'I Just Killed My Dad' is one of Netflix's most talked-about true crime docs

Ready for another mind-bending crime story?

I Just Killed My Dad, Netflix's new docu-series, comes on the heels of the addicting Girl in the Picture, which recounts the unbelievable Sharon Marshall case. Directed by Skye Borgman, each project tackles similar elements including kidnapping, abuse and, ultimately murder.

The series focuses on a17-year-old Louisiana resident, Anthony Templet, who took his father, Burt Templet's, life. Though the premise seems straightforward, the circumstances surrounding the incident have been debated, and some are still unconvinced who was in the right.

"I shouldn't be charged with anything, because I didn't do anything wrong," we hear Anthony say in the series trailer.

But that's not the only side of the story we're given in the two-minute-long clip.

"The scariest thing about Anthony is that he’s just kind of a blank slate," someone reveals in the promo. "I don’t know if he has empathy."

Was this boy acting in self-defense after a lifetime of abuse, or were his actions premeditated? Which side are we supposed to believe?

'I Just Killed My Dad': Netflix trailer

A quick glimpse at the trailer gives us an interesting take on this father-son relationship. At one point, it seems as if the teen viciously took his dad's life for no reason...and then confessed his actions on a 9-1-1 call.

"He said his father physically attacked him," an officer says in the trailer. "I did not see any bruising or injuries to Anthony."

Then, you have the other side of the story, attesting that Burt Templet was an evil man up to no good. Though his son ultimately confessed to what he had done, the case is far from straightforward, like most crime stories we've come to learn about.

Let's not forget the other disturbing details sprinkled throughout the clip: the fact that Burt had surveillance videos all over his house. He'd never enrolled his son in public school and allowed him to complete a grade. At one point, Anthony was deemed an actual missing person after his father had kidnapped him from his mother, Linda Thompson, who didn't reunite with her son until after the crime. There's plenty to unravel, and the details can make your head spin. 

A solid addition to the lineup of the best true crime on Netflix, I Just Killed My Dad appears to be multilayered and anything but simple. If it's like Borgman's last work, we'll be quickly engrossed by the crime and wondering how everything unraveled. (We're still questioning what happened to Suzanne Marie Sevakis' children and wondering what came of the evil Franklin Floyd all these years later.) 

What happened between Anthony Templet and Burt Templet?

In 2019, then-17-year-old Anthony had gotten into a fight with his dad in their Baton Rouge home. Per Fox, Burt wanted to confiscate Anthony's phone to see if he had been in contact with his ex-wife, Susan. (Allegedlly, Susan had filed an order of protection against Burt just a few months before he was shot.) From there, things only escalated.

"He tried to attack me. Then, we got into a fist fight. Then, I ran in his room, closed the door, and got a gun," we hear Anthony tell 9-1-1 operators. 

He added, "I didn't want to kill him, I didn't want him to kill me. It was kind of do or die."

As each side presents their stories and more sources weigh in on the case, third parties will be able to get a better idea of this untold crime. The three-part docu-series premiered on Netflix on Tuesday, August 8 and is currently available for streaming.

For more new releases in the true crime genre, check out the Children of the Underground, FX's deep dive into Faye Yager's secretive organization, and the forthcoming House of Hammer on Discovery+, an Armie Hammer documentary about his and his family's alleged abuse over the years.