# The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)

> Robert Durst, heir to a New York real-estate fortune, speaks at length about the murders he is suspected of while the filmmakers reopen decades-old cases.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55155

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 47 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Created by: Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, Zachary Stuart-Pontier
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Robert Durst, Marc Smerling, Zachary Stuart-Pontier, Lynda Obst, Jeanine Pirro, Charles Bagli, Cody Cazalas, Gilberte Najamy
- TMDB rating: 8.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4299972/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, methodical, unsettling, haunting

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim the series as a gripping, meticulously assembled true crime documentary whose access to Robert Durst makes its unresolved mystery compelling.

## Synopsis

The Jinx (2015-2024) is an American true crime docuseries produced for HBO and created by Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling and Zachary Stuart-Pontier. Across two seasons and twelve episodes, the series centers on Robert Durst, the scion of a New York billionaire real-estate family, who has been accused of three murders yet has evaded justice for more than thirty years. Durst himself speaks at length on camera, and the filmmakers pair his words with interviews involving investigators, lawyers and journalists, including Jeanine Pirro and Charles Bagli. The engine of each episode is the gap between what Durst says and what the evidence shows: old case files, reopened disappearances and new leads are weighed against his testimony, and every revelation reframes the one before it. The second season extends the investigation into fresh territory, sustaining a sense of mounting unease. Its tone is tense, methodical and quietly unsettling, with a documentary realism that lets silences and contradictions carry weight. Fans of The Staircase, Making a Murderer and The Keepers will find the same blend of patient reporting, moral unease and a suspect who cannot stop talking.

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