“The prince of darkness is a gentleman.”
-King Lear
Hate is an equal opportunity employer, always seeking new hires. You can hate someone because of his or her race, ethnicity, religion, gender, political preference or simply because you just don’t like his or her face. Handed down over the centuries —or even millennia—it can easily turn into a powerful manifestation of resentment until the object of this resentment becomes a bogeyman whose continued existence is seen as a threat to one’s life, liberty and chances of ever being happy. Given enough time, this emotion can easily turn into action.
This amazing series now on Netflix is the story of a man who was driven by hate and directed this most destructive of emotions at people who had journeyed across whole continents in search of its opposite.
Charles Sobhraj has spent about 40 of the past 45 years of his life in prison, and that is where his life will probably end. There is no end of books and films and television series that thrill us with stories of people who deprived others of their fortunes and people who deprived others of their lives without coming away from their deeds with any monetary reward. What makes this story compelling, among other things, is the main character’s insistence on depriving his victims of both their lives and their bankrolls.
And to make this 5-star series all the more engaging, it is based on fact.