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The true crime genre continues to be one of the most consistently gripping verticals in pop culture, with MAX’s latest entry to the canon Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? proving to continue that trend of excellent, binge-worthy true crime docs that have come out over the last decade or so.
Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? , directed by first-time filmmaker Dylan Sires, explores the 2012 double abduction of cousins 10-year-old Lyric Cook-Morrissey and 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins, in Evansdale, Iowa, in a case that’s been said to still “haunt the midwest” to this day, over a decade later.
“This three-part series investigates a haunting double abduction in Iowa with exclusive access and insider interviews. First-time filmmaker Dylan Sires, a former photographer on the case, has been documenting and interviewing people for over seven years,” MAX says of the project.
Ahead of the debut of Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? , BroBible sat down for a chat with director Dylan Sires, who put us inside the process of making a true crime doc, explained how to avoid turning into Rust Cohle when investigating these kinds of cases, and listed the films and series in the genre that he considers to be the GOATs.
“This documentary is and will always be a labor of love,” Sires said of making Taken Together while also not being consumed by it.
“The energy came naturally, you just want to get to the bottom of it and figure something out so Elizabeth and Lyric, their families, and the community can have their justice and some peace,” he continued. “When working on a project that involves a crime that’s so heinous and so evil that it tears at the common bonds we have as humans, you quickly learn to compartmentalize it or you’d never make it through. I just tried to stay goal-oriented and look forward to the ultimate goal which has and will always be justice for the girls.”
One thing that always strikes me when watching true crime docuseries is just how desperation-inducing evil humanity can be on its margins and in the shadows, often reminding me of Rust Cohle’s ideology in the first season of True Detective. With that in mind, we asked Sires how to prevent getting swallowed by the darkness like Rust does when investigating and reporting on such dark stories.
“I am pretty much the exact opposite of Rust Cohle, except I do love my Camel Blues and Lone Star Beer now and then,” Sires said.
“I run on hope and am a very optimistic person about the future, humanity, and nature – which is where Rust lands at the end of the show. On the other hand, what happened to Elizabeth and Lyric is an example of the worst part of human nature. What people are capable of can really f– you up when you think about it. But again, I believe the goodwill of our nature outweighs the bad.”
As for the GOATs of the true crime genre, Sires name-checked Errol Morris’ seminal 1988 film The Thin Blue Line — a fixture at the top of “best true crime docs of all time” lists. He also listed the first season of HBO’s famed Robert Durst docuseries The Jinx, which he says inspired him to make Taken Together, and the Paradise Lost trilogy.
Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth? premieres on MAX on Thursday, August 8.