Conspiracy theories are dangerous in more ways than one, and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders is—among many, many things—an exposé about the irrevocable damage that can come from falling down the rabbit hole. Produced by Mark and Jay Duplass (Wild Wild Country), Netflix’s four-part true-crime docuseries is an investigation into what its primary subject believed was “the political conspiracy of the century.” Yet the further it proceeds down its hopelessly winding path, the more it becomes a portrait of the hazards posed by such sleuthing and thinking. Enticing viewers with the promise of world-shattering secrets and then miring them in a thicket of debatable facts, dubious conjecture, and manic fantasy, it’s an expert case of true-crime form echoing its content.