[Editor’s note: This list was first published in May 2021 and has been updated multiple times since.] Is there any entertainment force more seemingly unstoppable than true crime? Humanity’s most dastardly deeds have fascinated audiences for centuries. And in the modern age, the streaming wars and social media are feeding, accelerating, and encouraging that fixation at an unprecedented scale and rate.
The result is an unending cycle of notorious crimes revisited via documentary that’s punctuated by real-time internet clips showing everything from minor fights in grocery stores to homicides carried out by police. As the world gets darker, many TV and movie lovers have turned their attention to this increasingly macabre subject matter to simultaneously distract themselves from the news and lean into the fraught reality of narratives considering real crimes. From podcasts and documentaries to prestige dramas and sitcoms lampooning the genre, true crime is everywhere.
Learning about its most frequented subject areas — corrupt police, biased justice systems, unreliable evidence, and the like — is a worthwhile endeavor that can help you better navigate our changing society. But sometimes, the genre seems so saturated that it’s hard to know where to start. To help you wade through the muck of the true-crime landscape, IndieWire writers are showing you the best of the best.
Looking through the various true crime movies and shows you can access now via Max, Hulu, Amazon Pri.
