Boring Even Before You Read About It

Remember Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

That fantasy film that won all those awards because it allowed the Hollywood industry to work our their angst cathartically about the “unfair,” “untimely,” and tragic death of Sharon Tate, by pretending that the Manson killers went to some other house that was people by “Alpha” males like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mmmm… ok….

Yeah, well, then there’s the reality, soon to be explored — yet again — by the streaming service Epix who has ordered a six-part docu-series designed to tide you over in quarantine between episodes of that Tiger dude on Netflix.

From the trades:

The docuseries is slated to premiere on June 14, nearly 51 years since the murders of Sharon Tate and four other individuals who were visiting her home on El Cielo Drive. It promises never-before-accessed interviews with former family members and journalists who were either first on the scene, or in the courtroom for Manson’s explosive trial, as well as newly-unearthed images.

This ground that has been so well-trod, it assuredly never needs to be walked upon again.

And then there’s the matter of the talent behind the product.

Executive Produced By Greg Berlanti

That’s all you need to know.

There’s no problems here at all.

From the trades:

Helter Skelter hails from YA maestro Greg Berlanti and his Berlanti Productions, as well as Rogue Atlas Productions, Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, and An Inconvenient Truth producer Lesley Chilcott. Berlanti and Sarah Schechter are executive producing along with Eli Frankel of Rogue Atlas and Chilcott, who will also direct the Manson docuseries.

A cast of characters Manson himself would have picked.

What Are We To Make of All of This?

Charles Manson was, without a doubt, the secular boogeyman serial killer of the late 20th century.

Partially this is because he was the only person who seemed to take the century at its word: completely secular, driven by selfish motivation, lying and manipulating, and, of course, almost entirely a media-driven creation who played the populace via the useful idiots on the three major television networks like a fiddle.

You gotta give him this: He understood the machine.

So, of course, we have to unearth his ghost one more time while the paradigm shifts and the old model of culture and entertainment collapse under the weight of social distancing, coronavirus, quarantine restrictions, public health mandates, and a nanny state government out of control.