Sins of Our Mother is a true-crime documentary series directed by Skye Borgman and is about the life of Lori Vallow, whose life is a rollercoaster life of questions.
Netflix describes the series as:
When Lori Vallow’s kids vanished, the search for them unearthed a trail of suspicious deaths, a new husband who shared her doomsday views — and murder.
– Sins of Our Mother Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Sins of Our Mother starts with real footage from the night when Lori Vallow’s kids disappeared without a trace – remising of American Murder: The Family Next Door. That one was a fascinating and horrifying watch. So, does Netflix’s latest true crime fare match up to its other terrific shows?
Religion is one of the biggest driving factors of Sins of Our Mother, and the series makes a point to show that to us – how religion and trauma can shape our lives and push us off the rails. To be so enmeshed in your religion and then go through three divorces can’t be easy. The series makes it clear that divorces are frowned upon in the LDS Church, so obviously, there must’ve been some sort of backlash in your own mind about it, right?
On top of that, the trauma of several abusive relationships must’ve had an even deeper impact on her psyche and made her more vulnerable to further abuse and religious extremism. This is exactly what happened – it’s interesting how factual the series is when it comes to describing these various parts of Lori’s life with the help of those who knew her, mostly her oldest son Colby Ryan.
However, the story isn’t just about Lori. It’s also about those who made shocking impacts on her life, including Chad Daybell, another member of the LDS Church who fuelled Lori’s fire. When he comes into the picture pretty early on, you can feel the tension in your bones – you know this isn’t going to go down well.
As the story unfolds and you hear all the members of this sordid tale make their own cases known, you just feel sad after a point when you realise how some (or quite a few) people in the world actually have such a distorted worldview that would push them to go to the extreme. You also feel angry and resentful when you think that people can be this selfish – because, let’s be real, this is nothing but selfishness on the part of Lori.
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Chad and Lori’s relationship is how two toxic people enable each other to ruin their own lives and that of the people around them. Sins of Our Mother puts forth that thought right out in the open – you listen to those close to Lori and realise that trauma that they themselves have gone through thanks to someone close to them. The documentary makes a point to make them the focal point; their thoughts and experiences take centre stage as we piece together Lori’s slow and gradual descent into literal madness.
It’s also nice when you realise that the series doesn’t try to empathise with Lori in any way. As I mentioned, Sins of Our Mothers focuses on how something as bad happened and gives a background on why it happened, but it doesn’t make excuses for the perpetrators, and neither does it want us to feel bad for the possible brainwashing and trauma that led to an unthinkable tragedy. I think I did, however, empathise with Colby; that man went through too much from a young age thanks to the adults in his life who have completely failed him.
For everyone who can get triggered with religion and an overabundance of ‘Light Side’ and ‘Dark Side’ and all that, I would say this is going to be a difficult and confusing watch. There’s just so much ranking and murder based on who has more light or dark in them, whatever that means, that you can’t help but wonder what to do with this information. It makes sense in the story, but there are just some moments that feel a bit much and unbelievable, especially when they bring in another religious person to describe stuff. It’s weird and, personally, feels extremely much.
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Sins of Our Mother follows the usual routine of documentaries. There are a ton of pictures, videos and real-life recordings of all of the people that are involved in this sordid tale, along with recreations. The interviews are taken in front of relatable and homey backgrounds, which somehow makes what the interviewees are saying much more shocking, weirdly.
The series is also very dramatic and kinda corny sometimes, which isn’t really necessary for true crime shows to be honest – the subject matter itself is shocking, so you know, you don’t need to get overdramatic with the way you present the story. I think Sins of Our Mother crossed that boundary a bit and became a bit too dramatic than what is required. Regardless, it’s a shocking and saddening watch, one that will make you sit up and take notice.
Summing Up: Sins of Our Mother
Sins of Our Mother is a wild ride from start to finish. There are so much more than mental health issues here. It’s a great watch for anyone who likes true crime and wants to be thoroughly thrilled for three episodes.
Sins of Our Mother is streaming on Netflix.
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