I have always loved crime shows. As I show my age, Law & Order (the original) was my jam. It was even my ringtone for years…and now the theme song is running in my head. My love for crime shows leaned more toward the procedural side. I found myself watching true crime shows. Eventually, life got busier, and my interest waned.
When the pandemic started, I found myself watching more TV and revisiting those true crime shows. Now there are even more to choose from and in different formats. There are now docuseries, podcasts, reality shows, and a multitude of stories that have been adapted for TV. They have come a long way from the Betty Broderick story.
When I was looking for a new podcast to listen to, I was astonished by the number of those that centered around true crime. This begged me to ask why we are so obsessed with true crime and if is there anything wrong with that.
I don’t know that there is. I am just asking the question.
I mentioned that my TV habits changed during the pandemic, and this included watching a few true crime stories. I remember having a “cringe” moment. This moment happened when I was reflecting on my uptick in TV watching that I had felt at that time was more than I had in all my life and noted that TV was serving a need for entertainment. Subsequently, that meant that all those true crime shows that centered around someone usually being murdered were entertainment. Cringe. That was not okay F OR ME.
This is not to say that I don’t watch them at all. However, it is rare that I do and I don’t seek them out. I am definitely more cognizant of the fact that those people telling the supportive stories and perspectives are not actors, but people that have been negatively affected by the death of their family or friend. I would never want my loved one’s story (if the situation were reversed) to be used as entertainment. However, it is not lost on me that those people providing supplemental information are doing it by choice.
Nevertheless, I just wonder if others watching these shows ever have these moments and if so, what do you do about them?