Christina Henschel, Dave Littman, documentaries, Elizabeth Chambers, Kelly Sutliff, New Jersey, reviews, Toxic, true crime, TV
May 6, 2025
by Carla Hay
Culture Representation: The documentary series “Toxic” features a predominantly white group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Various people share their stories about toxic love relationships where someone in the relationship committed crimes against the other person in the relationship.
Culture Audience: “Toxic” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching true crime documentaries about romances that became criminally dangerous.
“Toxic” shouldn’t be dismissed as another tawdry true crime series. Elizabeth Chambers, an investigative journalist who used to be married to disgraced actor Armie Hammer, brings authentic empathy and credible experience as the show’s host/interviewer. Having lived through the scandal of Hammer’s admitted infidelities and drug abuse—along with accusations that he sexually abused women and allegedly has a cannibalism fetish—Chambers has publicly stated she was blindsided by Hammer’s secret life when their 10-year marriage collapsed in 2020.
Chambers and Hammer, who got married in 2010, officially divorced in 2023. As of this writing, he has not worked as an actor since the scandal. (Hammer’s movies that were released after the scandal had already been filmed before the scandal happened.) Chambers does not mention his name in “Toxic,” but there is a montage of headlines in the show’s introduction sequence to demonstrate why Chambers has personal experience of being in a toxic relationship. People who watch the show will notice that the show’s theme song uses part of Britney Spears’ Grammy-winning hit “Toxic” from her 2003 album “In the Zone.”
“Toxic” (the TV series) is produced by Investigation Discovery by Breaklight Pictures, a Pantheon Media Group company. Investigation Discovery did not make episodes from the series available for review in advance of the series premiere, so this review will cover the first episode of “Toxic,” titled “Sleeping With a Stranger.” This series premiere episode is about the ordeal that New Jersey-based psychotherapist Kelly Sutliff went through when her whirlwind marriage turned into a nightmare of abuse. He viciously assaulted her on December 19, 2019, one year after they were married.
Sutliff’s ex-husband, who is only identified by the name Chris, is not interviewed but photos and videos of him are shown. In 2022, he pled guilty to aggravated assault by strangulation, possession of a deadly weapon, and criminal mischief. This review won’t reveal the sentence that he got after pleading guilty to these charges. However, it’s enough to say that the results will outrage many people when they find out. “Toxic” could’ve easily taken a safer route by featuring a case with a predictable outcome. But the outcome of this case is almost as disturbing as the attack.
This particular episode sets the tone that “Toxic” is very much about the perspectives of survivors and keeps things uncomplicated by not have too many “talking head” interviews. There are only three people interviewed for “Sleeping With a Stranger”: Sutliff, her best friend Christina Henschel, and Dave Littman, a retired detective from the Hanover Township Police Department.
The story of Chris going from charming and loving boyfriend to abusive and dangerous husband will sound familiar to anyone who watches enough true crime shows about domestic violence. Sutliff met him on a dating app in August 2018, and they got married in December 2018. In January 2019, he moved into the house that she still owns. Sutliff says she was the breadwinner in their marriage. The documentary doesn’t say if Chris, a U.S. Army veteran, had a job during their marriage.
Things stared to go downhill soon after the honeymoon. Sutliff says that Chris started showing a Jekyll and Hyde personality. He would be cruel and angry but then later act like nothing happened, and he would go back to being sweet and romantic. This extreme way of acting started to make Sutliff feel paranoid and confused about who he really was.
Sutliff describes what she saw when Chris would go into his rages: “His eyes went from blue to black.” Chambers nods and says, “I’ve experienced that. The eyes are the windows to the soul. And when you are in that deep, dark space, you see it in their eyes.” It’s open to interpretation if Chambers was talking about her ex-husband with that comment, but you get the feeling that she probably was.
Sutliff says in an interview that during her short marriage to Chris, she became almost bedridden by an unexplained illness and broke out into hives. She later found out that Chris had possession of Tamoxifen and Mamofen—two drugs prescribed for breast cancer. Sutliff says that she believes Chris was trying to poison her with these drugs—which she is certain he put in her food and drinks—although she admits she can’t technically prove it.
She later found that Chris had at least three ex-wives before he married her. Sutliff says she tracked down and talked to several of his ex-girlfriends and ex-wives after surviving her horrific attack from Chris. She says all of Chris’ exes whom she talked to told her that Chris abused them too. Sutliff’s story is a warning to find out as much as you can about a potential love partner before you get involved.
Sutliff also believes that during their marriage, Chris raped her while she was unconscious from drugs that he gave to her without her knowledge and without her consent. She mentions an example of waking up to find Chris raping her. She got upset but he acted like he didn’t know that she was asleep. It’s a typical abuser tactic: Make the victim think that the victim is overreacting or imagining things when harm has been inflicted.
The attack on December 19, 2019, is described in harrowing details that won’t be described in this review. Sutliff and Littman say that Chris had allegedly planned to kill Sutliff and make it look like she committed suicide after attacking him. They also say that Chris planned to explain any injuries on Sutliff as injuries he caused in self-defense. Chris assaulted her on that fateful night after she confronted him about finding sexually explicit messages from another woman on his phone.
Sutliff’s ordeal in getting justice was also a hellish for reasons that are detailed in this “Toxic” episode. Chris stalked her and tried to get her arrested for the felony of possessing an illegal gun. “Toxic” is not an outstanding true crime series, but it’s better than many other true crime series that cover the same types of abusive relationships. In “Toxic,” when the host of the show says she understands the victims and survivors, you know that she really means it.
Investigation Discovery premiered “Toxic” on May 5, 2025.