Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini – Review | Hulu

PERFECT WIFE: THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERRI PAPINI on Hulu is a new true-crime documentary in three parts. So many twists and turns, you cannot stop watching. Read our full Perfect Wife docu-series review here!

PERFECT WIFE: THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERRI PAPINI is a new Hulu documentary series with three hour-long episodes. Just as it was the case with American Nightmare, the story keeps changing and evolving.

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Our review of the American Nightmare Netflix docu-series here >

However, this one has a very different outcome, so the comparison isn’t a spoiler. If you’re not familiar with the actual case, you’ll surely be changing your theory many times. And if you are, this is a deep dive into how it all unfolded.

Continue reading our Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini review here. Find it on Hulu from June 20, 2024.

Searching for the truth

In Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini, we meet Keith and Sherri Papini. They lead a seemingly idyllic family life with their two children. However, all of that changes when Sherri Papini vanishes.

Her phone is found at the end of their street in a northern California neighborhood. An area known for kidnappings and human trafficking. Needless to say, the white mother of two disappearing near her own home triggers a frenzied search.

Before long her disappearance is national news (not news around the well, despite what the press material claims) and the police are left clueless.

It takes almost six years before the case is finally solved. Well, as much as it ever will be. Sherri Papini disappeared in 2016 and returned home after 22 days, but everything else is a mystery.

What we do learn tends to result in even more questions, and we’ll probably never have all the answers.

A solid production but one-sided

While describing anything as “one-sided” is rarely good, for Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini it isn’t by choice. Sherri Papini isn’t involved with the production at all. She didn’t want to be.

At least, this is what is stated at the very end of the documentary when we’re informed that Sherri Papini never got back to the filmmakers. Whether she would agree with that presentation of facts remains unknown.

For me, there is an issue in this as we hear a lot about what she has said and done, but only from other people. And those people don’t even agree on the facts. It’s still a solid true crime documentary production, but – for me at least – it’s lacking that [her] aspect.

Watch Perfect Wife: The Disappearance of Sherri Papini on Hulu now

This new Hulu docu-series comes from filmmakers Erin Lee Carr (Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall) and Michael Beach Nichols (Welcome to Leith). The executive producers all have experience from somewhat similar productions rooted in reality and/or true crime.

They are Rob Ford (Shut Up and Dribble), Allison Berkley (The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Kach Story), and Joseph Freed (Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography) of Marwar Junction Productions.

It’s the kind of true crime documentary series that features both new interviews alongside police interviews and news tapings from when it happened. I am a fan of showing facts, so the actual interviews at the police station are paramount to me.

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Interviews after the fact are good, but they will always be tainted by whatever information has been discovered or come out in the meantime. Also, a few things about the police did irk me. Both in their approach to the disappearance and in finding the truth.

Like when the lead detective referred to Sherri Papini’s husband, Keith Papini, as his “friend”. I mean, yikes, surely this doesn’t make for a very objective detective. Regardless of everything else that comes out, that detail did not sit right with me.

Perfect Wife: The Disappearance of Sherri Papini is out on Hulu from June 20, 2024.