To think it’s weird how murder is just normal telly entertainment?

The detectives are actually really shit too, there are usually at least a few murders per episode before they catch the killer 😂

Isn't (fictional) Midsummer considered the most dangerous place to live in England and where you are most likely to be murdered?

The amount of murders are ridiculous. In real life no one would live there and house prices would plummet.

It never seems to occur to most of these places that they have an awful lot of murders.

There’s a series by Lilian Jackson Braun set in & around a remote small town in the US, where they pride themselves on their lack of crime compared to the big cities & nobody ever says ‘But look at all these murders that happening.’

Edited to add that the Amelia Peabody books are an exception. One of the characters greets the regular murders with the complaint ‘Another dead body…’

Isn't (fictional) Midsummer considered the most dangerous place to live in England and where you are most likely to be murdered?
There's a real town called Midsummer Norton. A few years ago I was on a coach trip to the seaside. The coach next to ours was from there. When their driver opened the luggage door I was very disappointed a dead body didn't roll out 😂

With the true crime podcasts, I think it's the psychology and behaviour that is so fascinating.

True crime can be good if done sensitively but a lot is fodder which is pretty insulting for the victims & their families.

It is weird. I quite like a bit of Midsummer murders or Murder she wrote but some of the dramas are very gratuitous which is disturbing.

I like a detective drama or murder mystery film but I do find true-crime ‘entertainment’ grizzly and ghoulish and never watch it.

I think this is why I found 77 minutes so disturbing, families in McDonald's massacred and the ones who survived had to play dead for over an hour before police shot him. Terrifying

I absolutely hated the first episode because of the relentless shootings. I couldn’t work out whether it was meant to be funny, I just found it appalling.

If only they did - a lot of innocent people would not have been jailed for decades.

people like to feel emotion from entertainment. Whether that be laughing, shock, nervous etc. I think we are sometimes entertained also by what we don’t meet day to day. And I’d hope murder falls into that category.

I find it interesting how the police start to find evidence at a crime scene and then work to trace those responsible

It gives us an inside look at their job

I've always read lots of detective fiction so naturally I enjoy tv versions too. But more recently realise I prefer true crime. Detective stories usually end neatly with perpetrators dead or punished and at least one deserving soul saved from their potential fate. Really versions of fairy tales.

But I find real life more interesting these days - the motives of the killer, the way forensics build up a picture of what happened and how it was done. I especially like it where there's ambiguity - e.g unsure who did it or, if they did, whether they had 'good' reasons to do so. I suppose the killing aspect equally appalls and fascinates me and also the psychological aspects driving the murderer. Detective stories are unrealistic as often any character could be a murderer, which I don't believe is true of the average person in real life.

People used to go and watch gladiators fight lions and be torn to death.

No, this is how we process dark and terrible things that can happen. It's also a way that humans explore morality and social convention in a safe way.

Oh I love all the true crime stuff. It’s how I get myself to drift off to sleep, stick a good true crime show on with a grisly murder and reeeeelax.

I cannot watch horror TV or film - even thrillers are hit and miss, I find them scary, exhausting, not enjoyable at all.

But I listen to true crime podcasts to relax. Always have one on if I'm doing chores.

It makes no sense!

This.
I just don’t get it.

I have no desire to watch any of it.

I watch a lot of true crime, and actually I think it’s more for the solving the puzzle aspect, and the police procedure which I find fascinating.

I don’t like gory horror movies or unsolved mysteries. Maybe it is a comfort knowing there’s a resolution and punishment for the criminal.

Like others have pointed out, historically it was very popular to watch hangings etc. so it isn’t a new phenomenon, but because of media saturation it seems like it’s everywhere.

@CantDecorateWontDecorate

In many murder dramas the victim is known to the killer too. Random murders are the most terrifying to us because theoretically we could all become victims, so stories where there is a clear relationship and motivation are comforting in a way.

And as you say, it also reassures viewers if they can see the victim making a ‘mistake’ - a young woman choosing to reject the offer of a lift from a friend and going off into the night etc. We think ‘I’d never do that!’ And again, it’s strangely comforting.

The most shocking killings from a TV point of view would be random ones in which the victim was just going about their life as most people would - say, a drive-by shooting or a terrorist attack, but this is extremely unusual from what I can remember.

I remember reading a comment on a thread similar to this a while ago, it was something along the lines of 'we like to watch these things as it helps us to feel like it definitely wouldn't happen to us '.
The sexy young woman, who must weigh about 100lb wet through declines a lift from friends so she can walk home at 3am - she 'needs some air'. Instantly I know that scenario would never happen to me, I weigh about 250lb and am lazy enough to always appreciate a lift😂
The suburban couple that get murdered in their beds, they never locked the door in their safe community and had always slept in a ground floor bedroom with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery in the top drawer. Everyone in town knew this, they also knew the couple's exact daily routine as it hadn't changed in 40+ years. Again, this is something I know won't happen to me as I live in a mid terraced property with the door always locked and sadly no jewellery worth stealing!
I think part of the allure of this kind of program is the 'training' it gives us, it almost makes you feel like you would have a chance if this happened to you because you know what someone else did and you have the opportunity to do it differently.

Slightly different but when I was growing up in the 80s/90s there was a magazine series about murderers, the Moors Murderers, Denis Nilsen etc that followed their crimes, investigation etc. It was one of those collect the whole set type things. I know this because my mum bought them and, aged 12/13 I read them avidly. I think there’s a morbid curiosity about the darker side of life that draws people in, with an associated need to see people get caught and punished.

I wonder if anyone’s done an analysis of the victim types in these dramas. What % are women? What % are sexy young women?

We enjoy murder mysteries.whodunnits.true crime not so much really. Moors Murders was on this week. I was a child then and not allowed at the fair .never realised why until older.i think it's hard for the families.Midsummer murders and poirot I love .just whodunit we can all be a Armchair detective.just thought Cluedo is a Children's game!