Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About A Notorious Hotel And A Missing College Student

Netflix is setting up Crime Scene as an anthology series that examine a particularly notorious location where a crime — or multiple crimes — have occurred over the decades. Its first season examines a doozy: The Cecil Hotel, located in the middle of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, the scene of more crimes and other strange occurrences than could be documented in a four-part series. So director Joe Berlinger decided to focus on one of its most recent notorious caes: The disappearance of Elisa Lam.

CRIME SCENE: THE VANISHING AT THE CECIL HOTEL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A spooky shot of a man putting on headphones, while a news report plays in the background.

The Gist: Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel, directed by Joe Berlinger, is a 4-part docuseries that examines the mysterious happenings during the long history of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, with the focus being on the 2013 disappearance of Elisa Lam, a college student from Vancouver visiting LA on a solo vacation.

The Cecil, opened in 1927, has a long history of weird, odd and scary events happening there. Murders, assaults, disappearances, prostitution, drugs; some of it is due to its location in downtown LA’s massive Skid Row and the programs the city government put in place to contain homelessness to that area.

The disappearance of Lam, a prolific blogger who used Tumblr like a personal journal, had the police especially flummoxed, as it seemed that she never left the property when she disappeared. But there was no trace of her, alive or dead. So what happened?

In episode 1, Berlinger talks to various law enforcement officers who were on the case, as well as journalists that covered it. The manager of the Cecil during that time period is also interviewed. The story is punctuated by reenactments of certain event sand dramatic readings of Lam’s Tumblr feed, which revealed more than a self-deprecating streak; she actually thought that her lack of a filter will get her in trouble on the trip.

Also, two tourists from England who stayed at the Cecil during the initial search for Lam are also interviewed; they represent the tourist point of view that Lam undoubtedly had. The Cecil was a cheap place to stay in downtown Los Angeles; to tourists who didn’t know any better, they may have thought they were getting some sort of bargain. Little did they know that, as one of the former detectives on the case says, they were staying in “one of the most dangerous areas in the country.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel has the same efficient pacing and immediacy as Berlinger’s other true crime docuseries, like Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers.

Our Take: The Elisa Lam case is so fascinating, especially because it’s tied up with the history of the Cecil, it’s damn near impossible to make a docuseries about it that isn’t going to be entertaining on some level. But what Berlinger manages to do in the first episode of Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel is set up both the mystery surrounding Lam’s disappearance and give people who don’t already know about the Cecil more than enough information about the hotel and neighborhood’s reputation to make the story even creepier.

In most cases, we’re not fans of reenactments in a true-crime series, but acknowledge that sometimes they’re necessary in order to fill some visual gaps in the story. The scripted visuals here fill things in quite well because Berlinger keeps them weird and odd, like the hotel itself. The voice over and fleeting shots of Viveca Chow as Lam may come off as the cheesiest element of the first episode, but it was also a good way to show how unsuited she was to be at the Cecil, a trap that a lot of tourists found themselves in, given the hotel’s prices.

There will be more about the weirdness associated with the Cecil, but as Berlinger lingers over the elevator footage of Lam entering and leaving the lift right before she disappeared, with the door remaining open for what seemed like minutes and Lam making odd gestures, we start to learn that not all was well with Lam, as well. The other three parts will go into the many layers of this case, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it unfolds (though we know the unfortunate results).

Sex and Skin: There’s a glimpse of a woman taking off her top when prostitution at the hotel is mentioned, but that’s it.

Parting Shot: One of the web sleuths who investigated the mystery after the elevator footage was made public by the LAPD says, “We knew we had to help. No matter how deep it went or how difficult it might be, we knew we had to find her alive.” Then we see the elevator in the CCTV footage slide closed.

Sleeper Star: Amy Price, who managed the Cecil Hotel between 2007 and 2017, was so matter-of-fact about all the strange stuff that went on there, it almost became funny. Let’s just say that we can’t imagine her behind the reception desk at some boring ol’ DoubleTree.

Most Pilot-y Line: Subtitling Kenneth Givens, who lived at the hotel during his time on Skid Row, was a little much; he spoke plenty well enough to be understood without the subtitles.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Considering the complexities of the Lam case, plus the Cecil Hotel’s history, no one can claim that Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel is padded out. We’re actually wondering how they’ll cover everything in 4 episodes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel On Netflix