Television series
Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer
- Serial killer
- Biopic
- Very dark
A docuseries that reframes the Ted Bundy narrative through Elizabeth Kendall's eyes—the woman who loved him, lived with him, and didn't know what he was. It's intimate and unsettling, built from her archive and her voice after decades of silence. Essential viewing for anyone tired of killer-worship true crime that centers the perpetrator.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want a close look at how Bundy's charm and the gender politics of the 1970s shaped the story, told by someone who knew him intimately.
Skip it if you want a fast procession of case details and gore; this is a talky, five-part look at one relationship and its context, so the crimes sit at a distance.
What it asks of you: Five episodes of roughly 46 minutes, unhurried and conversational, with plenty of family photos and talking heads; it asks you to sit with hard testimony rather than be carried by suspense.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes2019
Joe Berlinger's four-part series uses Bundy's own recorded interviews to build a chilling portrait. It's the definitive Bundy document—methodical, authoritative, and genuinely disturbing without sensationalism.
But If you've already seen it, this feels redundant. The focus stays largely on Bundy himself rather than those around him.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst2015
Andrew Jarecki's six-part investigation into a real estate heir and suspected serial killer unfolds with genuine suspense. It captures that sick fascination with how wealth and eccentricity can mask monstrosity.
But It's slower-burn than typical true crime, and some viewers find Durst's rambling interviews tedious rather than revealing.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark2020
Michelle McNamara's obsessive true-crime book becomes an HBO miniseries that's as much about her as about the Golden State Killer. It's a meditation on obsession, justice, and the cost of seeking answers.
But The focus on McNamara's personal life frustrates viewers who want pure crime investigation. Also emotionally heavy throughout.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Oxygen2017
Both examine how well you can really know someone—or yourself. The film's protagonist discovers her identity through interrogation, just as Kendall discovers who Bundy really was through mounting evidence and denial.
A feature-length thriller about a woman waking in a cryo-sleep chamber with no memory of how she got there. It's a single-location pressure cooker that becomes a meditation on identity, complicity, and self-deception.
But It's claustrophobic and repetitive by design, which works thematically but can feel monotonous. Some find the ending philosophically frustrating rather than satisfying.
More like this (5)
The Keepers2017
This documentary about unsolved murders in Baltimore in the 1960s centers the women investigating them—a nun and a former student. Beautifully shot and genuinely mysterious.
But The investigation feels genuinely inconclusive, which some viewers find frustrating rather than intellectually honest.
Killer Ratings2019
A wild documentary about a Ukrainian TV host who stages a murder on live television as ratings stunt. It's absurdist, enraging, and genuinely original in how it interrogates media complicity and spectacle.
But The central act is so bizarre and ethically troubling that some viewers find it impossible to engage with seriously.
The Toys That Made Us2017
Completely different register—but the same intimate archival approach and the same willingness to let people speak about their relationships to obsession. Cozy nostalgia paired with real history.
But If you're not interested in toy culture, it's a total miss. Also much lighter in tone than what you're watching.
Killing Eve2018
Both reframe killer narratives through the people closest to them—but Killing Eve does it with audacious formal risk, asking us to root for the assassin while questioning why. It's the anti-Bundy documentary in that way.
This British thriller series inverts true crime entirely: we follow an MI6 agent tracking a psychopathic female assassin. It's darkly funny, stylish, and genuinely innovative in how it plays with viewer identification and sympathy.
But The show's tone is deliberately theatrical and sometimes flippant about violence, which can feel disrespectful to real trauma. Some viewers find it style-over-substance.
The Act2019
Like Kendall's story, it centers the perspective of someone in an abusive relationship with a manipulator, but The Act zooms out to examine how family systems enable dysfunction. It asks: what do we owe to truth when those we love lie to us?
This Hulu limited series dramatizes the true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother Dee Dee. It's a masterclass in abuse, complicity, and how victims can become perpetrators. Simultaneously grotesque and heartbreaking.
But It's a fictionalized dramatization with significant embellishment. Some find the campiness of the portrayal trivializes real suffering.
