The best true crime documentaries to watch now

James Lewis in Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders

(Image credit: Netflix / Everett Collection Inc / Alamy)

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.

A Toxic Love Story

This “gut-churner” of a show is packed with “jaw-dropping moments”, said John Serba in Decider. After a “meet-cute at a Starbucks”, Angela moves in with Ian and becomes pregnant with twins. But their lives are “shattered” when she starts receiving “bizarre emails” threatening “violence and death with a righteous biblical tone”. It soon transpires that Ian’s ex, Michelle, is responsible and she’s arrested. “Case closed!” Except things aren’t quite as they seem: the “wild and twisty saga” includes “multiple levels of deception and subterfuge”. Director Alexandra Lacey allows the disturbing revelations to “play out in a manner that’s more logical than scheming”, retaining some “journalistic credibility” in a media landscape filled with sensationalist “true-crime garbage”. In fact, the “questions simmering in the subtext” reveal that this documentary has “more on its mind than just dropping shocking twists”.
Netflix

Oscar-nominated Chilean director Maite Alberdi weaves together a “gripping” real-life story in this “slippery” docudrama, said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times. The film’s subject is Eleonor Alejandra (“Ale”) Marín Mendoza – a Mexican woman who, after three miscarriages, fakes a pregnancy and makes a deal with a single mother, Mayra, to take her unwanted baby when she gives birth. “The plan worked until events took a surprise turn, at first farcical, then darker.” The first half features a series of “hyper-stylised” pastel-coloured re-enactments starring Ana Celeste as Ale. But then things “shift” and Alberdi moves things into a more “familiar” documentary format featuring testimonies with real people that “to varying degrees contradict what we have just seen”. In all, it’s a “fascinating” and strange film that you may find “highly entertaining despite your better judgement”.
Netflix

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This three-part docuseries follows a “beloved sociology teacher”, Alex Campbell, as he puts his high-school students to work investigating a series of unsolved crimes, said Aramide Tinubu in Variety. Based on the podcast of the same name, it’s an “intriguing and revelatory” show that sheds light on “how much power we hold as members of a collective society if we only become tenacious enough to ask the right questions”. Mr Campbell encourages his pupils to come up with “out-of-the-box ideas” and “home in on the misogyny” swirling around the cold cases. While you won’t end up getting all the answers, the “revelations” unearthed by this Tennessee class are “no less worthwhile”.
Amazon Prime

When pathologist Caroline Muirhead gets engaged to a Scottish farmer she meets on Tinder after a “whirlwind” romance, she sees her husband-to-be as a “sanctuary”, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. But things take a dramatic turn when she discovers his “dark” secret: three years earlier he hit and killed a cyclist with his car “then buried the body in a peat bog”. So begins Caroline’s terrifying double life as she secretly funnels information to the police about her fiancé’s crime – while continuing to live with him. “Recording pertinent conversations and putting herself in greater danger at every turn”, she is an “extraordinary” woman who deserved better than the “shocking” neglect and “stupidity” she faced at the hands of the police.
Netflix

This powerful Oscar-nominated documentary – which relies largely on mobile phone footage filmed by inmates – will “render you speechless with what it reveals about the cruelty so casually inflicted upon the state’s incarcerated citizens”, said Hunter Ingram in Variety. The six-year probe exposes the brutal and inhumane conditions behind bars at Alabama’s Easterling Correctional Facility; prisoners are “beaten, bloodied and even killed”. Viewers are asked to “muster empathy and understanding” for why even those convicted of the most monstrous crimes should still be treated within the law.
Apple TV

This “disturbing” three-part documentary tells the story of a man who tricked hundreds of women into using him as a sperm donor, said Neil Armstrong in The i Paper. All the women we meet live in the Netherlands, found Jonathan Jacob Meijer on a website and became pregnant with his child. Some were provided with a semen sample, while others “took up his generous offer to ‘conceive the natural way’”; “all were ecstatic” to have conceived. But it soon transpired Meijer had been a donor far more often than the five times he claimed. In fact, he had been using a “variety of aliases” to father as many children as he could. As well as betraying women’s trust, he had broken the law: sperm donors in the Netherlands aren’t allowed to father more than 25 children to “reduce the risk of unwitting half-siblings meeting and having children together”. The producers chose the “nice round figure of ‘1,000’ for the title” but the worrying truth is, “no one really knows” how many children he has.
Netflix

This “gripping” four-part show is a must-watch, said Andrea Park in Marie Claire. Blake Robbins comes across as an “obnoxious suburbanite cliché" in the opening scenes. But when the then-student is accused by his high school of selling drugs, based on images covertly captured in his home on his school-issued laptop, we begin to “empathise” with his story. The series soon unfurls into a fascinating examination of the surveillance state and digital privacy, complete with a “wild cast of characters”.
Amazon Prime

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 in 2024. 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 iPlayer

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

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

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

Irenie Forshaw is the features editor at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.