User Reviews

SPOILER: In recent years Netflix has really been building out a niche for itself creating solid, interesting documentaries. 'Evil Genius' continues that trend with a truly haunting story of murder and betrayal that leaves you breathless, with a spotlight on how far a human soul can sink.

In 2003 a man robbed a bank while wearing a bomb collared around his neck. He was stopped outside the bank by police and gave himself up without a fight, claiming that he had been assaulted and forced into the robbery by unknown black assailants.

The story was, to say the least, sketchy. Police didn't believe him, thinking that his story and the supposed bomb were part of a ruse to escape punishment if he got caught, right up until the collar started beeping and exploded, killing him. Investigation revealed bizarre scavenger hunt style notes in his car giving him instructions for dropping off the money and retrieving keys to unlock his collar, which seemed to support his claims.

Suspects were identified and interviewed, but via a chain of police and FBI screw-ups, no one was charged for the crime for many years. However, a frozen body, seemingly unrelated to the "pizza bomber heist", put the spotlight back on a group of suspects. Gradually, over years, investigations and confessions revealed the deeper story surrounding the crime.

At the center of all of this is a woman named Marjorie emerges as a central figure in numerous deaths and murders. She is smart, beautiful (when she was younger), manipulative and conniving, and about as close to the definition of evil as you can get.

This story is simply depressing as layer after layer is peeled back to reveal aspects of human nature most of us don't want to admit are possible. The final confessions of one of the tangentially connected conspirators, revealed in the last minutes of the final episode, is really just heartbreaking.

This story won't leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Justice is often incomplete or absent altogether, and sometimes bad things just happen to people who don't deserve it. How sad the ending is will kind of depend on how you interpret all of the evidence; the series really prefers to present the information and leave the conclusions to the audience. But it's a fascinating, if unhappy, journey of discovery, and one I think is well worth the 3 hours or so it will take to watch all of the episodes.

The research behind this docuseries was incredible. This foiled bank heist was something I had never heard of, but I became riveted by the complicated plans. The answers to the investigation largely occurred from luck rather than an ingenious detective connecting the dots to clues.

I watched the film 30 Minutes Or Less before I watched this series and noticed some surprising parallels. Both involve a pizza delivery driver, a bomb strapped to someone's chest and a large amount of money at stake. However, the real world version is far more peculiar and full of eccentric characters.

Those involved in the scheme were deeply angry and felt that the world owed them. Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong is deeply troubling and I was even frightened of her as I was watching footage of her. Her eyes are deeply troubling and multiple eyewitnesses tie her to locations close to the bank during the time of the robbery.

While there were answers about the crime, there are still many, many questions that will most likely never be answered. This is due to the fact that many people involved have since passed away from natural causes. The research involved in bringing all of this information to light is something that I deeply respect and admire. The dedication to such a difficult investigation and finding answers is truly admirable.

This is one of Netflix's best true crime series. The quality and attention to detail is truly amazing. I hope that 2021 brings more docuseries exactly like this one. I highly suggest to watch the show and peruse other docuseries that are also on Netflix.

It's no secret that I admire the quality Netflix has been bringing out concerning docu-series. In fact this is were my love started for this whole new reinvented genre. The biggest gems in my opinion are: "Making a Murderder", "Wild Wild Country", "The Keepers", "Flint Town",... I do believe this one had the potential to make it right in that row. But just failed in doing all things perfect. Nevertheless this is a good documentary, you do need to watch, if you are in love with this genre.

The beginning is quite spot on, and really powerful. Especially the scene where you witness the bombing of the hostage. It was raw, and portrayed in that way that immediately made you feel sick to your stomach. From that point on the story starts. Episode one is quality wise the best episode. You feel that the director is building up to some things. But the following episodes he fails on delivering, in my opinion. It has all to do with the pacing, which is so important in this genre. It's actually the building up that is not always right. It is as if the director knows what he wants to tell you, but got lost in all the details, and doesn't really know which parts of the story deliver suspense, and which just slow down the story in general. Generally this make the plots not as powerful and as surprising as they could have been made.

The second thing where it fails on delivering is really getting an understanding of the persons involved in this. The two lead criminals in this story are obviously Diehl-Armstrong and Rothstein. Every episode consists of a lot of footage of Diehl-Armstrong, who is obviously a wounded narcissist woman, talking gibberish. What's the value of this footage? It's quite clear this is a very sick woman. But it doesn't provide any added value, unless it could show another side of this person. The same goes to Rothstein. I do feel the personal relationship with Diehl-Armstrong and the director got in the way. As he believed she was the key to the truth in this story. Because of his time investment in this relationship, a big part of the story is only told by her. Without adding any more value to the story that must be told.

Because of this the plot, and the building up to the end - which should have been a real climax - goes way to fast. And all te discoveries the director make, don't feel as important as they should have felt. Nevertheless, this is a great documentary with a story full of plots that may really surprise you. And I'm happy this story got told.

A perfect storm of doc-making. You have a researcher who's spent 15 years of his life getting close to every character, you have a compelling edit that never drags and creates more twists and suspense then 99.8% documentaries, and last of all you have one of the weirdest and most dumbfounding crimes ever undertaken. Blown away by this series and a huge congrats to everyone who worked on it.

I remember my mom calling to tell me that I should turn on the news and watch this story about a pizza guy who robbed a bank. I remember an update here and there and would occasionally think of the story and google to see if there had been any developments. Upon reading an article about this documentary, I cleared what I had for the following day (today) and binged the four episodes.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I muttered "huh", or "wow" or actually laughed out loud. The director does a phenomenal job of letting the story tell itself and only gets involved to really, really dive in on the major details that make this story even more incredible than you can imagine.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute, it's a must watch even if you're aren't a true crime buff.

I've been struggling to get into shows of late, so was happy to find myself hooked on this documentary series, watching it all in just over a day.

Its just mind-blowing. Each episode has its own strong stories that would work well as a stand-alone event, except that they are all related in complex ways and tell this insane over-arching plot. The mystery that unfolds from the bizarre SAW-like first episode is so unpredictable and twisty, right up to the very last moments.

Its fascinating watching interviews, hearing bits of pieces of information, and finding your mind folding in on itself as you try to suss people out, think about motives, all the 'what ifs' etc. There is something always eerie and atmospheric about seeing evidence, street footage of locations, news footage, tying it all together like you're a voyeuristic detective.

I thought it was brilliantly researched and edited, and never a dull moment. I'd have loved for a body language expert like Paul Ekman (or someone like his fictional protege Cal Lightman from Lie to Me) to analyse the interviews for 'tells' as they were plentiful.

With incredible true-stories like this, brilliantly told, I struggle to justify why I'd want to watch a made-up story with self-conscious actors and gimmicky direction. There's so much more to learn, and substantial food for thought from real life.

5/20/18. I did watch all 4 episodes, but I have seen better true crime series than this one. Probably could have been done with 2 episodes, with better editing.

I finished watching all 4 episodes feeling a lot of questions unanswered, a lot of angles unexplored. The film lays out the basics, but left too many issues hanging, untouched, which make it frustrating to watch. This film fails as an investigative documentary but the exclusive footage and interviews with some key characters make it somewhat entertaining.

The thing is true yet is filled with twists, the ending is surprising, and it's never slow or dull. I don't understand how anyone can rate this thing below 9. In my opinion, a lot of Netflix content is subpar, but this is outstanding.

Another typical Netflix documentary. If your familiar with the story like I am this is not for you. It is very slow as is the current trend with Netflix these days. This documentary tends to repeat itself over and over again and the title is highly misleading. "Evil genius"??? If they were so smart why did they get caught? And over such a small amount of money? Not to mention the amount of mistakes they made. I much preferred the episode on the " FBI: criminal pursuit" series. Covered most of the events in an hour or so.

This is one of the craziest stories I've ever heard of! So many twists and turns, and just when you think you have your head wrapped around it...you find out you don't! Hard to believe this really happened.

An moderately interesting robbery and a documentary that tries to make it seem like the greatest, most intelligent robbery in history.

The reality is, this was just a bunch of mentally ill individuals, in a low-socio economic area, who attempted to rob a bank after watching too much Saw.

This needn't have gone on for four episodes, two at most would have been enough.

Going by what I can see in the title: "evil genius", "most diabolical bankheist", "the true story of", I figured I'd be in for a treat, but ultimately this was a huge disappointment and quite frankly clickbait. That title is a complete lie.

The story is certainly tragic, but it just spills over with speculation and the biggest questions you might have are never answered. Even worse: some questions are not even asked.

Marjorie Diehl can be seen and heard througout the documentary, rambling loudly and incoherently because of her mental issues. While disturbing and sad on one hand, as far as evidence goes, the addition of this footage does nothing. It's simply disturbing footage of a mentally ill woman.

This could've easily be condensed into two episodes and you'd miss nothing. In the end, nothing truly interesting is revealed. If anything, this entire documentary felt like an attempt by the creator to justify the time he wasted all these years.

A very underwhelming experience. 5/10.

Dont believe the ratings! This should be a 10/10 ... across the board. A TON of work, dedication, background info, and time, went into this. The documentary never drags on, yet never goes to fast to lose you. This story is one of the most fascinating crimes of the century! And if you think you've seen every plot twist known to man.. then you haven't seen Evil Genius! If you like documentaries, WATCH THIS.

Being a true-crime buff, I was familiar with this incident, but I had no idea how wild the story behind it really is! This documentary is so in-depth and well-researched, I was honestly surprised. The filmmaker actually cultivated a decade-long relationship with the main suspect and collected so much information about the people involved, that is truly impressive. If you're a fan of true-crime (and human psychology), do not miss this one!

This documentary was good and catchy but it could be directed in 1 episode, not in 4 episodes. In my opinion, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong's mental illness and evilness had to be explained with more evidences. I don't see her evil mind enough in the documentary. The heist plan seemed like a collective work, not only Marjorie's evil work. Because of that reason, the documentary had to tell us more about Marjorie's ex-crimes and her past to demonstrate her evilness and to convince the audience about her unique evil mind. And also, I think that at first, FBI underestimated the heist and wasn't interested enough . But later, they understood the gravity. Then, they actually involved in the case and closed it.

Loved this fascinating docu-series. Twists and turns, and very deep. Watched all four episodes together because I couldn't stop watching!

But if there is one thing I understand, it is that this person is too horrible to be human. There is a lot to say. This disgusting one that people even sell their favorite people for money is really just one.

I finally got around to watching Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist - The true crime series based on the pizza bomber case. I still haven't been able to quite get it out of my mind, and I come away with a lot of conflicting feelings about the documentary series. The sheer insanity of the story, the magnitude of the crime and the fascinating key players in the story make this a compelling watch with still many unanswered questions that continue to make you guessing - who, how and what. Over the 4 episodes we hear time and time again what a master manipulator Marge is... and maybe she is... but so are the makers of this documentary. And here is where I had problems with the doc. In one of the episodes we see a courtroom sketch artist explain that when the trial started he drew Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong more sinister, focusing on her crazy features... but as it progressed he learned more of her story and got a better feeling of who she was as a person and therefore started to draw her softer. This switch never occurred during the making (or should I say editing decisions) of the documentary. We get introduced to Marge as a person who "has never been normal" and the rest of the doc consists of trying to hammer that point home. That despite Trey's years of letters exchanged and faked friendship with Marge... often down-right bragging in the narration about betraying her trust time and time again for the sake of the documentary. Making it all feel dishonest and exploitative. The moment a documentary and it's makers start coming over as dishonest people you can't help but quickly lose faith in everything they tell you. I'm not suggesting that Marge is innocent and she could very well be the "evil genius" who masterminded the elaborate bank-robbery and murder of of Brian Wells. But even so, I can't help but feel that in many instances her full story was never told. Instead what we do get to see is a perfectly staged piece of sensationalism that IMO often lacks objectivity. Worth watching, but also highly infuriating at points.

There are a lot of good intentioned police officers and a lot of smart ones too, and theres a lot of average intelligence. But there are a lot of officers who are incredibly dumb. I get that this bomb was a situation they didnt know how to handle. The thing that is so interesting, is how basic many peoples interpretation of emotion is. I have seen many people (not officers - anyone) comment on videos of criminal interviews for example. They often think that if the person isnt responding in the most basic way that they are lying.

These officers were explaining how this man wasnt panicking as a sign that he was lying about the bomb strapped to him. It doesnt even cross their mind that people respond unusually in unusual situations. Police are so utterly untrained in psychology, yet that is the main aspect of their job. 99.9% of the time theyre not having a wild west show down, they are talking to people. They could not tell that this man was so scared that he couldnt even panick? They cannot even imagine being so terrified you feel like stone that you could hardly move properly let alone communicate normally? Literally the directions he was under was all about not panicking as well. So he is obviously trying to follow their instructions.

This reminds me of an interview I saw of a murder suspect. She did yoga when the police officers stepped out of the room. So after being questioned for hours in a single room, and youre trying not to lose your mind, yoga seems like a strange choice? Thats literally what yoga is for. People including officers are incredibly dim to not be able to imagine that people have different ways of reacting and different situations create different reactions.

Then this continues showing the police officers having caused a traffic jam. Of course they have motorcycles, but for the bomb officer to get on a motorcycle and speed towards the scene, that is too hard to figure out? I mean this is beyond stupid.

How is it anyone claims that people are the smartest animal? I mean... they assume that the reason the man is not running around freaking out is NOT because he literally has a bomb strapped to him, NOT that hes trying to hold onto his sanity in order to guide these incredibly dim officers into actually being of service, NOT because he is in total shock from fear... no they assume its because the bomb isnt real and he is just lying -- with no game plan- he is just lying while sitting in handcuffs. And this is after they see its a real bomb.

And they have him in handcuffs with guns pointed at him and no one helping whatsoever. They werent even like, "hey most of the officers here arent doing anything, we dont need 10 guns aimed at this guy, how about five of you guys try to follow the directions and get the keys? Just in case it is a real bomb and we really can get keys to get him out of it."

Obviously the hostage could see that his words were not reaching any human of normal intelligence. He was crying for help to animals who did not comprehend language. Of course he lost the spirit in his voice. He is about to die and these cops are just staring back at him blankly, blinking and pointing a gun. They are literally staring at him and ignoring him completely 100%. What do you do if you are being ignored? You completely lose all hope. He could see that these officers were completely missing intellect. He was talking to a blank wall. A blank wall that was aiming multiple guns at him.

Its really hard to keep hope for humanity when we have a system that sends these very very stupid creatures running around pointing guns at people. They are so incredibly stupid its terrifying. We would be safer if we gave a bunch of monkeys guns. The monkeys would be able to sense peoples emotions they would not just aim at someone in such severe distress that they were freezing up from the completely demoralizing situation they were in.

We need officers who for one have at least average intelligence. They have emotional IQs high enough to tell when a person is in distress, not just blindly read the stereotypical signs like "is screaming and crying". That is something that a lot of people who are autistic are not capable of. They cannot read emotions. Some have to be taught if someone is yelling they are angry, if someone is crying they are sad. Its a mental handicap. Most people can realize human emotions beyond the level of severe autism.

We also need officers who are trained in psychology. They also need to have some training for all situations like bombs.

We also need people to divert from their standard system when necessary. To problem solve. To say hey maybe we should use multiple strategies at the same time here, some officers monitor, some follow the directions. Not go interview the pizza shop manager?????????????

There are not enough words to describe the stupidity of a lot of people. Sadly those officers and others who are incredibly stupid are not kept out of officer positions. Read up on how they are selected to be kind of dumb. They also have to work under sociopath corrupt leaders. We need a revamp of humanity.

Very interesting, engaging story.

That said, this is a labored, labored doc. The interviews are edited in such a way that they contain the irritating irrelevant details that the best modern docs edit out. The special agent in charge of the Wells case is particularly bad; there must be 20 minutes per episode of him describing the process of submitting search warrants to a judge or telling you which doors in a house he didn't open. The narration is irritating and overly dramatic, the filmmaker thrusts his personality into the film for no apparent reason other than to get his peyote bead gold star, and frankly, I wish this show, and many, many Netflix and true crime docs, would remember to include some information in between starkly lit 20 second interview clips and transitional shots of faded photographs.

Overall, these issues effect both my enjoyment of the film and my willingness to trust it. The overly sensational presentation and the obnoxious desperation to maintain a sense of suspense and mystery makes me question the doc's priorities: does it value impartiality and accuracy over entertainment value.

This show betrays faults in the state of modern documentary filmmaking at some points and faults in the direction at others, ultimately creating a product that, while based on a profoundly interesting story, drowns itself in obnoxious melodrama.

It covered as much as you can expect! Amazing story telling. Not too much of the narrator talking but just enough.

Smart good lovely and sick