The beginning of the fascination with mainstream true crime can be traced back to Serial, the 2014 podcast that aimed to shed light on the murder of a high school student at the alleged hands of an ex-boyfriend who was convicted without sufficient evidence. From there, everything exploded thanks to Netflix, which knew better than anyone else how to ride the wave. The following year, it released Making a Murderer, followed by milestones like Tiger King, Don’t F**k with Cats, or The Girl in the Picture. But of course: genres, as they evolve, somehow become devalued.
True crime
It’s not that we’ve run out of gruesome stories to tell, but it’s true that true crime no longer hooks us as it used to because, as viewers, we know them all. So much so that even in a closed series like Adolescencia there were people upset because there were no twists or even a proper trial. And, after all the streaming services started copying each other, it was time to give televised crime a new spin.
For example, Amazon Prime Video revolutionized the format with the fabulous Spanish program How to Catch a Monster, which was filmed in first person and whose events, far from having concluded at the start of the first episode, were happening at that very moment. It was a breath of fresh air that clearly demonstrated something very clear: we were no longer interested in vague crimes. Now, if we want to grab attention, we have to go for very unique things. For example, HBO made a documentary about a con artist who used the Monopoly from McDonald’s, and Netflix itself did the same with a looming disaster: the Woodstock festival of 1999.
It was a cheap documentary to make (basically made up of testimonies from people accompanied by archival material), and it was such an unexpected success that they quickly requested more short, direct true crimes… and, why not say it, a little tacky. Thus, a collection of films was born that this summer are making the most of, releasing one each week: Total Fiasco. And let me tell you that it has been a long time since I enjoyed watching a documentary of this genre so much.
The poop cruise!?
Throughout the summer, Netflix has been (and will be) releasing small snippets of between 45 minutes and just over an hour featuring local disasters so embarrassing that they deserve their own spotlight. For example, the case of that mayor from Toronto who was caught smoking crack on video (twice!), the music festival where several people died while the singer kept doing “Yeaahhh” with autotune, or the cruise where the toilets stopped working… And the rest you can imagine.
They last as long as they need to, without delving into the topic, just enough for you to leave with the information, but they are perfect for the summer period: direct, to the point, enough to be able to share it later with friends or to pass the time on a Saturday night enjoying the embarrassment of others. In the meantime, we have reports of the cult that was American Apparel, people who invaded Area 51 running like Naruto or a blimp that took off with a 6-year-old boy inside. True crime? Yes. Trashy? Of course. Grab your soda and your ice cream, because you can afford to enjoy this type of product for an hour a week in the summer.
That doesn’t mean that Netflix won’t release more classic true crimes (there’s a whole audience whose subscriptions depend exclusively on watching investigations and murders), but personally, I appreciate that they have opened a door to those stories from history that would normally barely fill a footnote but here have earned a little screen time. And if they want to extend it throughout the year, please, go ahead. We’re all ears.