"Landscapers" four episode HBO miniseries tells the desperate, surreal, and very human love story surrounding a grisly double murder found fifteen years late. While based on a true story, and ultimately containing chilling elements, "Landscapers" remains a complex and touching dramatization however it might lean into the overly ideal. But it's an artful idealism which also reflects the character of the perpetrators and which may factor into the nature of the crime just as much as "mercenary" motives might.
Whatever was the truth behind the crimes of Susan and Chris Edwards (they maintain their innocence until this day), the version this TV drama does tell a meaningful and multifaceted story that sheds light on compulsions, brokenness, and unconscious choices which may lead people to choose prison over the struggles of their lives, even while not necessarily meaning to either.
Whether or not the portrayal of this true crime is accurate doesn't undermine that this is a very earnest attempt to find some decency in what is two people linked by sadness, care and a terrible secret, all while being too hapless to manage their affairs or their own trial. The question might always be would the crime of the Edwards remain undetected after elapsing fifteen years if not for the betrayal of a troubled conscious, or the lack of wherewithal to make ends meet?
