Television series
Crime Scene
Netflix's anthology strips the yellow tape off notorious addresses — the Cecil Hotel, Times Square's grimiest corners — and lets the buildings do the talking. Talking heads, archival footage, and that particular true-crime hum of dread hold it together. It's bingeable rather than probing, more interested in atmosphere and myth than rigorous investigation. Good for a rainy night when you want to be unsettled, not lectured.
If you liked this
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst2015
Andrew Jarecki's series about Robert Durst has the same fascination with a man and his properties, but tightens the screws with an ending nobody saw coming.
But Its most famous moment has been spoiled everywhere online, which blunts the impact considerably.
Making a Murderer2015
A small Wisconsin town becomes as much a character as the accused, and the series builds a slow, maddening case for wrongful conviction.
But Ten hours is a big ask, and its selective editing has been credibly criticised as one-sided.
Wild Wild Country2018
A remote Oregon commune spirals into biological warfare and mass hysteria — same idea of place-as-mythology, but stranger and more operatic.
But Six episodes of cult intrigue can feel baggy in the middle stretch.
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The Thin Blue Line1988
Every stylistic tic Crime Scene relies on — reenactment, ambient dread, unreliable witnesses — traces back to this film; watching it is seeing the blueprint.
Errol Morris's stylised reenactments and hypnotic interviews about a Texas murder essentially invented the modern true-crime documentary — cool, formal, and quietly furious.
But Its detached, art-film pacing is a world away from Netflix's punchy talking-head style.
More like this (8)
I'll Be Gone in the Dark2020
Michelle McNamara's obsessive hunt for the Golden State Killer turns true crime into something genuinely literary and haunted.
But It's melancholy and slow-burning rather than propulsive; don't expect a tidy thriller rhythm.
The Staircase2022
The original fly-on-the-wall courtroom documentary that basically invented this genre's grammar — patient, exhaustive, and quietly devastating.
But It's older and slower than modern true crime, with none of the slick pacing.
Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer2019
Internet vigilantes track a killer through his own videos — a sharp, queasy look at obsession from the other side of the screen.
But Deliberately upsetting animal cruelty content in early episodes is a hard watch for some.
American Murder: The Family Next Door2020
Built entirely from texts, home video and police footage, it turns domestic horror into something eerily intimate without a single talking head.
But No narration or interviews means it's emotionally relentless with nowhere to look away.
Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist2018
A pizza delivery, a bomb collar, and a plot so baroque it makes the Cecil Hotel look tame — pure jaw-drop true crime.
But The twists keep multiplying past the point of plausibility, which some find exhausting rather than fun.
Abducted in Plain Sight2017
A genuinely unbelievable family case told with a straight face — you'll gasp audibly at least three times.
But The family's decisions are so baffling it can tip from tragic into unintentionally comic.
The Shining1980
Same premise as the Cecil Hotel season — architecture as a repository of evil — just told as myth instead of reportage.
Kubrick's haunted hotel is fiction, but it runs on the exact same fuel as the Cecil Hotel episode: a building that seems to absorb and replay violence.
But It's a horror film, not a documentary — pure atmosphere and dread, no real case to solve.
American Vandal2017
It's the genre looking at itself in the mirror; once you've seen its parody, you'll never watch Crime Scene's earnest conventions the same way again.
A pitch-perfect mockumentary that apes every true-crime trope — the ominous score, the earnest narrator, the slow-motion evidence shots — to hilarious, oddly moving effect.
But It's comedy about vandalism and teenagers, not real crime, so the stakes are deliberately, satisfyingly low.
People
Writing
- Joe BerlingerCreator