Netflix's latest docuseries, Trainwreck: P.I. Moms, was expected to deliver an explosive tale of media deception, corruption, and true crime. It is about a real-life reality TV show that was never made, featuring suburban mothers who are licensed P.I.s.The original expectation was an exposé on corruption, undercover arrests, and missing girls. Instead, viewers felt lost in the context of the excitement of watching more than 40 minutes of a documentary and still left with the feeling of inadequate resolutions, too many unanswered questions, and the wrong people being positioned as the bad guys.The premise of Trainwreck: P.I. Moms should have lent itself to high entertainment value and drama intrigue. There were women, all licensed P.I.s, filming for a Lifetime-type reality show.It was all quickly diminished when Carl Marino, the actor and ex-police officer, discovered the girl and reported drug trafficking by a department of the company to the cops during the filming.A Reddit user commented on how Trainwreck: P.I. Moms felt dragged out:"Netflix documentaries have become more noticeablly drawn out and unfulfilling. BBC put out documentaries covering the same topic's recently- Titan sub, Grenfell, 7/7 bombings and they substantially better than the Netflix equivalent. That being said their documentary Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror is a very good documentary made more recently," the comment read.Comment byu/Legal-Mood-3526 from discussion innetflixTrainwreck: P.I. Moms viewers were also disappointed by the portrayal of Carl Marino. One Reddit user commented:"So, to recap, Carl did the following......And he's the bad guy? I felt like I was going insane watching this. Everyone involved with the show seemed more upset that Carl called the police before the PI Moms, than seemed upset the girl was missing to begin with," the commet read.Another user pointed out the lack of meaningful stakes in Trainwreck: P.I. Moms:"Yeah this one lacked a real villain and a real tragedy. Such a snore. So some dude went and got his own fame after he was shunned - yawn," the comment read.Even people who were initially unfamiliar with the case expressed disappointment with the storytelling structure of Trainwreck: P.I. Moms. The original poster, who kicked off the Reddit discussion thread, wrote:"Anyone else feel kinda unfulfilled by this? Maybe it's bc I based my expectations on poop cruise where they dedicated way too much time to the most useless details, so I thought this would be longer. I knew nothing about this case beforehand so I was very excited by the premise, but it seemed very rushed and I thought more would happen," the post read.A Reddit user who claimed to be a journalist who had personal experience with Chris Butler, the head of the PI firm, expressed disappointment that the documentary glossed over the real damage caused by Butler and the alleged corruption at the heart of the story of Trainwreck: P.I. Moms. They wrote:"It's unfortunate that the show didn't go into the massive disruption and trauma, even, that Chris and his corrupt police officer pal (whose hand I shook many times) brought to the lives of so many people. My own PTSD and the thousands I had to come up with to get out of that lawsuit when I was virtually broke are but minor footnotes. The lives he forever negatively altered are in the dozens, if not more," the comment read.The true story behind Trainwreck: P.I. MomsTrainwreck P.I. Moms is based on actual events involving Chris Butler, a former Antioch police officer turned California private investigator. In 2010, Butler described a show idea to Lifetime TV, which featured mothers working as private investigators under his authority. The show began filming and was called P.I. Moms.The media quickly turned to Butler's suburban mom team, who appeared on such media outlets as Dr. Phil and Today, being characterized as great listeners, multi-taskers, and experts on domestic cases; particularly the investigations of husbands being unfaithful.The world behind the camera, however, was less clear. While working on a profile for Diablo magazine, journalist Peter Crooks agreed to observe Butler's operation. An anonymous source noted that the stings the participants were watching were staged.The anonymous source, revealed to be Carl Marino after the broadcast, also disclosed that Butler was involved in illegal activity involving, but not limited to, drug distribution and working with a corrupt narcotics officer.Butler and Norman Wielsch, head of the Contra Costa Narcotics Task Force at the time, were arrested in 2011 after being caught on tape stealing police evidence, meth, and selling it. Additionally, they were also charged with operating a brothel, illegal wiretapping, and falsely setting up DUIs. Butler eventually pleaded guilty to seven felonies and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.As Butler's criminal behavior fell apart, so did the reality show. Some of the P.I. moms dropped off, and Lifetime scrapped the series before it aired. Carl Marino, who had been recruited as an actor and investigator, became the whistleblower under the name "R. Rutherford."His continued undercover cooperation led to Butler being held accountable, along with Wielsch. Marino later starred as Lt. Joe Kenda in Homicide Hunter, a true crime show that ran for nine seasons.Watch the Trainwreck: P.I. Moms documentary, streaming on Netflix from July 22, 2025.