2 Women Dig Into Their Families' Dark Pasts In 2 New True Crime Documentaries

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Two riveting new true crime documentaries streaming on Max feature women looking to expose their family’s dark secrets in search of closure and healing. Coincidentally, the real-life villains in both “Great Photo, Lovely Life” and “The Truth About Jim” are the women’s grandfathers. Their investigations, however, go in very different directions — with one believing her family patriarch was a serial killer.

“Great Photo, Lovely Life”

In the opening scene of “Great Photo, Lovely Life,” photojournalist Amanda Mustard interviews her grandfather, Bill Flickinger, about his struggles surrounding an unnamed “issue,” while her mom, Debi, sits nervously beside him. He seems like a stereotypical doting grandpa, but his candor is chilling.

“I didn’t want to do things that were bad or wrong,” he says when she asks about his past. “It seemed so strange because there were times … it seemed like some of these little girls would almost throw themselves at me. That might sound a little stupid, but they wanted to learn things, and they were experimental. … To me, it was too much of an open temptation.”

It’s a gasp-eliciting moment, one of many jolts in this extraordinary documentary about intergenerational trauma and the secrets Mustard’s family kept about Flickinger, a chiropractor who sexually assaulted young girls.

Almost as horrific as his abuse is Flickinger’s victim-blaming. When he talks about one girl, presumably the one he eventually served a brief prison stint for sexually assaulting, he says, “Even though she