What's the Point of True Crime?

We can't just keep living like this.

On June 8th, Peacock released the original series Based on a True Story. I had intended to check out an episode or two to see if I liked the beat, but I ended up binging it all in one sitting. As you may assume, I enjoyed it quite a bit! I would recommend it, and I would certainly watch a hypothetical season 2, but this isn’t a review. 

Let’s do a quick rewind to soon after I started this newsletter, when I had an idea to discuss true crime as a genre. It was right after I had watched The Girl From Plainville, at the time it felt as though so much of what was “trending” on streaming services was a large surplus of true crime biopics being produced. I drafted half of an issue up before abandoning it and saving it for later editing, which clearly never happened. In retrospect, I’m happy I didn’t pick it back up because while I had things to say I don’t think I would’ve been able to articulate them in a way that would feel right. I still don’t think I could ever make that issue, especially now that this topic has been discussed in thinkpieces time and time again within the past year especially. Nothing new or fresh can be brought to the table of discourse at this point… which is what brings me to Based on a True Story! BOATS for short.

Spoiler warning: I discuss plot elements from Based on a True Story season 1, which comes with some light spoilers. Also, just a general trigger warning: discussion of violence against women, suicide, true crime stuff, you know how it goes. You’ve been warned!

I’m framing many of my criticisms here on BOATS, but that is just because it is the property that got me thinking about this issue again, not because I find it to be falling uniquely short. As I’ve said I do quite like it, and it only has one quite short season, and I wouldn’t say this season was devoid of theme or takeaway. Several characters wanting to be involved in the narratives of true crime led to their downfalls. The Survivor episode featured a character who faked being a survivor of the West Side Ripper to gain notoriety within the community, even writing a book about it. When she got confronted about that by the actual West Side Ripper, she killed herself. For the record, that didn’t entirely sit right with me, but it doesn’t have to do with my current point, so I digress. The main characters created the podcast, and now are aiding in the murders and can’t back out of it now or else they, too, would suffer from legal consequences. Their lives and futures are at stake. It’s safe to say the takeaway would be that the obsession (in this case) with true crime, and particularly the degree in which people insert themselves into certain situations due to said obsession, is dangerous to destructive, life-altering degrees. That’s not a meaningless theme, and it’s the one most successfully conveyed. However, when you look at the plot as a whole, some of the details and characterizations it portrays, it becomes clear there’s a lot more it could’ve done or said.

In fairness, all media doesn’t have to be made with the intent to say something new. Media can be made just to be entertaining. Fun! An easy binge or a mindless blockbuster. Fair. However, when shows are meant to be exploring topical, pressing subjects such as true crime, the weight of the topic does inherently follow it, even if it isn’t actually based on a true story. These are crimes that very well reflect things that happen in real life. In the case of BOATS, the fact that the serial killer depicted in the show only targets women. Couldn’t the show have said something more about the inherent misogyny in the violence displayed on screen, rather than just showing us that on numerous occasions? To emphasize, I don’t believe Based on a True Story to be the greatest offender by any stretch. True crime is a subject that creators love tackling without actually diving beneath the surface. So often the commentary begins and ends with “true crime obsession bad,” and all I can say is… okay?… and now what? What about it? What do you have to say about it? And all too often, I don’t think they have answers to that. Perhaps BOATS has more vision in the bigger picture if it does get a season 2, as it clearly set up for.

I discussed this with a friend or two long before I started drafting this issue, and thinking everything regarding this topic is starting to feel a bit vapid is hardly a take only held by me. That’s part of why I drafted the issue I mentioned earlier. If I have nothing of substance to add to a conversation, what is the point? But I feel as though with the impact True Crime has on the entertainment industry seemingly unending, it’s time to start considering whether or not we’re having productive, necessary conversations with the media we’re consuming.

 Only Murders In The Building can’t be ignored while discussing true crimes’ impact on the media. It’s a bit of a sensation, and for a reason! A lot of the beats BOATS covered, OMITB also covered, though approached quite differently. OMITB takes great lengths in humanizing the victims, both seasons having entire episodes where you get to walk in the victim’s shoes, the characters at the center have personal relationships with them. BOATS almost takes more of a ghoulish, cynical approach, framing it in the killer’s perspective. Both discuss fandoms that arise in true crime communities, BOATS particularly has a fun sequence where it shows social media’s engagement with the main characters true crime podcast.

Ultimately, though, fictionalized accounts of the true crime cinematic universe can get away with being more focused on entertainment value than having an effective thesis, because, even if the events depicted on screen can have real world parallels, they are still fictional. What did Ryan Murphy’s Dahmer show have to say that the dozens of other Jeffrey Dahmer projects haven’t already? When it’s non-fiction there comes a line where people use true crime as a launching pad to exploit real life tragedies, particularly without consent from the real life people impacted by it, which is just insidious. I do still think it’s fair to criticize this in a vacuum as well, because true crime has been at such an insane output, with less of a concern on the impact it’s having on our cultural landscape.

(Pictured Above : Elle Fanning playing as Michelle Carter in The Girl From Plainville, Source : DailyBeast, YouTube, Hulu)

To give proper analysis and fully bake my thoughts, I probably would’ve had to rewatch (or first-time watch in most cases) a lot of the surplus of true crime biopic series they have put out recently. I just do not want to do that, like, at all. Regardless, I think I can safely say if some of these shows (and movies! But, in the words of Scream VI, we’re all about true crime limited series nowadays) were made with pure intentions, they certainly don’t translate. Dahmer is just the most blatantly insidious title out there with some of the discourse that surrounded it post release, but I remember watching The Girl From Plainville finale and thinking to myself, “what are we doing here?” The more and more content we get, the further and further away from any sort of purpose we get. It has essentially become a trend, and with trends, more content gets made to follow the trend, and the less purposeful they become, and the more exploitative it appears. There’s less care put behind so many of the releases nowadays, it’s just there to get the True Crime Clout. Serial killer biopics have been getting made for decades, but particularly in the streaming era, the trend and popularization of the content is very blatant and accessible. For the record, OMITB and more prominently BOATS do convey the damages of true crime becoming an exploitative trend. When all else fails, they do have an understanding of the relationship between consumers and true crime.

To discuss this topic, it’d be impossible not to discuss social media at length. The relationship is so direct. When you consider the True Crime trend and how it has grown in recent years… well, YouTube and TikTok are at the scene of the crime! Now, rather than harp on the obvious, TikTok beauty gurus casually discussing violent crimes against women while putting their make-up on, I think the more damning consequence of this is the fan-fictionization of real life cases. After consuming nothing but podcasts, shows, movies, TikTok posts, BuzzFeed Unsolved videos, for years on end… people have developed a Detective complex, and insert themselves into real world situations despite having no credentials at all. Is there good that can be done from that? Sure! Perhaps there could be a universe where they raise awareness for situations that actually need to be reevaluated. Social media is a place where voices that would otherwise be overlooked can be platformed. When you compare the treatment of Amber Heard on Twitter from just 2021 to 2023, you can see how impactful the platform can truly be used in spreading actual helpful information. But there’s a dark side as well. Ironically, in the Amber Heard case itself as well, specifically on TikTok. People evaluating every word she said, comparing her situation to Gone Girl, body language experts, etc. etc. etc. People practically make up evidence out of thin air to spread conspiracies, then treat their conspiracy theories as factual proven information because they “consume a lot of true crime,” and needless to say, that does… damage! There’s no nuance because they all developed a conspiracy mindset derived from the media they had been fed for years. Search up any name of a public figure who has ever spoken out against abuse on YouTube, and there will be an incel channel analyzing every word they’ve ever said in an attempt to discredit them. I won’t say it all traces back to the true crime culture, but I don’t think it’s disconnected. I’m also not the first person to bring that up, nor am I the first person to bring anything regarding this topic up, but it’s worth discussing further. Full disclosure, nothing I said was better articulated than described by Princess Weekes here.

Quite ironically, given my earlier criticisms, I don’t have a closing line of thought. I was admittedly scattered here. I half explored a lot of topics, but couldn’t quite condense my thoughts to just one, or anything altogether poignant. I suppose I just threw my thoughts out there, rather than create any new discourse. I don’t think eradicating the true crime genre is the answer, nor would that ever be possible. There is genuinely so much material there for actual important narratives to be portrayed. It is so topical with endless angles to approach, especially in the TikTok Beauty Gugu True Crime Content Creator generation. Which begs the question… why aren’t we, as a society, doing or even expecting more with the material we have been getting? I don’t have an answer for you, but I will sure be more critical of the media I consume going forward, because I do believe it to have an impact on our collective psyche and culture as a whole.

… alright! Stream Based on a True Story on Peacock now, all that being said I do want a season 2.