to not understand the "entertainment value" of true crime

[Nimbostratus100]

I understand the enjoyment of murder mysteries, excitement, interesting characters, mystery aspect etc.

I dont understand the "enjoyment" of "true crime" where real people have suffered and died and been bereaved. The thread about Jonbenet for example, why are people enjoying "documentaries" and feeling they can speak authoritvly about the death a poor little girl, thousands of miles away about which they in reality know nothing, but feel like they can slag of members of her family anyway?

Ive just gone onto itv player to find something to while away a few hours, and find myself being offer a whole plethera of "true crime" stuff. No thanks, what on earth is fun or relaxing being a spectator to other people's grief, pain and misery?

I just dont understand what sort of person enjoys that. I hope you will enjoy it just as much if you are ever the subject of one of these dramas.

*killer. Can't type today.

I find it interesting as it's a bit like peering into somebody's mind to try and understand what motivates them to behave so abhorrently. Im naturally curious about humanity and its capacity for both good and evil.

I understand why people dont like it though.

You span off on a tangent after missing that point.

I am talking about film-making. How ‘sympathetic characters’ are created, which affect the way you view the protagonist.

People find it hard to stay engaged with a non-sympathetic character as the protagonist in a film, so the filmmakers do certain tricks in the way shots are set up, etc, so that the viewer is ‘on their side’, that way they keep watching.

I think it it a completely tasteless approach to make a dramatisation of a serial killer, with living victims and relatives, from this perspective.

The way, for example, The Advocate got around doing a piece on Fred and Rose West from the killers’ point of view, was to make the protagonist his advocate, the audience seeing events through her eyes, feeling sympathetic to her.

So this is what you enjoy, a bit of torture porn, based on real life crimes? 🫤

I know you’re talking about film making. I addressed that and talked about the ramifications.

‘I think…’

Your opinion. Which you’re entitled to.

I will no longer be engaging. Have a great day.

So this is what you enjoy, a bit of torture porn, based on real life crimes? 🫤

I hadn’t heard of that one. I’ll have a search for it.

Agree with this. For me, it’s more on how people got away with it, the length of time they were able to commit these crimes, the good and bad of the police handling the case and other circumstances behind many of them that helped and/or hinder getting justice for the victims.

I like the investigation part, seeing how the police find a perpetrator and prove their case. Not all programs are gory and violent (I enjoyed a 24hour in Police custody episode where a man was trying to claim he had been burgled but was in fact committing fraud)
Some cases can be used to highlight and encourage discussions on broader social issues.
Some documentaries are about miscarriages of justice or proving innocence (like "Long Shot" on Netflix).
I don't enjoy or watch gory, biased or speculative "documentaries".

Whether you engage further or not, you didn’t understand what I said and you made something completely different up, which you then disagreed with.

This is bad form to not retract or apologise for it.

It’s called ‘The Stranger Beside Me.’

I absolutely love it. Not the fact people have been killed or abused, I have great sympathy for them and their families. But am fascinated by how people react to and deal with crime. How the police investigate it. How forensic science has developed over time and what can be discovered using it. Real investigations are so much more more interesting than fictional versions which rely on hunches and coincidences - though love a good crime drama too.

I mainly find the methods of catching/gathering evidence on killers interesting - I also find documentaries/podcasts about taking down con artists and such just as good, but they're thinner on the ground.

Occasionally the thing about a case that stands out will be how it could've been prevented (stalking victim who has begged police for help beforehand) or a motive that's just bizarre (giving your neighbour heavy metal poisoning over noise/BBQ quibbles), but I'm here for the detective work!

I don't like the serial killer fanboys and fan girls, there is some truly distasteful Etsy merch out there for the likes of Manson, Ramirez etc.

Then there's the people who post the most outlandish theories thinking everyone is getting trafficked, or that there's no way someone could just get lost in a load of woodland and freeze when they're drunk and it's winter, there's no way people who have gone missing near deep flowing water could've drowned...I stay away from online discussions for the most part, bad for my blood pressure!

I love anything crime related. Dramas. Docudramas. Documentaries. I am especially fascinated by how real life crimes are solved - the forensics, the police procedures, the way some crimes are solved almost by accident. I have no interest in ongoing unsolved cases or theories/conspiracy theories, nasty gossip and conjecture.

It’s the psychological aspect for me. Wondering why someone ends up doing atrocious things and how we can stop it happening and how we as a society can spot signs in a person before they do something.

For me - and I'm not a true devotee, I just find myself watching them - it's the neatness of the ending. I only watch solved crime (and also inexplicably strange crimes/happenings, but those are different). The bad person gets caught and prosecuted and there's an ending. I don't like shows which feature open-ended cases; I like the feeling that justice is done.

I also think that, in a small way, it keeps the names of the victims alive.

I don’t like hearing grisly details of the crime but like others, I do find the police / detective work interesting.

It’s the tenacity behind it sometimes and the justice for victims. For instance, the story behind Unbelievable. It made me cry when finally two female officers believed a rape victim who had had her life ruined by firstly the rape, but secondly the police officers who didn’t believe her. The female officers believed her and the other victims and doggedly tracked down the perpetrator.

There are other podcasts where victims and family have been let down by the police and the podcast itself is the catalyst for resolution.

I agree that the flippant ‘don’t get murdered’ stuff is distasteful.

I'm currently addicted to Faking It:Tears of a Crime. It's about famous crimes and experts commenting on their body language etc. It's really interesting to see how the criminals basically gave themselves away in interviews etc. I don't like hearing the details of the crimes but it's satisfying to know that the criminals were not too clever for the police even though they thought they were

I'm always interested in why the perpetrator did it, what led up to the crime itself. Looking at their backstory and the impact it had, abuse, neglect, drug addiction. I've been watching the 'I am a killer' series on netflix and their childhoods are often horrific. One girl was raped several times by different men as a black 13 year old and although the rapes were reported nothing was done. Most had awful parents - alcoholics, drug addicts, in and out of prison - and many had been sexually abused as a child.

Psychology it fascinates us because we are trying to comprehend a threat to our survival. It's a normal part of the human psyche.

Psychologically even... 😂 long day!

I don't know about the particular one you mentioned. But I find things like the Netflix series I Am A Killer fascinating. I don't find it macarbe more morally and socially interesting to see inside the minds of people who have committed murder and hear their stories and weigh up the whole nature vs nurture when it comes to sociopathic behaviour. Some of the stories are awful and feel like society has really failed these people. Others just don't seem to grasp the moral code. But then you ask if that's a problem with their brain development is it really their fault? Fascinating stuff and cause of much debate in our house. But then my job involves behaviour change and my son is studying psychology so possibly we're an odd household in that regard.
I also like to see the inner workings of police investigations as they gather evidence.

I also think a number of podcasts are doing a great job of shining light on coercive control and violence against women and girls. It’s not glorifying it to talk about it.

@Nounoufgs I now turn off any serial milker type mystery especially if they linger on unclothes female corpses. Not for me.

I started watching Spiral recently - late to the party, but everyone said how good it was. The first episode had long lingering shots of a naked female body, with one of the detectives saying she had obviously been murdered because she was so beautiful. WTF. There is a lot of misogyny in crime dramas, with a definite preference for young, attractive female victimes, but that took the biscuit and I didn't watch any more of it.

I like true crime from the social history point of view, the same with disasters like Hillsborough, seeing how the politicians react & how history has been changed by things like the Hillsborough Independent Panel report.