Our Hopes for the True Crime Genre in 2024
What are your hopes for the overall state of the true crime genre in 2024?
the true crime that's worth your time
Happy new year! Here we are, with our last issue of 2023. Thanks to all of you for another great year of true crime analysis and discussion — this publication is a delightful part of Sarah’s and my lives, thanks to all of you.
As we’ve noted a few times over these last two weeks, our concerns over Substack’s support and monetization of hate speech means big changes for Best Evidence in 2024. We’re still working out exactly what those changes will be, but we’re already excited and are looking forward to another great year with all of you. — Sarah and Eve
Fewer hand-wringing hot takes which offer no nuance or critical thinking towards the genre, usually using some phrase like "the true crime boom" and cod-sociological analysis. A recovery for the beleaguered podcast industry, wrung out from encounters of the VC kind. And some well-deserved schadenfreude on the crypto beat (sorry, I'm petty like that). — Margaret Howie is a marketing drone by day, co-founder of spacefruitpress.com by night.
I think my hopes are for: a) as always, streamers and publishers to boost more diverse creators because I think that’s the best way to combat the overrepresentation of Missing White Woman stories and b) this might be a fool’s hope, but for more subtlety in the way true crime is talked about as a genre. When I see takes like “All true crime is exploitative,” I wonder if the person would include documentaries like Strong Island or memoirs like The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial, or any of the properties I list above or that will be mentioned by other respondents to this questionnaire! It’s possible they would, but I think we can’t talk about all true crime properties as if they were more similar than different. — True Crime Fiction author Tracy Bealer
I would love to see more ethics applied to true crime podcasting. Next year will mark the 10-year anniversary of Season 1 of Serial, which was the catalyst for the true crime podcasting boom. It’s a good time for some reflection and accountability. — Best Evidence contributor Susan Howard
That it stays focused on the big picture, on systems and how people are caught up in them, and whose voices are prioritized and whose are ignored. But I think it'll end up being a lot of Serial 10th Anniversary retrospectives (which I'm fine with, and will undoubtedly write one, as long as they are good.) — Author Sarah Weinman, aka The Crime Lady
More interrogation of, and consideration of, the people who speak to journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters as part of a case. I’m not talking about public officials or law enforcement — those folks are here to be scrutinized. I’m talking about the regular people whose lives are forever changed by an alleged crime. I moderated a panel for the documentary Subject this year and felt my attitudes shift — I’ve mentioned this a few times on The Docket, and the feeling isn’t going away.
For many investigation-adjacent people, their options are to speak to a documentary crew and become “public property,” or to refuse to speak and lose whatever control of the narrative you might have had. Neither option seems tenable. I don’t offer a solution for this quandary, as so much true crime relies on these folks’ participation — and because we know that that participation can and will enact change, in some cases. But we can start by thinking harder about how documentary, book, and podcast subjects are supported during and after the fact, and see where that gets us. — Best Evidence co-author Eve Batey
I have reviewed 48 true crime properties this year, and watched a few more than that, generally good to great to excellent. My hope for 2024 is more of those, and much much less of giving a platform to the predator - whether by listening to their voices on tape, seeing them in old footage or - worst - having them talk to us down the barrel of a camera, unchallenged by the interviewer. (The Jinx is an obvious exception to that.) There is room for smaller stories - that is, the crime doesn't have to be horrifying, complex or extreme to be interesting to us. I'm looking forward to more personal stories like Great Photo, Lovely Life, and broader examinations of systemic prejudice and injustice like The Mission. — writer and Crime Seen co-host Sarah Carradine
I think I hoped for this last year, and previous years, but in television, I'd like to see fewer unscripted true-crime docs. The appetite for them means we get a lot of garbage built on the suffering of real people, and too many shows that recreate the sensationalism of the case and/or lionize the guilty. If studios and networks gave twice the budget to half as many shows, I think we'd have a considerably better array of true-crime documentaries and specials. — Andy Dehnart, TV critic and creator of reality blurred
I sense a contracture in the genre overall. Net, that isn't great (excellent podcasts getting sacked because they're too pricey to make, even for the legacy concerns that "own" them, etc.) BUT I get the sense that that means a return to feature-length docs...and that's a variation on my broader hope for the genre this coming year: understanding that creators have to eat and will make what they get paid to make, in the shape they're getting paid to make it in, I'd like to see more thought given to medium.
Is this a series or a 121-minute feature; is this an episode of a show, or a podcast experience; is this article asking to become a book, and how long does that book "have to" be, really. Bring back monographs! Pay more attention to doc shorts! Let a given narrative find its own container. Pre-codification/"true crime as big business" material wasn't by definition better, or even good most of the time, but the genre deserves and can do better than by-numbers. — Best Evidence co-author Sarah D. Bunting
Next week on Best Evidence: We’re off on Monday for New Year’s, but we’ll see you later that week.
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