Hypnosis · JP Morgan · Anna Delvey
Plus: More on the University of Idaho slayings
the true crime that's worth your time
It’s the slowest weekend we’ve seen in a while when it comes to true-crime releases that are worth our time. As we discussed on The Docket last week, there are three things dropping that range from “sure why not” to “fuck youuuu” in Sarah’s and my estimations:
True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes
SundanceTV and AMC+
Premiere: June 15
Binge-able?: Nope, this is a “one ep per week” deal
…but maybe one episode is all we’ll need for this docuseries on Florida’s North Port High School, where three students who had been hypnotized by its principal died. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has been on this story for a while, so you might dive into their coverage (this piece is a great jumping-off point) to decide if you’re interested enough in this case to invest the time in this series.
Billionaire Murders
Crave (a Canadian network, so “travel” might be required)
Premiere: June 16
Binge-able?: Half a binge, as two episodes of its four-ep run are available
I’m into the mystery of Barry and Honey Sherman, slain billionaires with a $35 million reward for the capture and conviction of their killer. So is reporter Kevin Donovan, who wrote the literal book about the case, hosted a podcast about it, and now is the face of this show. Since I’m in the U.S., it’s going to be a little more of a chore for me to watch this series, though, so the question is if I’ll take those illicit steps to view it. Commit a small crime in the name of true crime?
Exposing Parchman
A&E
Premiere: On broadcast at 8 PM June 17, streaming the day after
Binge-able?: It’s a 90-minute doc
This documentary feature premiered at Tribeca earlier this week, but has yet to rack up any reviews…not a good sign. It’s also a bad sign that this comes to us from the network that celebrates incarceration (60 Days In, etc.) and circulates copaganda (Live PD), so this seems like a crass way to gain some woke cred. The “related content” on its press page allows the mask to slip, in my estimation, so this is a pass for me.
So, it’s kind of a rough weekend! I think I might use it to catch up on or revisit some properties I didn’t give my full attention to when first released: I’ve been feeling an urge to revisit the dramatic adaptation of The Staircase, for some reason, and I think I might give in to it.
There’s also a lot of fun non-crime stuff dropping this weekend (Black Mirror! That Chris Hemsworth action thing!) and I’ve been meaning to check out American Born Chinese and that shameless Fritoganda feature Flamin’ Hot, a dramatic adaptation of the ostensibly true story of a new flavor of Cheeto. I guess what I’m saying is that my weekend might be less true crime than usual. What about yours? — EB
Hearsay
Of Course The Anna Delvey Show Is a Con [Vulture]
Podcasting pundit Nicholas Quah doesn’t diss the convicted grifter’s show as much as the headline suggests, writing that “Delvey mostly keeps her own contributions to a minimum, moving the chat along in a manner that’s fairly common for novice interlocutors: lob a question, sit back, lob another question, sit back.”
Ultimately, that frustrates him, as “It’s unlikely the person being interviewed on the podcast is ever going to be as inherently interesting as the interviewer herself,” but — and not to sound like a Delvey apologist — isn’t that kind of what we want from an interviewer? I mean, Oprah is also more interesting than her subjects, and she rarely made conversations all about her, either. I’m not saying Delvey is Oprah — so far, she hasn’t unleashed any scammy supplement salespeople who ran for office on a platform of bigotry the way O did — but if the biggest critique is that she doesn’t talk about herself enough, I find myself willing to give her show the benefit of the doubt. — EB
The gross spectacle of murder fandom [Atlantic]
This longread from McKay Coppins feels a lot like the second act of Gone Girl, where media descends on the small town that so disgusted Amy that she had to, uh, get gone. But these days, there are “TikTok and Reddit sleuths” along with the Gale Weathers squad, amateur detectives like those depicted so well in I Have Some Questions For You (which Elizabeth Held reviewed for us earlier this year; I finished it last week and continue to mull). Do these people realize there’s a $35 million reward waiting for them across the border (Billionaire Murders callback!)? Forget Idaho, head to Toronto, nerds! — EB
JPMorgan to Pay $290 Million in Settlement With Epstein’s Victims [New York Times]
David Boies is the attorney for the victims, which, when do we get a docuseries about him? Look at some of the cases he’s been on! Anyway, this stems from a civil suit by an Epstein victim who claims the finance monolith was aware of Epstein’s many crimes, and continued its relationship with him regardless. As reported last month, executives at the bank claimed they had never heard of Epstein, with Boise responding that if they had “never heard of Epstein before July 2019, that is an indictment, not a defense.” — EB
Next week on Best Evidence: Milli Vanilli and Michael Wolff.
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