Netflix likely has another undeniable can’t-look-away true crime documentary in The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part.
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Us → have → Widower
This is the story of Thomas Randolph, a man who has six ex-wives, and four are dead, not at all coincidentally.
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four → have → wives
Three of those deaths were suspicious, so Dateline producer Dan Slepian started reporting on it, and Tiger King and Fyre director Chris Smith put together the story of that investigation.
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King → start → investigation
Which, of course, is pretty much as sensational as you’d think.
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you → think → course
THE WIDOWER: ’TIL DEATH DO US PART: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist:
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US → stream → IT
An opening disclaimer tells us that The Widower follows Dan Slepian and Las Vegas police detective Dean O’Kelley’s investigation in real time.
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Widower → tell → time
Then the Dateline journalist teases “extraordinary access” to the principals involved — and eventually follows through with it, in spades.
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journalist → tease → spades
In 2008, Randolph’s wife, Sharon Causse, was gunned down in her Vegas home.
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wife → gun → home
Randolph claimed that their handyman, Mike Miller, killed her, so Randolph shot and killed Miller in self-defense.
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Randolph → claim → defense
The crime scene didn’t make sense to O’Kelley.
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scene → make → O’Kelley
Slepian, known for his journalistic advocacy for wrongfully imprisoned men, got a tip that this story wasn’t a simple open-and-shut homicide.
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story → know → tip
O’Kelley aimed to gather evidence and arrest Randolph, and Slepian followed him nearly every step of the way.
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Slepian → aim → way
What followed was a sordid saga.
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followed → follow → ?
Causse was Randolph’s sixth wife, and the fourth to meet an untimely demise.
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Causse → meet → demise
Granted, one died of cancer.
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one → grant → cancer
One was shot in the head, framed as suicide, and Randolph was acquitted of her murder, avoiding the death penalty.
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Randolph → shoot → penalty
Another died suspiciously in the hospital following heart surgery.
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Another → die → surgery
All of his wives had fat life insurance policies.
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All → have → policies
Slepian made good use of Randolph’s narcissism, leveraging multiple on-the-record interviews — some of them hours-long phone calls — with the guy during more than a decade of investigations and trials and retrials.
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Slepian → make → investigations
Eventually, O’Kelley gathers enough incriminating evidence to nab Randolph.
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O’Kelley → gather → Randolph
So he and other officers knock on the door and, after Randolph refuses to comply, tase the guy and bring him in, while Slepian’s camera captures the whole thing.
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camera → knock → thing
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
This doc will provide a bigger platform — and some updated information — to a story that Slepian produced in 2021, five-hour series Dateline: The Widower.
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Slepian → provide → 2021
HBO Max also boasts limited series The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph, from 2024.
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Max → boast → 2024
The Widower has immediate credibility thanks to Slepian, who nabbed a Pulitzer Prize nod for a podcast series about wrongly convicted inmates in Sing Sing prison.
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who → have → prison
Although he occasionally skirts the edge of sensationalism in his tone — he can’t help that some of the interviewees here, former associates of Randolph, border on being showy, oddball characters — he keeps the doc from feeling like a trashy exposé.
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he → skirt → exposé
Slepian, O’Kelley, and Causse’s grieving adult daughter Colleen Beyer all have arcs in the story — and Randolph is a main character too, coming off as a sleazy manipulator, serial liar, and, in all likelihood, a serial killer.
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Randolph → grieve → likelihood
He gets plenty of face time, whether he’s talking to Slepian in the back of a car immediately after being tased, or in prison awaiting trials or responses to his unending appeals.
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he → get → appeals
It gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into real detective work (the least substantial thread in the film) and Slepian’s journalism, essentially chronicling how his 2021 Dateline story came together, and updating it with new information.
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story → give → information
In this portrait of a deadly narcissist emerges a theme that Slepian states outright: The reporter long struggled to get the justice system to listen to unjustly imprisoned people, but Randolph used his cunning to manipulate the system to avoid and postpone justice.
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Randolph → emerge → justice
Sometimes the salacious elements of this upsetting saga get in the way of this illumination of the weaknesses in the U.S. justice system, but that thread is nevertheless omnipresent.
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thread → get → system
Our Call: ’Til Death Do Us Part offers an unusual angle on somewhat typically Netflixian true crime fodder – and there’s enough good work here to give it some journalistic integrity.
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Us → part → integrity
Werner Herzog hugged him once.
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Herzog → hug → him
The Aporia
