Category: Shows

Show: Deadly Wives

Marriages turn deadly in this show about killer wives

About Deadly Wives

At first, Deadly Wives might come across as just another murder show about women who kill, but its draw is the sarcastic narration actress Christine Estabrook, who delivers the writing with disbelief and an almost audible rolling of her eyes. She comments on trial testimony with asides like “Wait, you’re gonna love this one.”

This short-lived true crime show has episodes with one to two stories each that scrutinize the lies, alibis, and excuses of wives involved in killing their husbands. The police interview these deadly wives, and prosecutors cross-examine the ones brazen enough to take the witness stand.

The show provides a lighter take on intimate partner homicide and trades suspense and cliffhangers for barbs that might shock some viewers and delight others.

True crime shows

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2013-2014)

Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Deadly Wives: Snapped, Deadly Women, Bizarre Murders, Wives with Knives, Meet, Marry, Murder

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✓ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Murder She Solved

Watch out Angela Lansbury, these real-life women are on the case

About Murder She Solved

Some true crime shows focus on the victim, murderer, or their relationship and the psychology behind it. Murder She Solved: True Crime is a meat-and-potatoes show squarely emphasizing investigations involving female detectives, pathologists, and others like private investigators, forensic scientists, criminal profilers, and even the wife of a wrongfully convicted man. They share their experiences solving homicides in the United States and Canada.

Murder She Solved rejects fancy prose and cliffhangers and gets right down to business with the details of investigative techniques for each case, from forensics to undercover operations. Hit men, friends, spouses, and strangers kill, and female detectives solve the case.

True crime shows

The Show Elements

Seasons: 3 (2010-2013)

Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, True Crime Network, Roku Channel

More shows like Murder She Solved: Homicide Hunter, The Killer Closer

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✓ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts

Show: Dateline NBC

A true crime classic for junkies and newbies alike

About Dateline

Dateline is the type of show that, back in the days of channel-surfing, would suck you in because you just had to know who the murderer was.

This long-running NBC show focuses mostly on murders (and murders of romantic partners), with other investigative pieces thrown in here and there. Dateline previously included other series like To Catch a Predator, but now concentrates on true crime.

Although it can sometimes be predictable, the show pulls the audience into the investigation through correspondents’ interviews with witnesses and suspects, leading the viewers through the case to the end of the trial in a more intimate way than most shows. Not to mention Keith Morrison‘s chilling, yet compelling, narrations.

Dateline’s storytelling, and the correspondents’ empathy for victims’ families and friends, makes it a standout. Morrison, Andrea Canning, Dennis Murphy, and Josh Mankiewicz often interview suspects before or after their conviction—a rarity in the genre—and their hard-nosed questioning is a highlight. When there is a trial, the show gives it ample attention, often with trial clips. Recommended.

True crime shows

The Show Elements

Seasons: 33 (1992-)

Where to stream: Peacock, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Dateline: 20/20, 48 Hours, Dateline: The Last Day

✓ Police interviews
✓ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✘ Re-creations
✘ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

See also this list of true crime shows

Latest Posts

Show: Meet, Marry, Murder

The name says it all: two people meet and marry each other, then one of them murders the other

About Meet, Marry, Murder

Meet, Marry, Murder features disturbing homicide cases committed by one spouse against the other, often in relationships involving domestic abuse or coercive control. Episodes concentrate on couples from the US and UK and rely on detectives recounting their investigations, along with outside experts like psychologists, former detectives, journalists, criminologists, attorneys, and domestic abuse specialists, who succeed at emphasizing the seriousness of the situation and the dangers of domestic abuse. They not only detail the story, but also the psychology behind the murder, suspect, victim, and their relationship.

Some of the cases also appear on Dateline and other true crime shows, with different details (such as the Hall, Novak, McDowell, and Cochran cases). A standout is the dual coverage of the Kathy Augustine murder by her husband Chaz Higgs in one episode and the murder-suicide involving Dallas Augustine (her daughter) and her wife in another.

Will Hanrahan narrates the original series, and an abridged version appears on Tubi as an “original,” but it is really a repackaged version of the first series. It consists of some of the American cases from the first series and is hosted by Michelle Trachtenberg, with new titles and narration. Trachtenberg’s narration attempts at salaciousness, but comes across as slow and forced, and she fails to match Hanrahan’s ease of narration and fluid style.

Helen Hunt hosts a new series on Lifetime with the same name, with actual new cases this time, also produced by Hanrahan.

True crime shows

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2020-)

Where to stream: Tubi, True Crime Network, Roku Channel, Peacock

More shows like Meet, Marry Murder: Snapped, Dateline, Deadly Wives, Deadly Women, Wives with Knives, Fatal Vows

See also this list of true crime shows

✓ Police interviews
✘ Trial clips
✓ Narration
✓ Re-creations
✓ Experts
✓ Victims’ families and friends

Latest Posts