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In Nanfu Wang’s docuseries The Mind About Killing, the town of Beatrice, Nebraska, is still reeling from the 38-year-old disaster. Six people were convicted of raping and murdering a woman in 1985, but DNA evidence convicted them decades later. The six-part HBO series chronicles the extended miscarriage of justice with an emphasis on a unique urban approach: A community theater staged readings of court records and transcripts. It’s storytelling as confrontational therapy and, in one of the best television offerings of the year, it’s an exploration of how our insatiable desire for true crime, often presented in voyeuristic terms, can heal those deeply involved in tragedy, as well as our own. wounds in society.
Throw in countless examples of true crimes that have contributed to the conviction of the innocent (The Thin Blue Line, A series) or target the guilty (The Jinx, I’ll Be Gone Before Darkness), and you can assure yourself that it is a type dedicated to good society. That’s what you might think, if you haven’t watched Peacock Joe vs. Carola completely unimaginative and unnecessary attempt to profit from the success of Tiger Kinga special phenomenon that is so tenuous that Netflix has released so many sequels that you probably don’t even know (or care) that it exists.
We’re in the realm of true crime, or at least true crime, on television, where the volume of the genre, its popularity and its potential for awards recognition are not always in perfect sync.
On the other hand, check out the limited series/anthology series this fall at the Emmys. Of course there is a definition of true crime that can be involved Illnessdescribing one of the many deadly crimes committed by (if not caused by) Big Pharma, or To stop, which describes one (usually non-lethal) crime perpetuated (and possibly caused) by Big Tech – award-winning miniseries, respectively, Michael Keaton and Amanda Seyfried. The biggest prize, however, was won by Mike White’s HBO anthology The White Lotuswhere the mythical murders were fueled by the crime of smuggling suitcases and the only “truth” was that rich people are evil.
There was a strong representation of true crime in the Emmy rosters – the nominees for The stairslist of nominees for Under the Banner of Heaven – but it was easy to point to those who wanted medals, to those who came before Joe vs. Carol and Renée Zellweger’s hilarious latex scene Something about Pam. The sequel to two Emmy juggernauts, Ryan Murphy Impeachment: The Story of American Crimeit was mostly creative art after thought.
But don’t cry for Ryan Murphy! Because if the “lack of recent Emmy success” is on the one hand, the other side is another two with a bad title. Dahmer-The Beast: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmer and general title The guard. Within weeks, Murphy went from being the subject of “What exactly did Netflix get in this multi-billion dollar megadeal?” to “Dahmer and The guard it’s blockbusters like this that were really meant to be franchises, because that’s what Ryan Murphy does and he does it well. “
A beast It was professional, but will that translate into an award contender? Evan Peters won an Emmy, and no one will question his tenacity in the title role, while Niecy Nash received consistent raves as the main character. A beast episode, perhaps the only one that lives up to the producers’ desire to make a series about real people affected by Dahmer’s crimes, not just a gawking, leering piece of exploitation. As for The guardit seems that most people who reach the end of the series want to forget it, not respect it.
Sigmund Freud did not study the value of true crime therapy, but he wrote about it Wiederholungszwang, or repetition compulsive, where people have an unconscious tendency to repeat their dangerous or painful decisions. This is Murphy’s long-time MO and one of the most common things on television. (It’s just not in the realm of true crime. How many print and documentaries about the Los Angeles Lakers did America need in 2022?)
At least with true crime, there is a sense of achievement to drive repetition and repetition. The stairs Is it one of the greatest docuseries ever made? Why not try the written version! Tiger King Was everyone talking about the two weeks when the world was closed? Let’s do a taped series and follow up after two years! Dahmer was a mouth-watering sensation, joining Netflix’s huge list of serial killer programs. Two weeks later, there was one The Dahmer docuseries is perfect for starters, without direct connections.
And replication can be platform agnostic. The latest poster boy for junk TV’s ouroboros is Jan Broberg’s oddball story, the subject of Peacock’s overlong, well-made novel. A Family Friendwhich was not directly based on the Skye Borgman Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight, even though the story is the same and Borgman was involved in both. Naturally, Peacock freed the doctor’s companion, Family Friend: True Evil. Remember Hulu Sweets, with Jessica Biel as 1980s ax murderer Candy Montgomery? Emmy voters did not. But get ready for HBO Max to take the story seriously Love and death.
This means we only have a few years left Mind over Murder: The Seriesa documentary about a filmmaker making a documentary about a community making a play about a terrible tragedy that shook a Nebraska town.
This story first appeared in the November Independent issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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