Best Evidence logo

Best Evidence

Subscribe
Archives
January 26, 2022

Cases that burn bright...and then burn out

the true crime that's worth your time

Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter. The resemblance is uncanny, but is there anything else to say about this case in 2022? (Steve Dietl / Hulu)

And now, a short play about me and Eve receiving press materials for Hulu’s Michelle Carter miniseries The Girl From Plainville.

SDB: This is still happening, eh?
EB: Wow, I had completely forgotten about this. I am extremely skeptical that there is still sustained interest in this.
-fin-

…Look, we did care about the case, once; we talked about it in Blotter 071, when Lifetime threw together a quick look at the case; in Blotter 103, when Erin Lee Carr’s doc on the case came out; and in August of 2019, when the Hulu project was announced. But…it was 2019. Is that why Girl seems so irrelevant, that it came from The Before Time?

That’s not the case with Tiger King, whose titular central figure somehow managed to get a memoir out from behind bars (yes, I sell it at Exhibit B; no, I’m not proud of it; no, you don’t have to pay full price — use code NEXT at checkout for a discount); TK is pretty clearly market oversaturation at this point. And then there’s the quiet, grievous disposition of the Gabby Petito “mystery,” a case that came on like a fever, spawned a bunch of self-searching meta thinkpieces, and then just…went away, leaving two sundered families to fight over a crappy rained-on notebook. What happened there? Was everyone too ashamed to admit they were still following the investigation?

Why do some cases burn brightly and then wink out, and others endure? — SDB

Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to Best Evidence:
Start the conversation:
Powered by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.