‘The Manhattan Alien Abduction’ Netflix Series Review - Hoax or Truth?

The Manhattan Alien Abduction documentary focuses on Budd Hopkins, Linda, and Carol. The three-part documentary series with its videos and audio narrates the story of what Linda experienced including her multiple abductions by the aliens and her family's involvement. Every aspect of her story has been covered and an extensive storyline has been built. To give a summary to the audience, she had vivid and exhausting confrontations with these extraterrestrial creatures and there were various elements like the nasal implant to support her story. Her first confrontation was witnessed by twenty-three individuals and hence came forward as the most credible confrontation in history. What she had come forward with to Budd Hopkins (an expert in the field of UFOs) gained worldwide attention and was thought of as the discovery of something new. Budd even wrote a book ‘Witnessed’ based on Linda’s experiences. Her story is depicted using various effects to make it look more realistic.

In my opinion, the documentary ruined the momentum it had set up at the end. Why was such an exchange of words shown between Carol and Linda? The audience has been allowed to form their own opinion about the incident and that's what a good documentary does, allowing the audience to form their own perception. The documentary of the most famous UFO incident has been divided into three parts: introduction, details about the case, and why Carol and others didn't believe the narrative. The third part about why Carol didn't believe Linda's story has been presented with proofs and in evidence we shall believe because these were also the basis of Budd’s reliance on Linda. I always had my doubts about what Linda said, how Budd performed hypnosis, and about mass hysteria. To my knowledge, hypnosis has always been a complex job so how can one remember deep-rooted and erased memories with just three words? The evidence presented by Carol appeared more reliable than Linda’s fabricated story. The fact that things like these even happened to her family was the part that raised suspicion.

The narration order is good and the audience is given their due time to get along with the story. However, it did feel like some parts were repetitious and time could have been saved. The makers or editors could have done a better job in certain parts of the story where the same dialogues were being repeated. When Linda told about Richard and Dan and how the UN too is involved, the matter was quickly escalated and displayed as a matter of international politics when in reality there was no such thing even if it did happen. How can such sightings be related to international politics? The audience can enjoy this three-part documentary series and form their own opinion about the subject. Effects in the documentary could have been better and included in various other instances where Linda was narrating her experience.

Final Score – [7/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times