Tag: murder

Show: Fatal Attraction

Relationships turn deadly

Fatal Attraction
Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

About Fatal Attraction

No one imagines that their relationship could go so wrong that it ends in murder. In Fatal Attraction, that’s exactly what happens. This true crime show focuses on murders related to relationship ills like cheating, jealousy, unrequited love, and love triangles, situations where one of the people involved turns to murder.

The show emphasizes cases involving members of the African American community, and victims’ loved ones are joined by detectives, reporters, and legal analysts to tell the story of each case. This long-running show fills a gap in the true crime genre by covering many murders not documented on other shows.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 16 (2013-)

Where to stream: Peacock, Tubi

More shows like Fatal Attraction: Dateline, Killer Relationship, Fatal Affairs, Deadly Affairs, Deadly Affairs: Betrayed by Love, Meet, Marry, Murder, Vengeance: Killer Lovers, Sex, Lies & Murder

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders

The dark side of social media

Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

About Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders

Social media has its dark side, and Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders reveals its darkest parts, as influencers and others prominent on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube become the victims, or the perpetrators, of murder.

Involving killers ranging from obsessed incels to jealous husbands, the cases in this show illustrate how lives lived online can bring out the worst in people. The show sucks you in with plenty of photos and videos from social media pages, offering a glimpse into the victim’s or killer’s life and creating a personal connection to them, just as they strove to connect with their followers before the murder.

It’s no surprise in an era of increasing social media presence that murders related to influencers would become its own sub-genre. If you liked Web of Lies or The TikTok Star Murders, check out Deadly Influence.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 1 (2024-)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Deadly Influence: Web of Lies, The TikTok Star Murders, #killerpost, Murder on the Internet

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Fatal Affairs

Love triangles turn deadly

Fatal Affairs
Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

About Fatal Affairs

Someone in a couple is having an affair. Not unusual, but in these forbidden stories, three’s a crowd turns to murder.

Fatal Affairs focuses on the three people in a love triangle as the main players in homicides. The mystery in its episodes is not just who the killer is, but who the victim is. Often, jealousy is involved, as so often happens with affairs. Or maybe someone needs to get rid of an annoying problem the affair has created in their life, such as a surprise pregnancy or threats of their lover revealing the affair to their spouse. Inexplicably, these cheaters decide murder is the answer.

Fatal Affairs takes the-spouse-did-it stories to the next level, offering a more complex equation: Is the killer the spouse, the girlfriend or boyfriend, or the person being cheated on? The answer depends on the tangled story of each case, and episodes unravel each murder, incorporating commentary by psychologists on the motivations behind the affairs and murders. If you like stories of love gone wrong, check out the show.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 1 (2024-)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Fatal Affairs: Dateline, Killer Relationship, Deadly Affairs, Deadly Affairs: Betrayed by Love, Meet, Marry, Murder, Vengeance: Killer Lovers, Sex, Lies & Murder

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death

First-person stories from murder victims’ loved ones and others

Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death
Photo by Mitja Juraja on Pexels.com

About Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death

Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death highlights the impact of a murder on the lives of three or four people involved in a case, including victims’ loved ones, detectives, and sometimes a family member or friend of the killer.

Part of the Evil Lives Here franchise, the show differs from the original Evil Lives Here and its cousin Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks by spotlighting the stories of victims’ friends and family members and only sometimes including the voice of someone who lived with a killer, as in the other two shows.

The series is more like a conventional true crime show due to its heavier emphasis on the investigation and story of the murder itself, rather than the hints of evil in the killer or the events that led up to the homicide, like Evil Lives Here. The storytelling style is similar to Evil Lives Here but not in its focus on the perpetrator of the crime.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 5 (2020-)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death: Evil Lives Here, Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Shadow of Doubt

Doubt clouds these murder cases

Shadow of Doubt
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

About Shadow of Doubt

Shadow of Doubt looks at homicide cases where there is some kind of doubt or question about a suspect, conviction, or other part of a murder investigation, such as cases involving false confessions, questions about the true shooter in a murder involving multiple perpetrators, and whether a person’s death was actually a suicide.

Episodes include detectives and victims’ friends and families, who discuss the case and its investigation, as well as re-creations, like in many other true crime shows. The difference with Shadow of Doubt is the inclusion of one of the suspects in most episodes, who casts doubt on their role in the murder, sometimes with little believability. Episodes don’t reveal the suspect’s role in the murder until the end.

It’s an intriguing premise, but doesn’t really make the show unique from others.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2016-2018)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Shadow of Doubt: Did He Do It?

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Murder Among Friends

Friends become frenemies, with deadly consequences

Murder Among Friends
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

About Murder Among Friends

Sometimes friends aren’t friends at all and the last person to discover this sad fact is the victim of a murder. So is the premise of Murder Among Friends, which introduces viewers to a group of friends involved in the homicide of one of their own.

The motives for these murders range from jealousy, to revenge, to evil desires, and the show emphasizes salacious and creepy stories, such as those involving sex, cults, or vampirism. Episodes mostly focus on friend groups in their teens and twenties, those more likely to fall prey to groupthink.

Complete with narration, police interviews, the testimony of victims’ loved ones, and re-creations, the show is pretty standard fare for the true crime genre, with the only unique aspect being its focus on murders that happened in friend groups. If frenemies are what you’re looking for, check out Murder Among Friends.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2016-2018)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Murder Among Friends: Mean Girl Murders, Frenemies: Loyalty Turned Lethal, I Killed My BFF

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Forensic Files

Forensic investigations take center stage in murder and other cases

Forensic Files
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

About Forensic Files

A classic in the true crime genre, Forensic Files focuses on forensic investigations in crimes like homicide, sexual assault, bombings, and non-criminal deaths and medical mysteries. The show premiered in 1996, during a time when various forensic techniques emerged, particularly the explosion of DNA testing. The show is so classic that it was brought back as Forensic Files II in 2020.

Featuring shorter episodes (about 22 minutes each), Forensic Files describes specific cases using techniques like fingerprinting, DNA testing, bite mark analysis, soil testing, forensic botany, forensic acoustics, handwriting analysis, facial reconstruction, and many more. One of the show’s strengths is how it brings on forensic specialists who explain these techniques and the processes involved. They are joined by detectives investigating the crimes, and victim’s loved ones.

One notable episode (Season 11, Episode 22) features the murder of Kathleen Peterson (before the documentary The Staircase) and includes an interview with since-disgraced blood stain analyst Duane Deaver.

Warning: Crime scene photos in the show are sometimes graphic and unblurred.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 14 (1996-2011)

Where to stream: Tubi, The Roku Channel, Peacock, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Forensic Files: Forensic Files II, The New Detectives, Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science, Forensic Investigators, Forensic Justice, Forensics, Forensics NZ, Solved: Extreme Forensics

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Lethally Blonde

Murders related to the adult entertainment industry

Lethally Blonde
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

About Lethally Blonde

Lethally Blonde looks like a show about cases involving blonde murderers, but in actuality, not all of the killers in its episodes are blonde, and not all of the episodes focus on the murderer. All of the cases, however, feature victims or killers who worked in the adult entertainment industry, from pornography and Only Fans, to exotic dancing and bikini modeling, work that influenced the eventual murders that occurred.

Perhaps executive producer Holly Madison (former Playboy model and producer of The Playboy Murders) wanted to follow up that show with even more salacious stories of sex and murder. Hence the title. But if you’re looking for a show that fits the literal meaning of the title and features only killer blondes, you’ll be disappointed. Some are killers, and some are victims. Some are blonde, some aren’t.

Madison provides commentary, as in The Playboy Murders, and detectives and victim’s loved ones recount the stories of the murders, investigations, and the careers that led to the crimes.

If you’re a fan of Sex, Lies & Murder and The Playboy Murders, check out Lethally Blonde.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 1 (2024-)

Where to stream: Discovery+, Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Lethally Blonde: The Playboy Murders, Sex, Lies & Murder, Sex & Murder

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Show: Cruise Ship Killers

Murders and unsolved deaths aboard cruise ships

Cruise Ship Killers
Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

About Cruise Ship Killers

You might ask yourself, Are there really enough murders at sea for an entire true crime show? Believe it or not, there is more than one series in this niche. Cruise Ship Killers focuses on murders and other deaths that occurred on pleasure cruises or at their ports of call. Some of the deaths are suicides, some are unsolved disappearances, and some are actual homicides complicated by the fact that they occurred at sea, with investigations impacted by the complex legalities of a jurisdiction based on maritime law or the absence of a body.

Presented in a linear fashion, each episode follows the story from the reasons the victim went on the cruise, to their death or disappearance, to the investigation and trial, fictionalizing the stories to protect those involved and including pseudonyms for most episodes.

Cruise Ship Killers is a bit slow-paced, with languid narration, re-creations, and commentary from a stock group of experts, including crime writer J.H. Moncrieff, retired detective Damian Turner, and former medical examiner investigator Kim Witt. Some episodes include stories from the victims’ friends and family (Season 1 only), but with less focus on them than other shows, and only a few episodes include the investigators involved. The show is reminiscent of the relaxed style of Heartland Homicide.

The Show Elements

Seasons: 2 (2020-2022)

Where to stream: Tubi, Peacock, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video

More shows like Cruise Ship Killers: Deadly Waters with Captain Lee, Dark Waters: Murder in the Deep, Dark Waters of Crime

See also this list of true crime shows

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

Latest Posts

Documentary: TikTok Star Murders

A heartbreaking story of murder, told through social media

They’re everywhere on social media. Those videos of the perfect vacation, perfect family, perfect marriage. But reality hides behind the perfection, sometimes a dark reality covered up by posed photos and curated videos. Peacock’s new documentary TikTok Star Murders illustrates the imperfections hidden by viral social media videos and how a life can turn to darkness.

The documentary tells the story of the murder of Ana Abulaban by her husband Ali, as well as Ali’s murder of Ana’s friend Rayburn Barron. It documents Ali’s rise to fame on TikTok, the breakdown of his and Ana’s marriage—one filled with physical and emotional abuse and coercive control—culminating in the murders of Ana and Ray.

The film presents an intimate look at the shocking case and Ali and Ana’s troubled relationship, shown through many TikTok videos and photos from both Ali and Ana. To tell the story, Ana and Ali’s friends and family members are joined by reporters, investigators, attorneys, and a psychologist describing what happens in an abusive relationship and why it is so difficult for many victims to leave, and leave safely. Along with TikTok videos, the documentary includes video and audio recordings Ali made as the relationship broke down, the abuse Ana suffered, and even Ali’s audio of the murder itself, as well as interview excerpts with him in jail and clips from his trial.

It’s a horrifying depiction of domestic abuse, the fantasy of social media, the masks people wear, and how the pursuit of fame can drive a person’s life.