It's spooky season—but that doesn’t mean we need to only be watching Hocus Pocus for the twentieth time. Let's try some True Crime!
The most classic true crime documentaries detail a murder or missing person case that later becomes solved through suspect interrogations or a confession. These documentaries normally are an hour or so long and can be split into three episodes.
Netflix pumps out these documentaries and normally they are semi-good, but some stand out more than others. Notably, American Murder: The Family Next Door, What Jennifer Did, and The Murdaugh Murders all follow the “Netflix template” but are interesting enough to keep you throughout the whole series/movie.
American Murder details the Chris Watts murders and the brutality that an affair led him to. The documentary is composed completely of video footage, photos, and voice recordings from the case. There is no narrator or extra video footage added which adds a unique level of context to the series.
What Jennifer Did details the case of Jennifer Pan and her involvement in her parents’ murders. This show will stand out not only because Jennifer was not only a female killer but in her early twenties.
The Murdaugh trial is well known to those who don’t even enjoy true crime, but the Netflix series adds an extra level of backstory to the life that the Murdaughs actually lived.
You can’t talk about true crime right now without mentioning the Menendez brothers. The new Netflix docu-drama series, titled Monsters, follows the Menendez brothers who killed both of their parents brutally in 1989. The show is in nine one hour episodes (a COMMITMENT) that details the Menendez murders and their following trials. The TV show is a drama with actors (who all scarily look exactly like their real life counterparts) but is based on the true story. The show follows the same format that Dahmer did a few years ago.
Monsters is heart wrenching, and even after watching the whole thing, many (including I) don’t know how to feel. The brothers were indicted for murder and confessed to shooting both of their parents at close range, but the details of years of abuse by the Menendez parents make some believe they have now served their time. Others believe that the brutal abuse detailed by the brothers was a ploy to make the jury feel sympathetic.
The entire trial is extremely complicated and in many cases the Menendez brothers dug themselves into deeper holes when writing letters, spending money, and firing lawyers. In the end, the only way to form your own opinion on this case is to dedicate some time to the case.
The series is credited to have some biases towards the brothers' time in prison being up. Because of the popularity of this drama, Netflix released a documentary a few weeks later titled The Menendez Brothers. This shorter watch is based only on the brothers’ case and the tapes from interviews and testimonies during their trials.
Surprisingly, I hate mystery. However, I watch true crime all the time, but I like the perpetrators to be caught, and sometimes the best part of a series is the trial and sentencing later. (Who doesn’t love a juicy police confession?) Nonetheless, many love a sense of “what if?” If this is you, Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries is a good watch. The show details a new case every episode where every murder or missing persons case is unsolved. The series follows every lead that the police had but ultimately leaves the ending up to the audience to create their own conclusion.
Notably, a Beaver County mystery is the Volume 4, Episode 3 unsolved case. The episode is titled “The Severed Head,” and nothing is more odd than seeing Pizza Joes and your own house in an episode about a random head found in the woods. What is even freakier is that I personally knew one of the suspects, and he owned the garage right next to my house, so the world truly is that small. The case is now considered cold because the main suspect that the police were about to arrest is now deceased and there are no other leads.
If murders and missing persons aren’t your cup of tea you can still enjoy true crime. Netflix’s Keep Sweet, Pray, and Obey details the secret life that LDS communities live in the southwest. This splinter Morman group lived outside of American law moving thousands of people from town to town when word of incest, underage marriage, and polygamy emerge. The group was, and still is, known for men having more than one wife and at least a dozen children. The treatment of women in this group was revealed by past members and shows how far some religious groups will go.
The Untold series that details different sports scandals is also a good watch. This series details professional athletes’ scandals and their fall from grace. My personal favorites are Tim Teebo and the Florida Gators and Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M. This documentary is produced and directed by the same people who created the wildly popular Quarterback and Receiver series.
All of these true crime series are truly worth your time and make any watcher feel something whether it is a sense of mystery or even grossed out, but not all are like this. On Netflix, there are definitely documentaries that are a waste of time.
To start. Escaping Twin Flame and Dancing with the Devil were a part of a Netflix fad on making docs series based off of apps gone wrong. Overall, the stories are boring and I feel as if a whole documentary did not need to be made on people getting scammed.
Additionally, I did not enjoy The Program which details the “wilderness therapy” scandals but follows a small group of graduates from a program in New York. The documentary tries to be too dramatic and focuses too much attention on how past students are now instead of detailing the practices of these programs. The series had the potential to be good based on the interesting topic at hand, but the director failed in how they put across information.