Unsolved Mysteries comes back to Netflix for a third volume of some of the most interesting and unexplained cases on Earth. The series has been able to place itself in the minds of the audience by always coming up with new stories to tell. While most of the unexplained episodes are focused on cases located inside the United States of America, the third volume of the series offers enough variety to feel like there is something worth telling in each episode.
However, episode 5 might be the least interesting of the new volume so far. The reason is that it focuses too much on the characters telling the stories and not enough on the stories themselves. The episode focuses on a couple of Navajo Rangers who were once ordered to investigate some of the strangest cases in the Navajo Nation territory. This leads to a couple of men telling stories about a good deal of weird stuff they saw during their service, and how they approached the investigation of all these unexplained things.
The stories themselves are interesting, and they paint a picture of a territory that is very much in contact with forces beyond our understanding. However, while the stories are gripping and the context of the Navajo culture brings a different flavor to the stories, the way the stories are presented leaves much to be desired. The proof presented for each one of the cases is shallow at best, and sometimes the old men tell the stories and just say, “trust me, I saw it”. As if this was proof enough that they are telling the truth.
Unsolved Mysteries is at its best when it presents you with something and leaves you with questions about it. Could this be true, or is this a lie? Those are the best episodes, the ones that make you think and create your own theories about what is actually happening in any specific episode. Here, the old rangers just hope that you trust them and their vague details about the cases. It is like hearing a grandpa telling a good night story, but you know he is just making stuff up.
So, the episode also tries to cover too much ground in a very small amount of time. This is the shortest episode so far, but also the one with the most cases. How is this possible? Well, as we said before, the two main protagonists of the episode spent a lot of time telling us about these creepy stories. However, their investigation never revealed anything, and there are no theories about what these cases are supposed to be or anything. Everything is just explained by saying, it is the land, the spirits, and such.
This lack of detail and this jumping around between so many cases leaves us wanting more of everything. Things are just too vague, and it doesn’t seem like there is any actual investigation going around these cases. So if no one is really trying to solve these cases, then why should we as an audience be interested in them? It says something about the cases that this is the shortest episode of the volume so far. There was just not enough of anything here to make the episode worthwhile. Which is a shame.
Episode 5 of Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3 fails to make the collection of cases presented in this episode interesting enough to be a worthwhile episode of the show. There are better-constructed and investigated cases being researched and presented by YouTubers than what this episode offers. This is supposed to be way above that. It really tells you how things have changed in the world of visual production when someone at their house can make something of much better quality than something that is presented on the biggest streaming services on Earth.
