I wanted to write this almost a month ago, right after I’d finished watching the I’ll Be Gone in the Dark series. But summer has been fun and busy so the idea to write this sat until just now, when I saw a news article about the Golden State Killer, and now it’s on my mind so here we go. I hope I haven’t forgotten some of the shit I wanted to say. I’m also watching some crappy Bellator fights right now though so I’m a little distracted. Man, I want to like Bellator more but it really is a poor man’s UFC. These fighters are either obviously on steroids or pudgy and out of shape, and they just wing sloppy, wild punches. Very disappointing.
Anyway, right from the start of the IBGitD series, I didn’t like Patton Oswalt. His gushing and fawning over his late wife, Michelle McNamara, was so over the top that it felt disingenuous. Throughout the show, the supposed texts Oswalt and McNamara sent back and forth were shown on the screen, but I don’t buy that the messages shown were accurate. I don’t believe that anyone is as perfectly understanding as Oswalt seemed to be, that anyone can respond to a consistently annoying, flaky, needy, obsessive person with nothing but sweetness and gentle encouragement. Maybe I’m just showing how impatient and unkind I am but the way IBGitD showed it, Oswalt was flawless — the perfect parter, and I don’t buy it.
Oswalt also seemed way too chipper in his numerous interviews throughout the show when talking about McNamara. The words he was using implied that she was dead (this was before that detail was revealed) but his tone made me think that she couldn’t be. The only time he appeared upset was in a scene that seemed carefully orchestrated — he was unshaven, sitting in his kitchen in pajamas, and it was raining hard outside the windows. IIRC, at one point Oswalt had to stop the interview in one of those “I can’t do this, shut the camera off” things people on reality shows always do. It was way too obviously manufactured and typical to be authentic, especially when considered in contrast to his usual happy, smiling, laughing scenes talking about McNamara. So I don’t buy his mourning, either.
I also thought it was weird that he was autographing McNamara’s book, which was published posthumously. That seems absurd, and self-important to me. I mean, if she was still alive and he signed it, I feel like people would say, “why would you sign the book when you didn’t have anything to do with it? You’re taking credit for something you didn’t do.” I think that still applies when the author is dead. I know that if I were in Oswalt’s position, I would feel like a real snake, riding the coattails of my dead wife. I would feel like I was debasing her greatest work. Very greasy, in my opinion.
I was surprised that Patton wasn’t keeping a closer eye on McNamara toward the end of her life, considering her prescription drug abuse. It sounded like he was well aware of her drug problem so I don’t understand why he didn’t do more besides send her “you’ve got this, babe” texts while she stayed in a hotel room, alone, popping a cocktail of pills. The way he talked about it in the show, it sounded like he was blindsided and shocked by her death, like he never saw it coming, and I think that’s nuts. I can’t imagine any good partner — especially the perfect partner — missing the months and months of warning signs, and doing nothing about it. If I were Oswalt, I would probably blame myself for McNamara’s death but it didn’t sound like he feels this way.
These things all got me wondering if Oswalt was behind the IBGitD series, if he was an executive producer who could exert careful control on how he was portrayed. Wasn’t I shocked to see that my guess was correct. I wonder how much he personally made off the series, further milking his wife’s achievement and death, and if he feels any guilt or shame about that.
On top of my suspicions about Oswalt, I thought IBGitD wasn’t even very good. I really liked the crime aspect but everything about McNamara and her family was boring fluff that wasted about half of each episode. Plus all the dramatic readings of stuff McNamara had written were terrible. Talk about overacting, sheesh. I guess Oswalt was trying to cut costs wherever he could to increase his take home, which lead to them hiring some real B-rate voice actors. Oh, and there was a sequence where they reenacted McNamara and one of her investigator friends picking up boxes of evidence from a police department, and the filmmakers tried to make the sequence feel like something out of a heist movie, making it ‘cool’ and ‘badass.’ Good grief, was that stupid. Shows like Family Guy and Rick & Morty (and countless others, I’m sure) have already made fun of the lame heist schtick for years so I think it was pretty lame and out-of-touch of IBGitD to go with it.
In conclusion: I liked half of IBGitD, hated the other half, and think Patton Oswalt is an extremely questionable character (not surprising, what Hollywood star isn’t). 5/10. Here’s some Rick & Morty.
Addendum: I just read that Oswalt became engaged to another woman just over a year after McNamara’s death. Wow, yet another massive red flag. He didn’t waste any time with that silly grief stuff. That’s now seven red flags I see about this guy — too much. I don’t like him.
crimson highway 