4 new true crime shows to look forward to
the true crime that's worth your time
True crime programming planners, they're just like us! There's been a marked lull in true crime drops the last few weeks, which makes sense given how distracted most of us have been with the true crimes unfolding in front of our eyes. But now those filmmakers are gearing back up for a number of high profile, much-anticipated releases.
Here's a rundown of what we're watching for in the next few weeks. If there are any other shows you're particularly excited about, you know where to share that sentiment. (In the comments, that is.)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6N5aK2qzI
American Murder: Gabby Petito
Netflix
February 17, 2025
The frenzy around the August 2021 slaying of 22-year-old Gabby Petito feels both long ago and incredibly timely — especially if director Julia Willoughby Nason (Emmy-nominated Fyre Fraud) and frequent collaborator Michael Gasparro devote proper attention to the notable (and arguably corrosive) role social media played in the case.
From the couple's Instagram-influenced decision to embark on "van life" to the TikTok, etc. commentary on her disappearance and death (almost certainly at the hands of fiancee Brian Laundrie), the pair were basically in a throuple with the internet, right down to how they explained their lifestyle when police had, and discarded, an opportunity to avert the tragedy.
While the general outline of the case is familiar to most, there are a lot of specifics that definitely bear more examination. The fact that the case wrapped over three years ago means the filmmakers have plenty of room for exploration, thus raising expectations — but it also means that if this ends up being just another drive-by streaming quickie, they only have themselves to blame. Here's hoping it's the former, not the latter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY1E23n10wM
Kobe: Making of a Legend (episode 2)
CNN
January 31, 2025
The pressure not to speak ill of late basketball player Kobe Bryant is so strong that journalists have been punished at work for merely mentioning his 2003 arrest for sexual assault. Would this pressure be as great if he hadn't died in a 2020 helicopter crash that also killed his daughter, Gianna, and seven other passengers? Good question, I don't know. But I feel renewed hope in the state of sports journalism that CNN's three-part doc on the athlete devotes an episode to the case.
The series, which released its first episode on January 25, appears to be doing its best to capture all the sides of a complicated and very human, very privileged man, but its marketing has been very reverential! I'm extremely interested in how the tone might change when the second episode airs on January 31.
According to those with advance knowledge of the series, that episode includes a previously unaired police interview with the 19-year-old hotel allegedly raped by the then-24-year-old Bryant, including claims that he choked her to prevent her from escaping. It also details Bryant's conversation with police, including an eventual admission that he did have his hands around her neck. (When asked by police if he was choking her, Bryant reportedly responded "My hands are strong. I don’t know.”)
That's just a sliver from this now-22-year-old case, which I often feel like few remember. I'm glad CNN did, and am looking forward to watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMT5cTdNAiY
Happy Face
Paramount+
March 20, 2025
As most of you reading likely know, Melissa G. Moore was 15 when she realized that her father was notorious serial killer Keith Jesperson. While active, Jesperson sent anonymous letters to the local newspaper and DA's office confessing to his crimes, all signed with a smiley face, making his nickname the "Happy Face Killer" an unusually literal one.
Moore wrote a book about this in 2015, a couple years later she also did a podcast. Press materials for the show say that both provide the basis for this dramatic adaption, in which the now-problematic-to-me Dennis Quaid plays Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford plays Moore.
But the logline suggests that the truth might just be the piece of sand this show forms around: "After decades of no contact, Keith finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. In a race against the clock, Melissa must find out if an innocent man is going to be put to death for a crime her father committed."
It's produced by Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, Evil) and I typically like what they're selling, and the PR people at Paramount+ seem confident enough about the show that they offered screeners to media a wild six or so weeks before its premiere. (That said, critics are sworn to secrecy "until further notice," so don't expect advance word this far in, um, advance.) It feels like a possibly good sign that this many ducks are already in a row, so I'm fairly optimistic at present.
Good American Family
Hulu
March 19, 2025
I tried to write something for you about early January's The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, I truly did. But the final iteration of the once-bombshell series just depressed and distressed me.
Now in her 20s (at least) the real Natalia seems dreadfully damaged by the combination punch of her initial adoptive family and true crime fame, as do many of the people in her midst. The final set of episodes seemed both about how much the earlier episodes fucked her up and how the filmmakers were losing patience with her and her family. Eventually, I realized I was holding a carton of spoiled milk, hoping you all would smell its stink, too. That's not why we do Best Evidence, so I shut the laptop and took a long shower, instead.
All this to say that I don't know how to feel about this drama, news of which broke in the trades in 2022 as "untitled orphan project." This is an eight-ep show that'll drop its first two on 3/19, then weekly after that, so it's on you to remember to return Ellen Pompeo is playing Natalia's real-life adoptive mom, Kristine Barnett, Vanity Fair reports; Mark Duplass plays Michael, which I cannot deny is intriguing casting! (VF also notes that "Michael Barnett sold his rights to the story for the series, but none of the real people were involved with production," which perhaps explains why the one time we see Barnett in The Final Chapter, he rolls up in a flashy sports car and with flowing, rocker-level hair.)
But do we also need to watch this drama? That, I am uncertain about, but I also can't stop thinking about how a smart combination of writer and director might spin this straw to gold. So I think I am in for at least the first 20 minutes of this one, and after that we shall see.