected facts with the personal life of a Los Angeles police detective who participated in the investigation that helped lead to the arrest and conviction of Angelo Buono (Dennis Farina) and Kenneth Bianchi (Billy Zane).

But the role of the now-retired detective, Sgt. Bob Grogan (Richard Crenna), appears greatly exaggerated here, throwing the whole account out of kilter and raising questions about its credibility.

Working from Darcy O’Brien’s much-maligned book, “Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers,” writer/director Steven Gethers uses the regurgitant method of storytelling. He upheaves bits of information from the public record, swishes them around and then embellishes them with Grogan’s romantic detours.

Gethers gives us someone to like in Grogan, but nothing compelling or suspenseful. He gives us nothing of significance--no perceptions, not even any theories that provide a keyhole of insight into the behavior of these mass murderers.

We do learn, assuming this portion of the script is accurate, that Grogan met and fell in love with J. D. Jackson (Karen Austin) while helping investigate the stranglings of the 10 young women whose bodies were found on hillsides northeast of downtown in 1977 and 1978. Later, Gethers fails in his attempt to create some suspense by placing J. D. in jeopardy with Buono, too.

Crenna, Farina and Zane perform respectably, given the limitations imposed on them by their roles.

Buono here is coarse and volatile, his cousin, Bianchi, arrogant and smooth. They capture young women, then torture and murder them. We don’t know why. We don’t even know if they know why.

Some of the murders are vaguely replayed, almost unemotionally, as if someone were thumbing through the mug shots of the victims.

Although the last 30 minutes or so of “The Case of the Hillside Stranglers” center on the legal process, you have no sense that you are watching the longest and most expensive criminal trial in Los Angeles history. You have no sense of anything, in fact, except that before you are two murderers worthy of your hatred.

As TV continues to act like a national crime magazine, there are spectacular murder cases galore from which producers can choose. The competition to get a Hillside Stranglers story on the air was reportedly a mini-war. But Buono and Bianchi might as well be Ted Bundy--another normal-seeming mass murderer without a conscience--for all we learn here about their histories and motivations.

If “The Case of the Hillside Stranglers” can do no better than this--if it cannot expand our knowledge and understanding even a little and also remain true to the facts--then why bother?