As far as documentaries go, The Lady of Silence doesn't deviate much from the true-crime formula. It follows a serial killer in charge of a series of attacks against elderly women from the late 1990s to 2003 in Mexico City. But the show stands out for highlighting just how unfamiliar the Mexican government was with understanding and handling serial killers at the time. There's also an insightful exploration into the socio-political implications of the case; political parties fueled the incompetence of the police, and the case remained ignored allegedly because women were the only victims. But it's jarring how much of the victims' stories are sidelined to make way for sensationalism. It's a tasteless and heartless choice made by the filmmakers.

The filmmakers make the interesting choice of having staged inserts throughout the film. In one scene, there are posed shots recreating how witnesses flagged down police after spotting the killer. In another, the sex workers that were wrongfully detained (because the police chose to target trans women) take "fake" mugshots and dress up in full garb for a sweeping shot of them on the street. Distracting background music, strange transition effects, and crossing out the eyes of the victims early in the film unnecessarily undermined the severity of the crimes.