"If you think true crime is inescapable when you're browsing Netflix or making small talk with your co-workers, try working in the documentary industry. As you traipse from one commissioning meeting to the next, pitching your passion project on the history of mime or the secret life of snails, you can almost hear the words before they're spoken: Got any other ideas? Preferably something with a body count."
"Positioned as social justice projects as much as murder mysteries, those shows seemed to herald a new beginning for the genre. Soon enough, though, they gave way to a steady stream of interchangeable offerings, many of them organised into reproducible formats such as Netflix's Conversations With a Killer franchise, each season of which is built round a long-lost interview with a notorious serial killer, unearthed to order."
True crime has become ubiquitous in streaming and documentary commissioning, with producers pressured to propose murder-centered projects. The Jinx and Making a Murderer revived true crime in 2015, positioning series as social-justice-oriented mysteries, then the genre shifted into formulaic, reproducible formats like Netflix's Conversations With a Killer. The puzzle-solving elements of true crime retain appeal: clues assemble toward a tantalizing resolution even in unsolved cases. Earlier long-form series such as The Staircase demonstrated how unfolding revelations can suggest innocence and shape viewer expectations despite prior knowledge of outcomes. Commissioners frequently request projects that will attract large audiences by featuring notorious crimes and perpetrator interviews.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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