True crime TV to look forward to
What's headed to a small screen near you
the true crime that's worth your time
There’s been a lot of true-crime TV news this week. Opposed to parsing it out over a few issues, I decided to round up six of the most intriguing upcoming properties for you today. Of course, none of these are available at the moment, so here’s a question for you (ripping off Extra Hot Great’s weekly Instagram survey as I ask): What true crime are you planning on watching this weekend?
Name: The Sticky
Platform: Amazon Prime
ETA: Still in pre-production
This is a comedic series adaptation of one of the biggest known heists in Canada's history — the 2011 theft of (per Forbes) “9,500 barrels worth of syrup from a warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, Quebec.” In a press release, Amazon provides a synopsis:
The Sticky is a half-hour series revolving around Ruth Clarke, a tough, supremely competent middle-aged Canadian maple syrup farmer who's had it with being hemmed in by the polite, bureaucratic conventions native to her country's identity. Especially now that that very bureaucracy is threatening to take away everything she loves: Her farm, her comatose husband, and her right to freedom. With the help of Remy Bouchard, a pint-sized local blockhead and Mike Byrne, a low-level mobster, Ruth changes her fate—and transforms the future of her community with the theft of millions of dollars' worth of maple syrup.
No casting has been announced as of yet; filming is slated to begin in Montreal this fall. — EB
Name: Pure
Platform: Peacock
ETA: In development
Heather Regnier (Veronica Mars, iZombie) is behind this scripted series based on Allen Salkin’s 2016 Vanity Fair article “The Runaway Vegan,” which we’re all familiar with from Netflix’s recent Bad Vegan docuseries. Deadline reports that the show:
Will chronicle the rise and fall of the relationship between Sarma Melngailis and Anthony Strangis, two people who fulfilled each other’s desires to live in a world that existed outside of reality — which ultimately destroyed them. A tragic, twisted love story, doomed from the start.
IMO this makes the clearly shitty and allegedly abusive relationship seem more epic that it deserves to be, but there’s time for it to evolve. I just wish Monica Potter was just a teensy bit younger, as in her youth (see: Con Air) she was a dead ringer for Sarma Melngailis, don’t you think? — EB
Name: Murder Of A Jewish American Princess
Platform: Still looking for a buyer
ETA: Presumably at the eventual buyer’s discretion
This is a dramatic adaptation of Shirley Frondorf’s Death of a Jewish American Princess: The True Story of a Victim on Trial, the 2013 book about, per its publisher description,
Restaurateur Steven Steinberg, who killed his wife by stabbing her 26 times [and] was acquitted; his legal defense portrayed the victim as an overpowering “Jewish American Princess” whose excesses may have provoked her violent end. Examining the structure of the defense’s case, Frondorf, an attorney who was previously a psychiatric social worker, follows the theme that made Elana Steinberg the villain, instead of the victim, of the piece.
Elana Steinberg was killed by her husband in 1982, so there’ll likely some of the same costume/decor issues y’all cited yesterday with Candy. But here’s the weirdest bit: per Deadline, journalist and show writer Cari Lynn says she “first learned about the story after being introduced to Steven Steinberg at her brother’s wedding.” Others might have heard about it on Sundance docuseries Indefensible, which tackled the case last fall. — EB
Title: Based on a True Story
Platform: Peacock
ETA: TBD
What crime is this based on? Who the hell knows, and this press release, which is a little too giggly about toilets (omg you poop in them!) if you ask me, isn’t much help, saying that it “is about a realtor, a plumber and a former tennis star whose lives unexpectedly collide, exposing America's obsession with true crime, murder and the slow close toilet seat.”
The release also has quoted from two different TV executives marveling that sometimes real life is wilder than fiction, like, where have you been the last couple years? No one thinks real life is normal anymore, guys. We stopped thinking that in 2016. ANYWAY. Craig Rosenberg (The Boys) is the showrunner, and harassment denier Jason Bateman is one of the producers. I guess we’ll see about this one. — EB
Title: Captive Audience
Platform: Hulu
ETA: April 21
We’ve discussed this docuseries on the Steven Stayner disappearance and reappearance before: the brutal and wild case has been the inspiration of a number of fictional properties over the years, as much for Steven’s escape and heroism as for his brother’s shocking arrest. The three-parter is produced by Joe and Anthony Russo (some of the best Marvel movies), who have been making several true crime moves in recent years. Here’s the synopsis:
This is the story of how a story gets told, and how the media’s magnifying glass impacts the characters caught in the narrative. Siblings Ashley and Steven Stayner Jr. never knew their famous father Steven, the child victim of a shocking California kidnapping, who tragically died in an accident when they were young. In 1972, seven-year-old Steven went to school - and never came home. His mother Kay struggles to keep the media interested in the case, and to hold her family together. Then, after seven years, a miracle: Steven returns. The media can’t get enough of the story and frantically descend on the Stayner home - but this isn’t the Hollywood ending it appears to be.
Friend of the newsletter Piper Weiss (You All Grow Up And Leave Me) co-developed with director Jessica Dimmock. — SDB
Title: Our Father
Platform: Netflix
ETA: May 11
Joining the ranks of Baby God (2020 HBO doc about disgraced fertility doc Quincy Fortier) and Seeds of Deceit (Dutch docuseries on disgraced fertility doc Jan Karbaat) is Our Father, about disgraced Indianapolis OB-GYN Donald Cline. I feel like we talked about The Atlantic’s great piece on Cline, “The Fertility Doctor’s Secret,” in the earliest days of Best Evidence; as you likely guessed, Cline (and Fortier and Karbaat) all used their own sperm — not their patients’ — to impregnate slews of women.
Here’s a bit from the press release on the docuseries:
Jacoba Ballard was an only child, conceived via donor sperm, who always dreamed of having a brother or sister. An at-home DNA test led her to the discovery of not one but seven half-siblings – a number that defied best practices in fertility medicine. As the group set out to learn more about their curious family tree, they soon discovered the sickening truth: Their parents’ fertility doctor had been inseminating his patients with his own sperm – without their knowledge or consent. As Ballard and her newfound siblings realized they’ve barely begun to untangle his dark web of deceit, their pursuit of justice lies at the heart of this profoundly unsettling story about an unimaginable breach of trust.
An interesting side note: the case only came to light after one of Cline’s unwitting offspring contacted a local TV station for help. Proof that those “Call us for help” segments are good for more than getting prompt repairs on water heaters that break down while under warranty! — EB
Monday on Best Evidence: DB Cooper, Edgars predictions, and more!
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