Our true crime obsession is here to stay. From puzzling cold cases to thrilling heists, there are countless real-life investigations to dive into. Whether you like being kept on your toes by shocking twists or just enjoy playing armchair detective, these are some of the best true crime documentaries to add to your watchlist.
The Black Swan
The “heart-stopping” Danish case of a “mob lawyer turned whistleblower” is crammed with dramatic revelations, said Hannah J. Davies in The Guardian. It’s little wonder the four-part series “absolutely rocked Denmark” on its release last year. The documentary follows the lawyer Amira Smajic – a “once in a lifetime” source for journalists who spent decades representing dangerous criminal gangs. Now, she is exposing their illegal activities with hidden mics and camera, as part of a “nail-biting exposé” for the state-owned broadcaster TV 2. “More dramatic than Scandi-noir”, the series lays bare not just Denmark’s dark criminal underworld but also the “seemingly respectable businesspeople” propping it up. The show triggered a “string of police investigations” when it first aired, along with a tightening of laws around money laundering and fraud. It’s a must-watch.
BBC i Player
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
“Perhaps the most chilling of all true-crime documentaries”, this is the first instalment of what would become a trilogy on the West Memphis Three case, said Ben Kenigsberg in The New York Times. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s film examines the 1993 case of Arkansas teenagers who were charged with murdering three eight-year-old boys as part of a satanic ritual. The fact that they were later freed, and that the case remains unsolved, “only magnifies the tragedy”. Part of what makes the film so compelling is that it doesn’t just focus on the legal proceedings; “it’s a portrait of how grief and anger convulse all sides”.
Sky
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The Perfect Neighbour
This “compelling” documentary examines the “tragic murder of a young mother” in Florida, said Kevin Maher in The Times. Ajike Owens was fatally shot by her “erratic and unstable” neighbour, Susan Lorincz, when she knocked on her door in 2023, following a lengthy feud over “noise nuisances”. Weaved together from police bodycam footage, Geeta Gandbhir’s film is “by turns enraging, incendiary, profoundly moving and unusually propulsive”. There are “inevitably ethical issues” about stitching “raw reality” into “structured ‘scenes’”, and I’m not entirely sure we have the “moral right” to watch Owens’ devastated children learning of her death. “Still, it’s an outstanding, provocative film that is bound to inspire debate. Watch it and discuss.” Netflix
Cocaine Quarterback
Amazon Prime’s three-part docuseries tells the wild tale of Owen Hanson, “a college footballer from California turned drug kingpin”, smuggling for one of the planet’s most dangerous cartels, said Hannah J. Davies in The Guardian. Leaning on “larger than life characters” and packed with “droll” reconstructions of “dishwashers loaded with cash rather than plates”, it feels, at times, “more mockumentary than documentary”. In all, it’s a show that is “more entertaining than it has any right to be” before it swerves back into a “cautionary tale” as we find out how Hanson eventually ended up in prison, while many of his friends made it to the NFL. The series has much less to do with the sport than its name suggests. “But as an entry point to a zany true crime tale, it really is a touchdown.”
Amazon Prime
The Yogurt Shop Murders
This sensitive docuseries delves into the “devastating” unsolved case of four girls who were “viciously murdered” at a yoghurt shop where two of them worked in Austin, Texas, said Radheyan Simonpillai in The Guardian. It’s as “intensive and emotionally gutting as the true crime genre gets”, shining a light on the “trauma suffered by the victims, their families and others orbiting too close to the tragedy”. The series also “regularly steps back”, delving into the pitfalls of the justice system and the “very nature of true crime storytelling”. By resisting the “voyeurism” the genre usually entails, director Margaret Brown has made a “layered and complex true crime masterpiece”.
Amazon Prime
The Push: Murder on the Cliff
Edinburgh's Arthur’s Seat takes on a “harrowing” role in this two-part documentary, said Gerard Gilbert in The i Paper. Back in 2021, Kashif Anwar pushed his pregnant wife to her death from a rocky outcrop at the beauty spot. He said she “slipped” but, as she lay dying, she was able to make a “last-gasp accusation” to a passer-by: “Don’t let my husband near me. He pushed me.” Unlike so many true crime shows, there’s nothing remotely “trashy” about “The Push”. Instead, interviews with family and courtroom scenes are carefully weaved together to sketch a picture of a “much-loved young woman who had made one bad decision”: marrying Anwar.
Channel 4
Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders
By the end of the first episode of this three-part docuseries, “you will be gripped”, said Michelle Curran in the Daily Mail. The show delves into the shocking events of 1982 when seven people in the Chicago metropolitan area died after taking pills of the over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide. During the series, we meet “prime suspect” James Lewis, who was convicted of extortion after sending Tylenol’s then owner Johnson & Johnson a ransom note demanding $1 million to prevent more deaths. Despite denying that he actually tampered with the tablets, it’s disturbing to watch him speak about his actions with “no remorse”. The series “will leave you with more questions than it answers” but that doesn’t stop it being an utterly “compelling” watch.
Netflix
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives
This “tantalising” four-part Netflix docuseries explores how a “rising star” in New York’s “raw-vegan food scene” was swindled out of $2 million by her con man lover, said Vanity Fair. Director Chris Smith (known for “Fyre: the Greatest Party that Never Happened”) turns Sarma Melngailis’ ordeal into an exhilarating show that involves “canine immortality, alleged brainwashing and – ironically – a Domino’s pizza order gone very wrong”.
Netflix
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