📺 True crime mania
featuring 'Under the Banner of Heaven', 'The Staircase', 'Candy', and 'The Thing About Pam'
Happy Thursday. We’re trying something different again this week: a bit of a solo episode with a theme. Along with a few relevant reviews, I’ve got some thoughts to share about the deluge of true crime content we’re seeing on TV right now. Jenni will be back in your inboxes in a few days to round out the weekend with her takes.
— Jess Spoll
In today’s edition:
A review on the true crime genre
Your shows, returned
Upcoming releases
First time reading? Subscribe to receive Double Take weekly.
Our dark obsession with true crime
From a relatively young age, I can recall being fascinated by serial killers. It’s not really that unusual; the psychology of someone who could viciously and anonymously murder innocent people is so alien to the average person that we can’t help but feel curious.
But something feels different about the current cultural obsession with true crime dramatizations. Rather than diving into the psyche of anomalous psychopathic individuals, the stories that gain popularity now are often about seemingly neurotypical people who commit heinous crimes.
The true victims of the genre
The thing that strikes me as glaringly unethical is that these shows often focus primarily on the killer and very little on the victim. In doing so, they perpetuate a glamorization of criminals while dehumanizing the victims. The most obvious example of this in recent history is the 2019 Netflix movie about Ted Bundy that stars Zac Efron. That casting choice, and the movie’s emphasis on Bundy’s charm rather than his crimes, majorly crosses the line into glorification of a murderer.
Another troubling aspect of these dramatizations is that the victim’s portrayal often doesn’t ring true to their family. And for almost every true crime drama that premieres, there’s an accompanying news story about a family member who is reliving a nightmare by the past being dredged up again. Based on these reports, it seems that the families are usually not contacted ahead of time or asked for permission by producers.
What makes a worthy adaptation?
Ethical arguments aside, another question that I’ve been thinking a lot about is what makes a true crime dramatization actually entertaining? As we know, something about these shows is inherently interesting to viewers; the popularity of them, especially in the last couple of years, speaks to that. But with so many options now, how do you determine what’s worth watching? What makes one true crime series better than another?
In my opinion, the best true crime dramatizations are the ones that have a specific message to convey to the audience. There has to be something greater than the sum of the parts that the audience will glean from the retelling, otherwise, there’s no point in rehashing the tragedy.
“The Thing About Pam” (NBC/Hulu) is one series that achieves this. It follows the story of Pam Hupp, a woman who murders her best friend for her insurance money and frames the victim’s husband for the crime. The show takes an ironic tone as it highlights the ineptitude and corruption of local law enforcement and a DA that seems to willfully turn a blind eye to Pam’s possible involvement, even though Pam is the last one to see the victim alive. Ultimately this series nailed its critique of systemic failure of our criminal justice system and the privilege that is afforded to affable white women.
HBO Max’s “The Staircase” is an interesting example because it’s an adaptation of an already well-known tale, due to a docuseries of the same name that was a hit on Netflix in 2018. It’s based on the murder trial of a famous novelist, Michael Peterson (Colin Firth), who is accused of killing his wife, Kathleen (Toni Collette), after she’s found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home. The original docuseries focuses mainly on Michael and his possible guilt — Kathleen is just a footnote, just a body used as evidence against him. This new series instead explores who Kathleen was, fleshing her out into a fully realized woman rather than a chalk outline. That’s the beauty of “The Staircase”, and why it’s such a compelling show. We see the humanity behind this famous case; we’re made to look beyond the question of culpability and to care about the real people.
On the less worthwhile side, we have Hulu’s new series “Candy,” which recounts the true story of a woman who murdered her best friend with an axe. Disappointingly, this series doesn’t have much to say beyond retelling the details of the crime. Also dismaying is how one-dimensional the two main characters are portrayed. Jessica Biel’s Candy is a devout Christian goody-two-shoes mother who is feeling a lack of passion in her marriage, and Melanie Lynskey’s Betty is a mousy, miserable, isolated loner. The story seems primed to critique the virgin/harlot stereotype, but instead reinforces those stereotypes.
Somewhere in the middle is “Under the Banner of Heaven” (FX/Hulu) starring Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones, about the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old baby in Utah. To its credit, this series does have something to say — we spend most of the time with the detective on the case as his religious belief is shaken by dangerous sects within the Mormon community. The message seems to be that there is a fine line between piousness and madness. My problem with this series is that the victim is almost entirely erased from the story in place of a character and a narrative (the Detective and his religious internal struggle) who didn’t even exist in real life.
Love it or hate it, true crime is everywhere and it’s not going away. As a fan of the genre, I find myself thinking a lot about the ethical implications of consuming these stories for our own entertainment. For every positive story about a cold case being solved due to a true crime podcast gaining popularity, there are 10 more stories of families who feel that their trauma is being exploited. I’d love to say that I’ll never consume another piece of exploitative true crime media, but I’m a fallible human, and so I’d be lying. I can only continue to think critically about the next true crime series that I watch, I hope you will too.
Your shows, returned:
Hacks, Season 2: Premieres today, May 12 on HBO Max
Bling Empire, Season 2: Released May 13 on Netflix
Upcoming new releases:
The Lincoln Lawyer: Released May 13 on Netflix
The Essex Serpent: Premieres May 13 on Apple TV+
Conversations with Friends: Released May 15 on Hulu
The Time Traveler’s Wife: Premieres May 15 on HBO Max
Angelyne: Premieres May 19 on Peacock