True crime properties that try to have it both ways
the true crime that's worth your time
Thanks to Best Evidence reader Becki Moody for posting this comment, as it got Sarah and me thinking about a trend we’ve seen lately in certain true crime properties — a discomfort, perhaps, with the genre, leading to an inability to commit to a tone. Or, as Sarah put it, they’re “trying to have it both ways like Spam in the '90s, selling the thing but also mocking the thing.”
We see that same winkiness at points in The Dropout, I think, and honestly, I am still not sure if Season One of Dirty John was playing it straight or if it was intended ironically. (Especially the stabbing/dog attack scene…what was that?) And then there are Berlinger’s many interviews in which he appears to want to distance himself from true crime (while still getting paid to produce it).
We know there must be others that we’re forgetting in the TV, movie, and podcast space. What true crime properties have you started in on, then felt like the makers wanted to have it both ways — to capitalize on the elements of true crime but also let us know that they’re “better than” that? Let’s hear it. — EB