Relativism is a funny thing, folks. It takes things that might ordinarily be good and makes them bad with the force of sheer comparison. And it also works in the reverse, which is just what we’re dealing with today with The Capture of the Green River Killer, a copy of which the folks out at Lifetime sent out for review. And it’s going to be one of the better things they’ve sent out. Not that it’ll be perfect, of course, but it will be watchable. And for Lifetime, that’s a rarity.

The Capture of the Green River Killer is pretty much exactly what it says on the box, the pursuit and eventual capture of the Green River Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the Seattle area in the early eighties. It’s a long and tortuous journey, and the whole thing will be brought to a close thanks to the unlikely combination of the county sheriff–a man who’s losing pretty much everything as he focuses on the Green River Killer–and a young runaway who came in contact with the Green River Killer, and survives.

You’d be surprised at the sheer amount of destruction the Green River Killer causes, and not just to the victims, either. There’s a whole lot of fallout here: the sheriff’s family, the runaway’s friends, and all of it at least somewhat related to the Green River Killer.

But this is what gets me; it’s a fairly decent movie. Oh, sure, there are some clunkers in the dialogue in here, and some parts that don’t make a whole lot of sense. The whole thing is a little on the longish side–it was a miniseries, rather than a movie–but still, it’s really rather well put together. It manages to hold attention at least passably well, and frankly, for Lifetime? That’s unparalleled genius.

And that’s where relativism comes into play. This is great stuff for a Lifetime movie. For anything else, it’s passable. And that’s what you need to take away in the end: this is watchable. If you’re looking for a long date movie, guys, this one should be prime. She’ll probably like it, you can stomach it, and the end result is a decent piece you can both agree on. It’s got some really nice parts to it, too–I love the bulletin board approach to tracking the Green River Killer’s body count.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Capture of the Green River Killer a surprising seven out of ten–I never really dare to expect a good release from Lifetime, and this is one of the rare ones.