Essay--Jack Was Here

If I say, what’s the most famous serial killer case in history, what would your answer be? Jefferey Dhahmer? Gacy? How about “Jack ‘The’ Ripper”? That would be mine.

It’s been 37 or 38 years since I learned about Jack, and most of the sources I read didn’t go into the nasty details of the murders. If memory serves, those little books didn’t even include the text in the letters but rather a synopsis. In hindsight, I find that very interesting. In today’s world, I would have had it all with a google search. C’est la ville.

Regardless, Jack has always been circling around. For as long as I can remember, the name hits the news about once a year involving a new theory, or a new hole in an accepted theory, about who the murder was. And, what really happened.

If you’ll remember, Johnny Depp was in a little movie called “From Hell,” based on the excellent Alan Moore graphic novel. Because of that film, the internet lit up with all the historical inaccuracies, denigration, and revived the topic for a while.

In the last few years, two British series invoked the legendary Jack in their very own titles. “Ripper Street,” and “Whitechapel.” I am here to tell you, they are both very good. And neither has much to do with the original Jack. And I’m so very glad for that.

If you’ve listened to enough of my reviews, you’ll know I’m a sucker for police procedurals that involve psychological horror and the appearance of the supernatural. Even if the supernatural has more natural causes. The art of a good police procedural is not only to acquaint you with the case, but how the people involved’s very lives circle the case, how it affects their marriages, relationships, career prospects, all of that. It’s tough to do in a 1.5 hour film, but can be quite well done in a tv series or, maybe, um, a novel? I digress.

I think a good police procedural gives you time to get to know the characters inside and out, but at a slow pace. You get more and more detail every step of the way. Personal conflicts are mentioned or alluded to, but they aren’t fully unclothed until much later. It adds a certain mystique and also allows the author to convey information without a damned info dump. And believe me, anything you can to do to get around that old cliche is a blessing.

So, why did the BBC think it was a good idea to green light two series that alluded to Jack? That’s actually pretty easy to answer. “Ripper Street” takes place within the same year or two of the murders while “Whitechapel” takes place in the here and now. But not only is the subject matter different, the characters are as well. Or are they? Hmm.

I’ll start with Ripper Street. The Victorian Age in England was filled with an hypocrisy where appearance and manners literally trumped deeds. Those with the most social graces in the upper crust could get away with murder simply because their disgrace would be shared among their elite brothers and sisters. Hm, not sure anything has really changed there. Anyway, the Whitechapel of 1890s London was more or less a slum.

The stories for the cops should just about write themselves, don’t you think? Well, they do and they don’t. “Ripper Street” starts us off, as most investigation stories do, with a murder. It gives us a chance to see the inspector and his sergeant go to work. How they do their jobs, and the inspector’s interest in patterns and suppositions. But two is hardly a good working number. So they add a third personality to the mix, guaranteed to drive the other two main characters insane. It’s a good way to do it, actually.

Regardless of that fact, we are drawn into an upper crust conspiracy that starts at the very bottom and works its way up. The usual rancor, political pressure, and backstabbing begins. It works. It’s good. I enjoyed it. And as it goes along, it gets better and better.

Reviewing Ripper Street spoiler free is difficult, because the first 3 seasons’ stories and characterizations rely upon a certain nuance that is impossible to describe without including the characters’ personalities and circumstances.

But I will say this: they could have ended the show early and no one would have been jolted. I think the writers wrote themselves into a corner and therefore had to find a way to keep the show going. But whatever. I enjoyed the hell out of the first three seasons.

The rest? Well, there were some good bits, but I felt lost in a depressing ocean. The optimism that seemed on the verge of prevailing in the show’s first long arc was completely drowned. Everything felt as though it could only get worse and you were sure it would. Precious few wins for the protags and it just grated on me. I liked some of the ideas, but wished the show had really ended at the season 3 mark.

This is a completely different topic, but how many series live on past their shelf life? Or were designed to be a couple of short seasons that a network decided to turn into something with more legs? Or, they have an off season, but you realize there’s no place to go after last season? Yup. That’s a problem I need to discuss in another essay.

So Ripper Street is filled with soot, filth, criminals, and Victorian intrigue. The atmosphere alone is worth checking out.

Now, flash forward over a hundred years and we get Whitechapel.

With the success of TV shows like House, Monk, and the modern Sherlock Holmes, it seems like every series has to have a somewhat misanthropic or otherwise emotionally inept main character. Whitechapel follows that trend, but doesn’t really bring it to the forefront very often. But when it’s front and center, it pretty much consumes one of the characters. It’s tough to watch in that way, but it is what it is.

What Whitechapel does have, however, is a crime historian. In the difficult or strange murder cases, Whitechapel enhances their investigative techniques by also looking at history. Jack is discussed as well as HH Holmes, Cripin, and even includes an arc dedicated to the infamous london gangsters The Crays.

London’s history has some very storied villains, not to mention ridiculously violent crimes, and Whitechapel takes advantage of this. Felt like every episode had some new point of historical fact of British history or international crime history. It’s an interesting concept and really is part of the investigative process. After all, what is investigation but continuing to ask questions, going as far as you have to, backtracking from every dead end, and following the trails where they lead. History is part of that. Always has been, always will be.

With the internet, crime databases, and other modern technological marvels, it’s easy to find information. But good information? Crapshoot. Always. The idea of using history to get some ideas about killer motivations or similar crimes is both satisfyingly novel, as well as providing a reason for a very quirky character to be in the show. It works.

Looking back on the two shows, they do share a common problem. The writers for Whitechapel fell into more or less the same exact trap the folks in Ripper Street did—they wrote themselves into a corner. There’s an earth-shattering realization and confrontation in the 2nd season, and after it is resolved, it’s never mentioned again. However, that resolution could have been the end of the show. Instead, they just started another season and moved on. Sigh. I was less happy about that.

At the same time, though, if you can forgive the series that one misstep, it’s actually pretty damned good. In stark contrast to Ripper Street, we get to see the modern London, its diverse populace, and hope for the future.

So pick your poison. Jack isn’t back, not in the trope we’ve seen played out over and over again in B movies. Instead, it is the allusion to the infamous case that provides an instant cue for audiences interested in a crime show. Fortunately, both shows more or less live up to the name both in atmosphere and the evident insanity of Jack himself.

Whitechapel is available for streaming on Amazon Prime video. Ripper Street is available for streaming on Netflix.

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