'Missing: Dead or Alive?' Viewers Have a Lot of Questions About How Real the Show Actually Is

After Season 2 of the Netflix docuseries Missing: Dead or Alive? premiered on the streaming platform, viewers had questions. To be fair, they had questions about the first season, too, but now, more than ever, they want to know if Missing: Dead or Alive? is real or fake. The production value is pretty top-tier and the editing makes the show look more like a gritty drama than an episode of Cops or Live PD.

Maybe you can chalk that up to the standards of Netflix being high when it comes to true crime shows that share details of real-life cases and show the actual law enforcement agents that work on said cases. But if you ask some fans of the show, they might be a little more inclined to question the authenticity of it all, especially since some scenes even look like reenactments.

Even though Missing: Dead or Alive? features high-quality editing and film work, no one attached to Netflix or the production company behind the show, Blast Films, has come out to say that there is anything fake about it. In fact, according to the website for Blast Films, the company is dedicated to journalism and storytelling with nonfiction in mind.

Per the website, Blast Films is "committed to ambitious filmmaking, rigorous journalism, and entertaining programme making made by some of [the] best, diverse producers with integrity and passion." Blast Films is behind other docuseries with a similar tone and overall appearance, and it seems to be the style of the filmmakers. For now, the claim is that Missing: Dead or Alive? is totally real.

The show's premise is that it follows a local police department, Richland County Sheriff's Department Missing Persons Unit, in Columbia, S.C. Tudum even credits the real-life officers and investigators who agreed to take part in the series. And, at the end of the episodes, a special thanks appears on the screen for the police department.

Just because the show is real, or at least continuously presents itself as real, that doesn't mean that some scenes aren't filmed multiple times. Like when a camera perfectly captures a line of police cruisers arriving at the scene of a missing child, for example. Given the way some docuseries and reality shows are filmed, they might have filmed that part after the fact.

To the same tune, reenactments are also possible. However, usually, if there is an official reenactment in a show like this, there would be a notice on the screen to let viewers know that they are watching a reenactment of something rather than actual footage. Either way, some viewers have a lot to say about how legit they think Missing: Dead or Alive? is.

"It felt very fake to me too. Even the way they speak," one viewer commented on a Reddit thread about the show. To that, someone replied, in reference to a specific episode, "They really tried to plug some Law & Order fanfic dialogue when looking for the lottery winner."

Someone else commented that they don't think the show is fake. Instead, they believe that the officers are just awkward at speaking to each other while on camera. That's totally possible too.