Caught in the Web: The Murders Behind Zona Divas Review: Heartbreaking and Shocking

Netflix is ready to shake us to our cores with its newest true crime docuseries in which we are taken to the dark underbelly of Mexico City where women seeking to better their lives are unwittingly pulled into joining an online escort service. However, what they didn’t know was that all of this would result in a slew of femicides, leaving devastation in its wake.

The docuseries has 4 episodes, each with a runtime of around 40 minutes.

Caught in the Web: The Murders Behind Zona Divas Review

Watching a series about human trafficking is always rough but when you see a prostitution ring preying on vulnerable people from marginalised communities and countries, the heartbreak is even more immense. Netflix’s newest docuseries does a great job of introducing us to the victimised women by Zona Divas, an adult website, and then going in-depth into its operation. Thus, we get a clear picture of how the website works and what the women’s role was in its operation.

The series gets the tone right in how it showcases prostitution; as one woman puts it – it’s a business, and one of the oldest ones at that. And that’s true. The series makes it a matter-of-fact discussion where no judgement is passed on the women who choose this profession which is a great change of pace from other forms of media who always look down on the women but never the men who seek them out (as usual). Anyway, the series discusses the onset of the website and dives into what was supposed to happen before getting into what ended up happening, giving us a way to compare the two extensively.

Then we get into the more heartbreaking parts, the parts which aren’t just fact-based and without emotions. These parts, which catch us by surprise after the emotionless and straight-faced fact dump in the first episode, will catch anyone by surprise. The tone shifts drastically but the series remains neutral and there’s no drama anywhere. It’s a good thing too because sometimes docuseries can overdramatise things and take away the tension and this documentary keeps the music and the editing controlled, leaving viewers to feel everything that the escorts are saying.

The testimonials of the women are the most interesting and the input by the families are gut-wrenching. The sheer heartbreak on not having control in such a difficult and scary situation is something that viewers might never be able to understand but the documentary presents it in such a way that your heart will be left heavy after every testimonial. The dire situation just adds to the heartbreak, honestly. As some of the family members mention constantly, these women wouldn’t have had to take up this profession and put their lives on the line if they had better infrastructures in their own countries. But alas, that is not the world we live in, resulting in these preventable tragedies.

Final Thoughts

Caught in the Web: The Murders Behind Zona Divas is heartbreaking. The loss of control and having no way of getting out of this dire situation is what ultimately left me so emotional. The testimonials are the heart of the show and the series keeps them on the forefront, letting these gut-wrenching stories take centre stage and creating a morose and sombre atmosphere throughout its 4 short episodes.

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