On One Hand, And On The Other Hand, Too: 'Wild Wild Country'
The Netflix documentary series about the Oregon Rajneeshi community that clashed with local and state government suggests there's no real answer to who was right that's entirely satisfactory.
The rise of the true-crime documentary — and the true-crime podcast — has made serialized storytelling about historical controversies seem like a trial, like a presentation of evidence leading to the answer to a question. A person is innocent, or a person is guilty. Someone disappeared this way or that way. A person was a persecuted saint or a nefarious monster. To paraphrase the true-crime parody American Vandal, it's all about "Who did the [spray-painted phalluses]?"
The Netflix series has some of the trappings of such a piece. It revisits a news story from decades ago, but within
