Dark and Riveting, Netflix's 'The Keepers' Transcends True Crime

When Netflix dropped the trailer for its new docuseries "The Keepers" in April, a number of publications suggested the show will be the streaming service's next "Making a Murderer" - the wildly popular true crime show that took the nation by storm at the end of 2015. At first glance, "The Keepers," which hits Netflix on May 19, has all the hallmarks of "Making a Murderer" but the shows have little in common.

Carrying the tagline "Who Killed Sister Cathy?," "The Keepers" explores the 1969 unsolved murder of the nun Sister Cathy Cesnik, a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. In the show's trailer, the subjects of the docuseries suggest Cesnik was killed as part of a cover up involving the Catholic Church and local law enforcement. Though "The Keepers" is rooted in Cesnik's cold case, a subject of the series says something at the end of the trailer that should have been the show's true tagline: "The story is not the nun's killing. The story is the cover up of the nun's story."

In its first episode of the seven-part series, retirees Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, who were both students of Cesnik in the 60s, are on a mission to find the truth behind the nun's murder. The dynamic duo does a lot of exposition, outlining the unsettling and confusing facts surrounding Cesnik's death. Audiences will surely think they're in for "Making a Murderer" Part 2, but the rest of the series transcends pop culture's current true crime obsession and "The Keepers" forces viewers to look at pure evil head on, becoming one of the most provocative and riveting stories of its kind.

Both "Making a Murderer" and Season 1 of the podcast "Serial" examined murder cases from the perspective of the accused - pouring over evidence, testimony and data to determine if their subjects could really be killers. Directed by Ryan White, "The Keepers" goes macro, telling its story from the point of view of its victims and how the nun's murder reverberated throughout a community of intelligent women in the close-knit Catholic community of Baltimore. The death of Cesnik, who was 26 at the time and is often described as beautiful, smart and kind, impacted a myriad of people, many of whom are now adult women and were students at Keough High School in the 60s and 70s. Eventually, a large portion of "The Keepers" becomes the story of a specific woman - Jane Doe, a student at Keough who sued the school and the Catholic Church as an adult after being subjected to unrelenting, incredibly horrific abuse at the school.

After years of speculation, White and his crew are able to get the anonymous woman to reveal herself and talk about her story. Incredibly brave, Jane Doe openly and candidly discusses the abuse she suffered at the hands of Father Joseph Maskell, the Chaplin at the prestigious high school. Full of pure evil, Doe's story is one of the most devastating accounts of sexual, mental and physical abuse involving the Catholic Church. As she explains, Maskell used his power and authority to target girls who were previously abused. Doe isn't the only victim of Maskell and other officials at Keough - a number of other women come forward in "The Keepers," recounting similar acts they said they endured from Maskell and his crew, which allegedly involved other priests and even local law enforcement. Doe explains Cesnik started to realize girls were being abused at the school and was probably going to expose Maskell - but before she could say anything, she was killed. Doe says Maskell even showed her the nun's body at the time.

The investigators at the center of "The Keepers" include retirees Hoskins and Schaub, journalist Tom Nugent and other former students of Cesnik as well as reporters who covered her murder in the 70s. As Doe and the other women open up about the sexual assault at Keough, the crew looking into the nun's death start to expose the alleged cover up from the Catholic Church, which reportedly moved Maskell around the city, and a possible connection with law enforcement - it's revealed Maskell's brother was a police officer.

"The Keepers" introduces viewers to a number of suspects, who could have possibly carried out Cesnik's murder. Like the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight," which recounts the Boston Globe's 2001 groundbreaking report that exposed the Catholic Church covering up sexual abuse for decades, the show explores similar abuse and cover up in Baltimore, decades before the newspaper's report rocked the world.

As the series expands and stretches further beyond the alleged abuse at Keough High School and the Catholic Church's cover up, "The Keepers" examines repressed memories, which was a hot button issue in the 90s when Jane Doe, along with another victim of Maskell known as Jane Roe, sued the Church. It's a fascinating look into how a person who experienced severe trauma can block their memories to protect themselves. Throughout her story, Doe recalls how certain photos triggered memories, leading her to remember the abuse she endured as a young woman and the connection it had to Cesnik's death.

Unlike other Netflix shows, including "Making a Murderer," "The Keepers" is a slow-burning series that doesn't lend itself to a binge watch. It tells a complicated and dark story, taking its time to unfold and looks at all angles of the case. At times, "The Keepers" is difficult to hear albeit incredibly necessary. It's a raw cold case, unlike the previous true crime stories that captured the zeitgeist. The show and its producers aim to shine a light on an unchecked patriarchy that targeted and abused young women, choosing to actively ignoring them while protecting high-ranking men. It's a devastating and important story that unfortunately still resonates today.