The best true crime documentaries of 2024
the true crime that's worth your time
Welcome to day four of Best Evidence’s fourth annual Year in Review, in which we celebrate the best true crime properties, complain about the worst, and spin hopeful dreams about the future of the genre. Keep checking back all this week and next for other responses including great podcast recommendations, hidden gems to seek out, and infuriating flops to avoid.
Today covers the medium true crime is perhaps best known for (podcasters, don't @ me): The topic is the best true crime documentaries and docuseries of 2024. How many of these have you watched? Do you agree with our panel's assessment? Which did we miss? Please bring all that, and anything else you'd like to share, in the comments.
If you’re not a paid subscriber — or if you’d just like to read a version with embedded trailers — head over the Reality Blurred to read the full article.
AS WE SPEAK: RAP MUSIC ON TRIAL follows Bronx rap artist Kemba as he explores the growing weaponisation of rap lyrics by the US criminal justice system. Freewheeling, inventive, surprising. And of course GREAT PHOTO: LOVELY LIFE will be on many people's Best lists. Photojournalist Amanda Mustard documents her personal journey to find truth, accountability and reconciliation within her own family over the sexual abuse crimes committed by her grandfsther.— Sarah Carradine, co-host of the Crime Seen podcast
Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini (Hulu). There were quite a few great 3-episode true crime docuseries offerings this year that hit the mark, but this one stands out because I'm still thinking about the transfixing interview with Keith Papini, Sherri's astute ex-husband. — Susan Howard, Best Evidence contributor (Instagram: @veronicamers)
Quiet on Set was definitely not perfect, and is hard to watch, but deserves credit for bringing awareness to a particular strain of Hollywood toxicity— Andy Dehnart, founder of reality blurred
Bad Press was a 2024 release in the UK, so I'm nabbing it for this list - it's a gripping, vital watch on censorship, corruption, and the healing power of Cuban sandwiches for beleaguered journalists, as well as a window on life in the the Muscogee Nation.
Erin Lee Carr's 2024 double bill - Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan & Sara, and I'm Not a Monster: The Lois Reiss Case - covered various Carr speciality topics - online lives bleeding into IRL, and addiction, respectively.— Margaret Howie, co-founder of Space Fruit Press
Dan Reed's The Truth vs. Alex Jones was a fascinating and hard-to-watch look at the way a small but significant and alarmingly vocal set of society reacts to mass shootings such as the one at Sandy Hook: by claiming they don't exist. It's worth watching just for that, but I'll also say that in my estimation, Reed is a great example of the so-old-its-new again style of documentarian, one who works swiftly and economically to get the news out there in an impactful way as possible.
His work is free of fluff, but doesn't feel too dense, either; maybe I am basically saying that my favorite kind of docs are essentially 1970s-type newsmag segments with more room to breathe? (Or replicate great focaccia?) Anyway, I'm writing a novel here because I think TTvAJ blew up less than it should have because it was marketed as being about Sandy Hook, and it's hard to get stoked about consuming school shooting content on a Friday night. But Reed handles the most painful part of that matter with grace that'll leave you breathless, then gets into the extremely Friday night deconstruction of the tactics of the most famous — and most corrosive — vitamin salesman on earth. — Eve Batey, Best Evidence co-editor, journalist, and sighthound person.
So hard to choose! But even though it didn't demonstrate the sort of stylistic innovation that I usually respond to in true crime docs, I was really impressed with An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th. The documentary situates the 1995 terrorist attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City within the context of the rise of white nationalist militias in the 1980s, and argues that the violence and racist extremism that produced the attack has only intensified in the years since. — Tracy Bealer, author of True Crime Fiction on Substack
The year started strong with American Nightmare — and while I watched some solid outings after that one, nothing quite topped it. — Sarah D. Bunting, co-EIC of B.E., proprietrix of Exhibit B. Books