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Let’s face it: We all love a good mystery. From time immemorial we’ve collectively thrilled to head scratching mysteries such as the disappearances of Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa and quested to find answers for oddball curios like the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. It’s the quest for the unique truths that lay behind these inexplicable things that stimulate our imaginations even as we challenge our intellect and detective skills. As a child, my forum for unsolved and strange cases primarily rested in books checked out from my local library or the occasional Leonard Nimoy hosted episode of In Search of. All of that changed – for me and the world as a whole – when, on January 20, 1987, the NBC network piped out an original program exclusively dedicated to presenting to the public at large unsolved mysteries. The name of the show? Why, Unsolved Mysteries, natch, and it was really the first time that the viewing audience was invited to participate in the unravelling of such cases as the Lost Dutchman Mine, the disappearance of Flight 19 and enough domestic strife-cum potential murder scenes to make Dexter Morgan a veritable shrinking violet. Host Robert Stack (The Untouchables) was our guide into some very odd and eerie going’s on and, season after season, he held our hands as we walked down paths both strange and yet vaguely familiar; as if in a nightmare…with really good production value.
Over the years, several rebooted versions of Unsolved Mysteries attempted to regain the show’s mojo with varying to middling success. But without Stack – who passed away in 2003 – the show was sans a strong enough of a presenter to anchor the show in the hearts and minds of viewers, with full apologies to former hosts Raymond Burr, Karl Malden, Virginia Madsen and Dennis Farina.
Everyone held their collective breath then when Netflix stepped up at bat this past summer to take their turn at bat with the legendary series. The end results were surprisingly close in tone and spirit to the original, with the producers wisely opting out of finding a host to step into Robert Stack’s large shoes and instead allowing the story to play out via the head shots of the principals involved in each week’s particular case. Another difference which worked out in this new version’s favor was the devotion of a full hour to each and every case presented, allowing room for the stories to breathe and take life (insert annoying Gong Show clang). This and a nice tip of the hat to Stack himself during the show’s new opening credits struck a resounding chord with viewers, so much so that, after the initial six episode run it seemed all but impossible that Netflix wouldn’t renew the series for a new batch of episodes; Which is what they recently just did.
Netflix just announced the return of Unsolved Mysteries this October for an additional six episode batch. The new model of the show is produced by Cosgrove/Meurer Productions which means the world to longtime fans as these are the cats behind the original iteration of the series. Shawn Levy, who is an executive producer for another Netflix sensation, Stranger Things, also produces the new episodes courtesy of his production house 21 Laps Entertainment. All six episodes will drop on the same day, October 19 and it’s a safe bet that – while there still is no discernible explanation for the mystery that is Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo – viewers might still yet “hold the key to solving these cases.”
