THE STORY – The haunting story of an infamous family-run L.A. mortuary that engaged in years of morally questionable and inhumane practices.
THE CAST – David Sconce
THE TEAM – Joshua Rofé (Director and Producer)
Those who choose to work in the field of the deceased are special types of individuals. Every day, they deal with people at their lowest. Nobody is ever happy to see a mortician or funeral director; their presence weighs on even the sunniest of dispositions. Families routinely trust these kind souls to handle the delicate transition from life to death, so when one of them breaks that trust, it rattles the industry. And here, with the HBO documentary miniseries “The Mortician,” we witness the story of a man who cheated death thousands of times over: David Sconce and his business of misery.
From experienced documentarian Joshua Rofé, “The Mortician” introduces Sconce as he waltzes out of his latest incarceration stint, this time completing a decade-long sentence. “I’m an open book for you guys. There’s nothing you can’t ask me,” he claims as he’s on the prison shuttle bus, leaving behind the consequences of his actions. He begins to do (almost) exactly that, singing like a songbird, seemingly proud of his crimes. The next three hours proceed to unveil what exactly those crimes are but with little payoff along the way. A subject with no remorse for his actions leads one to wonder what message Rofé is trying to convey here. That there are bad people in the world doing bad things, and sometimes they get away with it? That some people just don’t learn their lesson? We’ve already learned that time and time again. “The Mortician” settles on being another story that took too long to tell about a guy willing to scheme his way into fortune, this time ripping off those who can’t fight back: the dead.
Just how much damage can one person and his band of cronies do to the already deceased? Turns out, a lot. An exposition-heavy first hour weaves into the beginnings of Sconce’s life of swindling. He clearly articulates his feelings, or lack thereof, for the dead – as he sees it, they’re just empty vessels devoid of any life. With that belief, Sconce started putting up some insane numbers in the cremation game, quickly realizing that the more bodies you burn, the more money you get. For the low price of $55 a body, Sconce, by way of his hired help, loaded dozens of them at a time into a crematorium, even going so far as to create a mass crematorium under the guise of a “ceramics” factory out in the California desert. This means that the grieving families didn’t get back their loved ones; instead, a mix of almost any of the thousands in Sconce’s possession at a time. He also pilfered their valuables on the side, including watches, jewelry, and even gold extracted from their teeth, all to sell to the highest bidders and with extreme confidence that he’d never get caught.
Building suspense is an uphill battle, especially since we know Sconce is a convicted criminal from the jump. However, the back half of the second episode picks up steam as Sconce’s operation becomes scrutinized by the police and questioned by his rivals. We see interviews throughout the series with his employees, most of whom he hired at their discretion. He pays them handsomely to look the other way or even help in his efforts to churn and literally burn the most bodies at any cremation service in the country. We also meet his ex-wife, another victim of Sconce’s perpetual lies. Sconce makes the delusional claim that the only reason they’re divorced is because she “found a boyfriend” while he was in prison. Surely, it’s not because of his lies, conviction, and prison sentence. His tendency to always see himself as the victim in his own story and never claim responsibility for his own actions leaves few endearing qualities for our central character and little mystery to solve.
What’s the appropriate punishment for someone unwilling to admit they’ve done something wrong? Sconce won’t be making amends; that much is clear. We don’t know if he has any sort of personality disorder, but he’s painted in enough of a sociopathic light to make any viewer question everything he says. Sure, he indiscriminately burned a bunch of dead bodies together. And sure, he might’ve grabbed some of their valuables before he threw them in. There’s also the threats to his rivals, who just happened to be found dead not long after interacting with Sconce, but that’s just a coincidence. The poster child of a victim complex, Sconce fails to grasp any sort of redemption arc. Without any significant twists and turns detailing Sconce’s life of crime, this three-part series ends up telling the surface-level story of a criminal who did bad things and almost got away with it.
Death is an obvious theme in a show titled “The Mortician,” and often touches on the surface of a deeper question: is the soul separate from the body? Ultimately, “The Mortician” never goes more than skin deep to tell the crimes of a man who commits plenty. After three hours, we’re left grieving for the living, angered by the injustice of petty criminals, and wanting a moral reckoning for a man incapable of empathy.
THE GOOD – A different type of true crime story paints a haunting picture of the lasting damage one person can make, and interviews with the victims’ families bring much needed emotional weight.
THE BAD – A surface level look at unspeakable crimes that fails to ask the questions it really wants answered. An irredeemable main character leaves many lessons left on the cutting room floor.
THE EMMY PROSPECTS – None
THE FINAL SCORE – 6/10
