After 17-year-old Anthony Templet shot his dad Burt Templet, the case seemed very black and white. From the outside it appears to just be a spoiled rich kid who killed his dad in an argument, but what happens when this story is investigated from another point of view? The three part Netflix docuseries “I Just Killed my Dad” speaks on the murder of Burt from the perspective of his son, Anthony. This heart wrenching story unearths the abuse Anthony endured his whole life, and why Anthony believes he should not be considered guilty in the eyes of the court.

In the documentary, Anthony and several other family members talk about how they were abused by Burt. They speak about how his abuse looked to others, and how it affected Anthony in his day to day life.

In the docuseries, Anthony and his former manager find his biological mother, Teresa Thompson. After they find Thompson, she speaks about the abuse she dealt with when she was with Burt, and how she had been looking for her son since Burt took him away when he was five.

The viewers follow Anthony through his trial and how he expects it to go. Detailed interviews with Anthony’s lawyer inform us that he would likely get manslaughter and probation.

In the beginning of the docuseries, it’s pretty obvious that Anthony wasn’t fully aware of the intensity of his own abuse when he was first arrested. An important part of the docuseries was getting to watch Anthony evolve. Seeing interviews with his close friends and family really show the viewers how much Anthony had grown since he was arrested. Seeing not only his perspective, but the perspectives of those close to him as well, really helped me feel for and understand his situation. In order to really understand Anthony, it was crucial that the viewers saw the people in his life as well.

Seeing Anthony’s original interrogation really immerses the viewer and shows how much he’s grown in the way he talked about his abuse, becoming much more confident in the more recent interviews. The in-depth interviews were truly one of the many things that make this documentary so intriguing, with cutaways being just the perfect amount of suspenseful you can’t help but stay on the edge of your seat.

Despite that, the ending felt very rushed. The third part of the docuseries focused on Anthony’s trial, there was so much build up for it but there were no clips from the actual trial which left the audience with an anticlimactic summary at the end. Nearly 40 minutes of build up that leads to Anthony’s lawyer telling the audience that Anthony ended up with probation and some jail time. It was also very disrespectful the way Anthony’s lawyer, Jarrett Ambeau, treated the case in front of the cameras. It seemed like he was trying to come up with new flashy things which just gave the impression that he was milking the case.

Overall, “I Just Killed my Dad” was very enjoyable. Even though it did seem like a way to extort the abuse Anthony had to go through, it was still a facinating look into the mind of a murderer.