# The Mortician (2025)

> A docuseries exposing how a family-owned funeral home in Pasadena preyed on grieving families behind a veneer of respectability.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/197263

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 59 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Network: HBO
- Cast: David Sconce
- TMDB rating: 7.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36985714/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: unsettling, sober, harrowing, clinical

## Synopsis

The Mortician (2025) is a American true crime limited series created for HBO, a three-episode documentary miniseries of roughly fifty-nine minutes each. Its central figure is David Sconce, who appears as himself, and the story follows the trusted family-owned funeral home that presented itself as decent and proper while quietly taking advantage of loved ones at their most vulnerable moments. Each episode is built from concrete material: the grieving families who trusted the business, the mechanics of how the funeral home handled bodies and paperwork, and the investigative threads that gradually peel back its respectable front. The engine is the slow exposure of a deception that hid in plain sight, with the viewer watching trust curdle into outrage. Set in 1980s Pasadena, the miniseries follows a community's grief turned against it, with a tone that is unsettling, sober, and at times harrowing. The atmosphere is clinical and quietly menacing, with the restraint of a documentary keeping the horror grounded. Fans of The Jinx, Making a Murderer and Tiger King will find resonance in its patient, real-world account of a predator who wore the mask of respectability.

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