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

[SnugShaker]

It hit me the other day, most of the shows we casually binge are about murder. True crime, detective dramas, serial killer documentaries… it’s everywhere. We’d find it unsettling if someone obsessed over real-life murders in conversation but when it’s on Netflix or ITV, it’s just normal evening viewing.

I get that it’s interesting but isn’t it a bit strange how desensitised we are to watching stories about people being killed for entertainment?

One of the earliest mass-market magazines from the Victorian era was one called something like "Police Gazette Weekly".
It was very popular apparently.

I'm guessing its because murder is a primal fear, we all have it. Watching programmes about killers being found and caught helps us to face that fear, and gives us some form of resolution and control over it?

Is it about escapism maybe?
Hopefully, for most of us murder will never feature in our lives, either as a victim or perpetrator hence the fascination.

I agree, I remember Julie Burchill saying years ago that you’d never get a programme called ‘Rape, She Wrote’….which made me think..

Having said that, I have been known to happily settle down on a winter’s evening with a Midsomer or a Miss Marple!

It's part of the reason I don't watch much TV these days. It's a standing joke in our house that at 9 o'clock the announcer will always say "the following programme contains scenes of murder, rape, violence, etc, etc, etc".
How is that entertainment?

That’s a really interesting way of putting it - kind of like a safe way to face the fear. I guess that makes sense with detective drama where the bad guy is caught and there’s resolution. But it still feels a bit odd that the thing giving us comfort is basically endless stories of people being murdered. Almost like we’ve normalised death as a form of relaxation.

Absolutely agree, it’s very weird

True, I can see the escapism side, like dipping into a world most of us will never (hopefully) be part of. But I still find it strange that the chosen ‘escape’ for so many people is stories of killing. Out of all the things to relax with, it’s murder that dominates prime-time TV and streaming.

I do have a bit of a thing for watching true crime documentaries. Maybe some sort of morbid fascination? I don't really know what that says about me but I know I'm certainly far from being the only one.

I actually watched a doc called 77 minutes on Prime the other day and it went way too far in what it showed, I'm actually very surprised it was allowed to air.

Well there is Law & Order SVU which is mainly sex crimes.

Yes, exactly! That’s what hit me - the fact that a causal evening’s entertainment so often starts with a warning about murder/violence and we don’t even blink. It says a lot about what we’ve normalised when those disclaimers have basically become background noise.

I think it is related to how and where we evolved as a species, on the plains, in the jungles, where predators were a constant threat, and interactions resulting in death, injury or simply fear were a regular but unpredictable occurrence. Our bodies are attuned to expect sudden threat, and then relative safety, then sudden threat again, and I think this is behind a lot of what we look for in our entertainment. It satisfies something fundemental in what our make up is designed to cope with

The fascination (? entertainment) element though is not the murder itself IYKWIM, but rather the back story of what led up to this, then what happened next.

I think there are different types of murder shows that it almost doesn’t make sense to lump them all together.

Ludwig for example, or a nice Agatha Christie, are completely different to a really graphic murder drama even though they all boil down to “person investigates murder”.

Oddly though those weekly magazines like Take a Break which regularly feature stories of rape and sexual abuse (including ones featuring children) are still popular.
"Misery Memoir" books still seem to sell lots. Apparently there's a lot of disappointment from fans of Cathy Glass because she isn't going to write any more books. Presumably she's run out of foster children to write about.
It is all a bit odd.

Having just finished The Assassin, totally agree. Gratuitously violent.

Yes it’s weird, my mother used to love watching anything with a murder storyline, I hated it, even if it’s made up it gives me the creeps.

I sometimes wish I was a kid again, as children’s literature is so much more enjoyable than adult fiction.

That is true, I just never really watch the American ones, a bit too realistic for me.

I think that’s the thing, loads of people admit to being fascinated by true crime, so it’s clearly tapping into something very human. But like you say, sometimes it does cross a line. The fact we’re surprised something wasn’t censored shows how far the boundaries have been pushed in what’s considered normal viewing.

I agree that, when you put it like that, it's horrible.

But...sorry - putting my ex-English teacher hat on, the detective story is a descendant of the 'quest' genre that was popular in medieval romance. A knight is given a challenge and follows a series of trails, answers questions, seeks out places and people, goes through ordeals etc to find the truth, or to find a precious object such as the Holy Grail.

I know this sounds a bit irrelevant to 21st century telly but it's not. Humans have the same basic needs and interests that they did a thousand years ago and they enjoy mystery and intrigue, the battle between good and evil and most of all, which most detective or murder mysteries supply: a satisfyingly just ending where bad people are punished.

The murder is just there to create high stakes. We wouldn't bother watching if it was just that someone had scratched your car or pinched a purse. The heightened emotions involved create drama which many people enjoy. But it's important that things are seen to be set right at the end. Few writers have dared to break this convention - one of whom, I suppose, is Patricia Highsmith, where her anti-hero (such as Ripley) sometimes gets away with it.

No but I watch a lot of true crime and often victims have also been raped and,or sexually assaulted as well.

I think it's the exploration of human nature. We are all armchair psychologists. Some of the stories are about the cruellest, most calculating people. We're fascinated by cults. Some are about ordinary people whose moral compass has been thrown out the window. We love to see how people evade capture.

What I really, really don't like is how many of the victims are lovely young women. The lingering shots of brutalised, slim female bodies. The exploration of their behaviour and how it gets judged. I stopped watching those after The Fall.

People would queue up and fight each other for the best seats if we bought back public executions. You'd have firms offering a VIP experience. Confectionery manufacturers would issue collectable sticker albums.

I love reading detective fiction, and watching detective programmes like Shetland and Unforgotten, and some real crime programmes. I have to have a conclusion, a resolution to the murder or crime. I am fascinated by the detail of forensics and investigations and how crimes are solved.
In fiction, I prefer more character led storylines, where the intricacies of people's lives are unravelled and motives are exposed. I don't like books or programmes that focus on gratuitous details of the violence or psychopathic serial killers.
I think its human nature to toy with ideas of things that scare or unsettle us. But for me, I need the resolution and tying up of loose ends and the culprit caught.