Who Do You Think You Are - Amy Dowden (S23 E2)
Just finished watching Amy Dowden's episode in WDYTYA and I'm left feeling more unnerved than moved.
She started the episode actually excited by the rumour that there'd been a murder in her family (red flag) and hoping for drama. But when it turned out her 3x great-aunt was actually the victim rather than the perpetrator, she seemed...disappointed?
She spends the rest of the episode trying to force a murder narrative despite the historians repeatedly offering perfectly plausible explanations. Is it really that hard to believe that two young teenagers (who were good friends) in the 1800's were unknowingly playing around with a loaded gun that accidentally fired? It still happens hundreds of times each year.
She puts a weird, conspiratorial spin on every single part of the story. Like when the historian explains how the boy moved the body inside the house, her immediate reaction is to assume he was hiding evidence. Her stare becomes so eery and comments so farcical that the historian visibly looks uncomfortable and diplomatically suggests another interpretation is that the 17-year-old had just accidentally shot his close friend, was in complete shock and didn't know what he was doing.
Despite the experts presenting the evidence (including two court cases) consistently leaning towards an accidental shooting, she is still insistent there's some huge cover-up or miscarriage of justice. I can't decide if she:
a) Is trying to push a narrative to give viewers what she thinks we want to see
b) Has a toxic form of confirmation bias