The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (4/5) – Netflix Series Review

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is a new Netflix documentary series in 8 episodes. It follows the timeline from Maddie disappeared on vacation with her family in Portugal. It feels like a lot of facts are set straight. Watch Season 1 on Netflix now!

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is out on Netflix now and I highly recommend watching this documentary. Like so many other true crime and true story documentaries, you realize how little you actually know.

Also, how much of what you think you know is simply based on headlines that were never true. Those headlines were meant to sell newspapers. And they did!

Watching The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, you will probably come across many “facts” that turned out to not be true at all.

The best part about this Netflix documentary was how it followed the timeline. No jumping back and forth to cover the same stuff over and over again in different ways. Instead, we keep moving forward to clear up facts from those headlines many of us probably remember.

The McCann family does not support this Netflix documentary

When you read that the McCann family doesn’t support or endorse this documentary, you might get suspicious. However, let me reveal right now that there is nothing to be suspicious of.

The family is simply nervous that this documentary may be dangerous to Madeleine if she is still alive somewhere. 

I can certainly understand this, but I also think it’s a documentary like The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann that can help lead to new clues. After all, if people think they know facts about this crime, that are not true, then maybe they’re not aware that they have relevant knowledge.

For the record, both the Gerry and Kate McCann [the parents of Madeleine] as well as other suspects, have officially been cleared of suspicion. Also, many involved have won rather large libel settlements in court from British newspapers that were spreading lies about them.

The money went to a foundation still working on the case, so this is hardly about money for them. It’s simply about finding out what happened.

Portuguese investigator Gonçalo Amaral

While there’s still a lot we don’t know, the Portuguese police really didn’t do a good job. It’s the same story as in so many cases all over the world; They come up with a theory and work only on getting evidence to support their theory while ignoring most other clues.

And the investigator Gonçalo Amaral is the worst one of all.

Just wait until episode 6 (which starts out with some weird private detective stuff) reveals what Gonçalo Amaral was doing just before Madeleine McCann disappeared. Let me just say this; The guy should have been in jail and definitely not have been working on a child disappearance case.

He reminded me so much of the Italian investigator from the Amanda Knox documentary (also on Netflix). If you haven’t watched the Netflix documentary on Amanda Knox, then I highly recommend it. Here’s our review of it >

These police forces have way too much power and just want someone guilty. Not necessarily the person guilty.

Watch The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann on Netflix

The creator and director of The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is Chris Smith. He also made the Fyre documentary about the now infamous Fyre music festival. Earlier, he has worked on a lot more documentaries including The Yes Men back in 2003.

To me, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann feels like a very well-rounded documentary series. All the crazy (and often baseless) headlines are looked at once again. Personally, I also came to realize that my understanding of this case was very inaccurate. 

I remembered various headlines and believed them to be facts. Especially since a big deal was never made of correcting those mistruths. For this reason alone, I truly feel that watching The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann is a must for anyone who has been following the case.

Hopefully, there are facts and clues that can lead to Madeleine McCann finally being found. 

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann was released on Netflix worldwide on March 15, 2019.

Plot

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann takes detailed look of the disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann who vanished from the seaside resort of Praia de Luz in Portugal, while on holiday with her family. It was a disappearance that reverberated around the world as the Portuguese police together with Scotland Yard mobilised a major investigation which would go on to become the most high-profile missing child case in British history.