This debate about the value of true crime speaks to our ambivalence over consuming real-life tales of horror. The debate about the value of true crime speaks to our ambivalence over consuming real-life tales of horror. Although it occasionally aims for respectability-Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song are often held up as paragons of the genre-true crime is usually relegated to the bin of “trash” culture, a term that denotes cheaply produced, simplistic materials catering to the uncritical masses.
Such debates over true crime’s moral and aesthetic merits are nothing new. Prestige series like HBO’s The Jinx and Netflix’s Making a Murderer effectively blend entertainment with real-life investigation.Īs more and more networks jump on the bandwagon-NBC has ordered Law & Order: True Crime, whose first season will cover the infamous Menendez brothers’ case, and CBS is producing its own unscripted series on the JonBenét Ramsey murder- the inevitable backlash has begun to set in. Simpson docuseries, these new crime anthologies have elevated the genre’s status.
From the celebrated Serial podcast to the recent pair of well-received O.J. One popular refrain claims that true crime is now joining the ranks of “quality” culture. For over a year, news outlets have touted the return of true crime drama. The critics have spoken: true crime is officially hot.