# Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)

> A four-episode true crime miniseries revisiting the unexplained disappearance of Elisa Lam at the notorious Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/97385

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 54 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime, mystery
- Created by: Joe Berlinger
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Artemis Snow, Viveca Chow, Pablo C. Vergara, Tom Scorzone, Josh Dean, Greg Kading
- TMDB rating: 6.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13837672/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, unsettling, melancholic, methodical, haunting

## What critics say

Audiences rated the miniseries negatively, finding its true crime treatment of the Elisa Lam case unsatisfying.

## Synopsis

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021) is an American true crime miniseries created by Joe Berlinger for Netflix. Across four roughly fifty-minute episodes, it revisits the disappearance of hotel guest Elisa Lam, whose case grew into a haunting public fascination after she was reported missing from the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. The engine of the series is the slow reconstruction of her last known movements, built from security footage, investigators' accounts and journalists who followed the case, with actors recreating scenes such as Viveca Chow in the role of Elisa Lam. Real figures including LAPD homicide detective Greg Kading and journalist Josh Dean speak on camera, while Pablo C. Vergara appears as a self-described witness whose perspective keeps the investigation grounded. Each episode layers testimony onto the grim atmosphere of a hotel with a notorious history, so the viewing experience feels unsettling, methodical and deeply melancholic. Its framing sits closer to the investigative tradition of The Jinx and Making a Murderer than to scripted crime drama, and it will appeal to viewers who enjoy patient, evidence-driven true crime that refuses easy answers and lets the mystery linger.

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