Searching for the best in Serialized Crime Storytelling
June 16, 2017 3:04 PM   Subscribe

I am studying the narrative structures and storytelling devices of crime stories that have been serialized. I am interested in both the scripted and non-fiction true crime variety. Can you help with some suggestions?

I know Serial, Making a Murder, The Wire, The Jinx, The Killing, The Fall, and the Top of the Lake. I want more. I am specifically interested in TV, but would also consider audio or print. I am especially interested in programs that managed multiple serialized storylines while maintaining mystery and building tension. Thank you!
posted by avrobie to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Earwolf's Stranglers podcast (about the Boston Strangler case)
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 3:12 PM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


There's The Staircase
The Atlanta Child Murders
The Thin Blue Line is considered pretty important for the use of recreations.
Broadchurch
Happy Valley
The Break
In The Dark is a podcast on the Jacob Wetterling Kidnapping & Murder which led to sex offender registries.
posted by brookeb at 4:25 PM on June 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Old time radio has crime serials galore! Listen or download for free at archive.org
posted by Calzephyr at 5:09 PM on June 16, 2017


Seconding The Staircase. Simply riveting.
posted by bookmammal at 5:15 PM on June 16, 2017


"The Keepers (wikipedia) is a 7-episode American documentary web series that was released on Netflix on May 19, 2017. The series explores the unsolved murder of the nun Sister Cathy Cesnik who taught English and drama at Baltimore's Archbishop Keough High School, and her former students' belief that there was a cover-up by authorities after Cesnik suspected that a priest at the school, A. Joseph Maskell, was guilty of sexual abuse."
posted by juliplease at 5:51 PM on June 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Bowraville, an Australian podcast is excellent.
posted by jojobobo at 7:09 PM on June 16, 2017


By "scripted," do you mean to include fiction? (which wouldn't be "true crime," but your examples include fiction shows. Also, plenty of non-fiction shows are scripted in that the narrator is reading a script...)

Fiction:
The Missing (on Amazon)
I thought it was a masterclass in the pacing of revelations.

Non-Fiction:
+1 for The Keepers (on Netflix)
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 7:22 PM on June 16, 2017


Season 4 of Justified, the one with Drew Thompson. That was an amazing season and it's all one big sprawling story.
posted by fshgrl at 8:38 PM on June 16, 2017


Best answer: American Crime (NOT the OJ miniseries, the 3 season tv show) tells multiple related crime stories over the course of a season and then never actually resolves them. It is left to the viewer to determine the truth of what happened and how much it matters.
posted by xyzzy at 8:43 PM on June 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


You might be interested in the iPad game Her Story.
posted by nicwolff at 10:58 PM on June 16, 2017




Seconding American Crime, that is an amazing show. I stayed up all night watching the first series and I never do that.
posted by fshgrl at 11:19 AM on June 17, 2017


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