'Killing Fields': Manufactured moments drag down Discovery's new La.-shot true-crime series (2024)

The aesthetic target for which the makers of Discovery's Louisiana-based "Killing Fields" are aiming isn't a hard one to detect. Following two Louisiana detectives as they re-open a 19-year-old Iberville Parish murder case, the six-episode true-crime docu-series was clearly conceived, in tone and content, as a blend of "Serial" and "True Detective."

What producers end up with, however, at least in the premiere episode that aired Tuesday night (Jan. 5) -- titled "A Body in the Bayou" and which will be rebroadcast some five times before next week's second episode -- feels a heck of a lot closer to a blend of "Swamp People" and "Cops."

That is to say, while it wears its Louisiana-ness proudly, and while it flirts with its share of compelling true-crime drama, it doesn't carry the same heft, the same smarts or the same distinct voice of those ultimate inspirations.

That's not to take anything away from the weathered Rodie Sanchez, a former cop who came out of retirement to revisit the 1997 death of LSU grad student Eugenie Boisfontaine for the Discovery Channel cameras. It's a case he first investigated back when the trail was still hot, as we learn. It's been haunting him ever since.

As he tells the "Killing Fields" cameras, he promised Boisfontaine's mother years ago that he would find her daughter's killer. It's a promise he hopes he can now finally keep.

It would all be even more touching if the scene in which he tells that story wasn't so eye-rollingly contrived, with Sanchez sitting in his yard, drink in hand and sleeveless undershirt on back. Still, even if the staging can be questioned, Sanchez's sincerity really can't be.

Louisiana cold case to be reopened in Discovery Channel true-crime series 'Killing Fields'

Just as eager to bring closure to the Boisfontaine family is Sanchez's investigative partner, a strapping young buck by the name of Aubrey St. Angelo. In addition to providing producers with a convenient excuse for some strained -- and clearly pre-fabricated -- generational humor, Angelo's new-school approach serves as a nice foil for Sanchez' old-dog ways.

They both seem like good cops and good guys, the kind of people you wouldn't mind sharing a beer with over a game of pool. At the same time, the myriad manufactured moments that pepper Episode 1 -- not to mention the pervasive forced Louisiana-ness -- repeatedly ring false, threatening to inject the proceedings with an uncomfortable air of exploitation.

Case in point: a scene in which Sanchez and St. Angelo inexplicably watch a cane field burning -- at night no less, because that's what we Louisianans apparently do when we're not sitting sleeveless in our yards -- and muse wistfully about the case while staring into the distance. It's a pretty scene. But it also feels pretty phony.

None of that makes "Killing Fields" worth abandoning right out the gate, necessarily. The drama of the underlying story -- which, among other things, will see Sanchez and St. Angelo re-examine old evidence with the help modern technology -- is undeniable. The chilling specter of Baton Rouge serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, which hangs heavily over the first episode, makes it even more compelling.

Besides which, the entire run of the show's first season is only six episodes, so it's not an onerous Tuesday-night commitment.

Hopefully, it'll be able to find its voice, and its own identity in Episode 2. If not, viewers just might close the case on "Killing Fields" earlier than Discovery would probably like.

Note: Episode 1 of "The Killing Fields," titled "A Body in the Bayou," is scheduled to re-air at 1 p.m. Friday (Jan. 8); 4 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. and noon Sunday; and at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Episode 2, titled "Buried Secrets," airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday. (All times are Central.)

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