Netflix True Crime Documentary Will Shake You To Your Core

The case that’s laid out in What Jennifer Did is so insane that you have to see it to believe it. When Jennifer Pan calls 911 to report a home invasion, she’s brought in for questioning so she can recount the incident to the best of her recollection. According to Jennifer, three men entered her house, tied her up, fatally shot her mother, Bich, and critically injured her father, Huei Hann, before fleeing the scene.

While law enforcement officials are at first sympathetic to the ordeal that Jennifer went through in What Jennifer Did, they start to notice holes in her story. It was at first somewhat believable that Jennifer was an innocent victim because traumatic events can result in an imperfect memory.

However, as we learn about Jennifer’s life leading up to the incident, it becomes clear that she had been lying about everything. The interviews and interrogations that are presented in What Jennifer Did reveal that her parents were hard-working immigrants who had very high expectations for their children.

Jennifer was under so much pressure to succeed academically that she went so far as to forge university documents so her mother and father would think she was attending a pharmacology program at the University of Toronto, a school that she wasn’t even attending. We also learn about Jennifer had a problematic relationship with a drug dealer named Daniel Chi-Kwong Wong that her parents didn’t approve of.

The real smoking gun in What Jennifer Did, however, is the dubious nature of Jennifer’s 911 call, which didn’t make sense to investigators because Jennifer said she was tied up. Though Jennifer acted out how she was able to reach her phone in the interrogation room, her story didn’t add up against the evidence surrounding the case. When Huei Hann Pan wakes up from his medically induced coma after being shot, he provides insight that suggests foul play on Jennifer’s part.

While What Jennifer Did doesn’t offer any new information on the case, it’s an excellent primer for the investigation that’s easy to digest despite the difficult subject matter that it covers. I can’t say that I sympathize with Jennifer for buckling under the pressure to succeed that her tiger parents forced upon her, but I walked away from this documentary having a better understanding of her motives to lie through her teeth for the sake of keeping up appearances in her oppressive household.

That being said, other young adults in Jennifer’s situation have found ways to reconcile their own personal desires with their parent’s demands without resorting to murder-for-hire, and some of her friends who grew up in similar households thoughtfully weigh in on the matter in this documentary.

REVIEW SCORE

What Jennifer Did is difficult to watch because Jennifer’s parents didn’t deserve what happened to them. But it also highlights the dark side of pushing your child to follow in your footsteps if that’s not the path that they think they should be taking. It’s sad to think that if Jennifer opened up and either sought professional help or had some crucial conversations with her parents, things might have turned out differently.

You can stream What Jennifer Did on Netflix. In my opinion, it’s a solid entry to the streaming platform’s already robust true crime catalog. While it may not offer any new insights into Jennifer Pan’s crimes, it’s an effective recounting of events that any true crime fan will appreciate.