Depending on where you live in the world, the first episode of HBO’s new true crime series, The Mortician, will either be scandalous or sloppy. In the 1980s, a man named David Sconce took over his family’s respectable funeral home business, and took it in an altogether macabre direction, all in the name of aggressive expansion. But the sort of shenanigans that he got up to would hardly draw a second glance in India. A lot of what he was convicted of doing would be brushed off as ‘jugaad’ here. In the United States, however — especially the wealthy Pasadena neighbourhood where Sconce conducted his activities — a scandal erupted.It was discovered that Sconce was mass-cremating bodies and essentially scooping out ashes from large barrels, and presenting them to the families of the deceased. They had no idea that the urn being given to them contained the remains of several dead people mixed together, and not just their loved one. Sconce said that this was a common practice in funeral homes, and that most businesses would be lying if they pretend that it wasn’t. You could imagine white people getting all hot and bothered about something like this, but in India, where the cost of human life is negligible, it would be more surprising if there was no skullduggery going on.Also read – Last Stop Larrimah movie review: The best true crime documentary of the year so far; stranger-than-fiction storytelling at its finest David Sconce in The Mortician.Although the first episode of The Mortician ends on this rather underwhelming note, things only get more shocking from there. It is revealed that Sconce’s own parents — they were pillars of the community — had warned his would-be wife about him, and that, too, on the day of their marriage. It’s enough to hook you in. The three-part series also features interviews with the ex-cons that Sconce hired to do the dirty work for him. But it’s one thing to hear stories of how these men squeezed dead bodies into incinerators without a care for who’s who. It’s another thing to hear them admit that they were stealing all the jewellery and gold off these bodies for Sconce to sell off.In total, he is said to have cremated over 20,000 people. He presumably stole the jewellery off most of them. He is also said to have sold off their kidneys, livers, and brains to the highest bidder. Things get murkier when Sconce’s business rivals begin dropping dead, shortly after having threatened to tell on him. Not only does the show bring back several of Sconce’s old associates, it also features news reporters, members of the community who were conned by him, and other assorted characters who had run-ins with him over the years. Not a single one of them has a nice thing to say about Sconce.He’s described as the kind of guy who’d always have a gun on his person, and was routinely finding ways to scam the system. At one point in the ‘80s, his business was booming to such a degree that he set up a new facility a few miles out of town. He got caught because a Holocaust survivor living in the area was triggered by the smell of burning flesh in the air. He told the authorities that it reminded him of the concentration camps; he was sure of it.Sconce’s arrest proved one thing: he might’ve been a good businessman, but he was a lousy criminal. For one thing, he wouldn’t stop threatening to kill people; for another, he was always risking what he had by attracting more and more attention to himself. In an unexpected coup, the filmmakers are able to get Sconce himself to sit down for an extended interview. While he admits to having conducted mass cremations and robbed the bodies off all their valuables, he absolutely denies having anything to do with his dead rivals.Story continues below this adRead more – Fred and Rose West – A British Horror Story review: Netflix delivers a true crime tale of Nithari-level nastiness; a deeply upsetting peek at pure evil David Sconce in The Mortician.Unlike the many true crime series on Netflix, The Mortician is a far classier affair. The tone isn’t lurid; it doesn’t come across as exploitative. Most notably, it doesn’t have the look and feel of something that was shot over an afternoon. The filmmakers have taken great care to give Sconce’s many victims a chance to speak about the trauma he inflicted upon them by desecrating the bodies of their family members. Others reflect on how tragic the case proved to be for the largely peaceful Pasadena community.Nothing, however, can prepare you for the show’s climax. It would be improper to reveal what happens. But a direct comparison could be made to the conclusion of another HBO true crime documentary; certainly, The Mortician isn’t interested in leaving things open to interpretation. It has a firm idea about Sconce, and it does everything that a non-fiction series can do — editing, music, framing — in order to make this stance crystal clear. The Mortician isn’t top-tier true crime, but it sure comes close.The MorticianDirector – Joshua RoféRating – 4/5Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at rohan.naahar@indianexpress.com. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read MoreClick here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:documentaryHBO