Rob and Michele Reiner's murder is not just a family tragedy. It marks a disturbing societal shift
Rob Reiner offered a different model of fatherhood in his work: instead of violent power, restrained and humorous authority. His and his wife's double murder marks a return to the primal father – tyrannical and unhinged
Opinion |
Jan 3, 2026 7:28 am IST
Jan 3, 2026 7:28 am IST
When a son murders his parents, the act is typically framed as a private catastrophe. The familiar explanations quickly appear: severe psychopathology, addiction-induced loss of impulse control, accumulated parental failures or some terrible family secret. These interpretations also accompanied reports of the killings on December 14 of award-winning American filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, apparently at the hands of their son, Nick. They help us isolate the horror, keep it at a safe distance: either within the realm of individual pathology or as another inscrutable eruption of evil in a senseless world.