What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to Amanda Knox first
Making a Murderer 2015
Documentary
Filmed over 10 years, this real-life thriller follows a DNA exoneree who, while exposing police corruption, becomes a suspect in a grisly new crime.
The sides of Making a Murderer
- A man freed by DNA after 18 years in prison
- A new murder charge two years later
- A nephew's confession and the trials that follow
Good for you if
- you want to weigh the evidence in the Steven Avery case yourself.
- you like seeing how a county police force and a court work up close.
- you like a case followed over ten years, hearing by hearing.
Bad for you if
- a real young woman's murder and a teenager's interrogation are too much for you.
- you need some hope, and a family's ten-year fight through prison visits and appeals wears you down.
About: justice · doubt · family
The Jinx 2015
Documentary
Robert Durst, scion of NY's billionaire real-estate family, has been accused of three murders but has evaded justice for over 30 years. Durst speaks in this true crime series, revealing secrets of a case that has baffled authorities.
The sides of The Jinx
- Robert Durst answering questions on camera
- Three deaths across New York and Texas
- Old letters and a handwriting match
Good for you if
- you like a New York real-estate heir who seems out of reach of the law.
- you like a cold case reopened piece by piece.
- you like watching a man answer questions he could have refused.
Bad for you if
- you can't sit through real murders and grieving families.
- you need momentum, and long interviews lose you.
About: wealth · guilt · justice
Unsolved Mysteries 2020
Documentary
Real cases of perplexing disappearances, shocking murders and paranormal encounters fuel this gripping revival of the iconic documentary series.
The sides of Unsolved Mysteries
- Real disappearances and unsolved murders
- UFO sightings and ghost stories
- Families still waiting for answers
Good for you if
- you like a case you can try to solve in an hour.
- you can live with an episode that ends without an answer.
- you like UFO lights in the sky between two murder cases.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real families still grieving a loved one.
- you can't take paranormal episodes next to real crimes.
About: disappearance · the unexplained · grief
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich 2020
Documentary
Stories from survivors fuel this docuseries examining how convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth and power to carry out his abuses.
The sides of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
- Survivors telling their own stories
- A billionaire's homes in Palm Beach and New York
- A 2008 plea deal and its consequences
Good for you if
- you want to hear the survivors in their own words.
- you want to understand how money and connections protected one man for years.
Bad for you if
- you can't hear accounts of the sexual abuse of teenage girls.
- you need some hope, and justice here comes late and incomplete.
About: abuse of power · justice · survivors
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel 2021
Documentary
The notorious Cecil Hotel grows in infamy when guest Elisa Lam vanishes. A dive into crime's darkest places.
The sides of Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
- A downtown Los Angeles hotel with a dark past
- A young guest who disappears in 2013
- Elevator footage that went around the internet
Good for you if
- you like a disappearance that seems to have no explanation.
- you like a hotel where every floor seems to hide something.
Bad for you if
- a real young woman's disappearance and her family's pain are too much for you.
- you need momentum, and four episodes circle one case through the hotel's past and online theories.
About: disappearance · rumor · mental health
The Imposter 2012
Documentary
In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
The sides of The Imposter
- A Texas boy missing for three years, found in Spain
- A family welcoming him home
- A man telling the camera how he lied
Good for you if
- you like a story that gets stranger every ten minutes.
- you like an investigation where the questions keep changing.
- you like hearing a con man explain his con himself.
Bad for you if
- you can't take a real missing child and a grieving family.
- you can't stand not knowing who to believe. Each witness tells the story their own way.
About: identity · lies · grief
American Murder: The Family Next Door 2020
Documentary
Using raw, firsthand footage, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible events that followed.
The sides of American Murder: The Family Next Door
- A family's own videos and messages
- Police bodycam from the night she vanished
- A husband speaking to news cameras
Good for you if
- you want a case told only through the footage and messages left behind.
- you want to see a family from the inside, a marriage under strain and two small daughters.
- you follow real investigations closely.
Bad for you if
- a case built around a young mother and her two children is more than you can watch.
- you need a documentary that leaves you some hope.
About: grief · domestic violence · denial
Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer 2019
Documentary
A twisted criminal's gruesome videos drive a group of amateur online sleuths to launch a risky manhunt that pulls them into a dark underworld.
The sides of Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer
- Online amateur sleuths tracking a man who posts animal cruelty videos
- Clues found in the background of video frames
- A hunt that ends with a real murder
Good for you if
- you like an investigation solved from tiny details in the background of a video.
- you want to know how a killer used the internet to be seen.
- you like a three-episode manhunt where the stakes keep rising for the amateur sleuths.
Bad for you if
- you can't take detailed accounts of animals and a man being killed.
- you can't take a true crime where the victim's family is still grieving.
About: the internet · attention · guilt
The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez 2020
Documentary
A boy’s brutal murder and the public trials of his guardians and social workers prompt questions about the system’s protection of vulnerable children.
The sides of The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez
- A boy the adults paid to protect him failed
- Social workers on trial
- A Los Angeles courtroom
Good for you if
- you want a case told by the people who testified.
- you want to follow how every warning about this boy was missed.
- you can watch a story with no consolation at the end.
Bad for you if
- you can't hear a child's abuse recounted in court.
- you want an evening that leaves you calm.
About: child protection · accountability · the system
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes 2019
Documentary
A unique look inside the mind of an infamous serial killer with this cinematic self-portrait crafted from statements made by Ted Bundy, including present-day interviews, archival footage and audio recordings from death row.
The sides of Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
- Ted Bundy's own taped interviews from death row
- Archive footage of 1970s trials
- Detectives and journalists who followed the case
Good for you if
- you want to hear a real case from the recordings themselves.
- you like 1970s archive footage of a case that marked America.
Bad for you if
- you can't listen to a man describe crimes against real young women.
- you need some hope, and this offers none.
About: evil · justice · the media
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer 2021
Documentary
Beneath the sunlit glamour of 1985 L.A. lurks a relentlessly evil serial killer. In this true-crime story, two detectives won't rest until they catch him.
The sides of Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
- Los Angeles in the summer of 1985
- Two detectives on a serial killer's trail
- Witnesses and survivors telling what they saw
Good for you if
- you like a manhunt where the city waits for the next attack.
- you like the feel of 1980s Los Angeles in archive footage.
- you want the detectives who worked the case to tell it.
Bad for you if
- you can't hear survivors recall attacks in their own homes.
- you can't look at crime scene photos.
About: fear · the hunt · justice
Tiger King 2020
Documentary
A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
The sides of Tiger King
- A private zoo full of tigers in Oklahoma
- A feud between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin
- A murder-for-hire plot
Good for you if
- you can laugh at how far a feud between zoo owners goes.
- you like a real story stranger than anything you'd make up.
- you like a cast of big cat breeders who each seem invented.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch big cats kept in cages and badly treated.
- you need answers, and the disappearance of Carole Baskin's husband is never solved.
About: obsession · rivalry · greed
Zodiac 2007
Film
In 1970s San Francisco, a cartoonist, a reporter and two police inspectors spend years trying to identify the Zodiac killer, who taunts them with letters and codes.
The sides of Zodiac
- An obsession that eats years of a life
- Real investigation work, step by step
- 1970s San Francisco
- A case that won't close
Good for you if
- you like a cartoonist, a reporter and a detective trying to crack a killer's coded letters.
- you like a long investigation more than a quick chase.
- you can live with questions that never get a full answer.
Bad for you if
- you want chases and shootouts. This one is mostly phone calls and archives.
- two hours and forty minutes is too long for your evening.
About: obsession · the truth · time · journalism
Spotlight 2015
Film
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
The sides of Spotlight
- Journalists investigating abuse in the Church
- Interviews with survivors
- A city that looked away
Good for you if
- you like a story told through interviews and documents.
- you want to see how a true investigation was done.
- you like slow-building pressure on the powerful.
Bad for you if
- child abuse, even described, is too much tonight.
- you want action. It's phone calls and paper.
About: truth · power · complicity
The Tinder Swindler 2022
Documentary
Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, an Israeli conman wooed women online then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now, some victims plan for payback.
The sides of The Tinder Swindler
- A man posing as a diamond heir on a dating app
- Private jets paid for with other women's loans
- Three women who decide to fight back
Good for you if
- you like seeing exactly how a con works, message by message.
- you like hearing the women he fooled tell it themselves.
- you like the moment the money runs out and the threats start.
Bad for you if
- you came for a love story. This is about how one was faked.
- you can't watch real people sink into debt and fear.
About: trust · money · betrayal
The Act 2019
Series
Gypsy Blanchard struggles to deal with the toxic relationship with her overprotective mother, but her attempts to free herself lead to murder.
The sides of The Act
- The true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard
- A mother who kept her daughter ill
- A murder in Missouri
Good for you if
- you want to understand a true crime from inside the house.
- you like Joey King and Patricia Arquette in a mother-daughter story.
- you like dread that builds toward something you know will happen.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand child abuse and medical cruelty on screen.
- you need some hope, and Gypsy's life is a cage that keeps closing in.
About: control · abuse · freedom · motherhood
MINDHUNTER 2017
Series
In the late 1970s, two FBI agents start interviewing imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, and use what they learn on open cases.
The sides of MINDHUNTER
- Interviews with real killers
- The birth of criminal profiling
- What the work does to the people doing it
Good for you if
- you like tension that comes from people talking across a table.
- you like stories built on real cases and real killers.
- you like a slow, quiet build more than action.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand a story left unfinished, and the series stopped after two seasons with the BTK thread still open.
- you don't want to hear crimes against women and children described in detail.
About: evil · method · the 1970s · obsession
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father 2008
Documentary
In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.
The sides of Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
- A film made as a letter to a baby boy
- Friends remembering one man one by one
- Grandparents fighting for their grandson
Good for you if
- you want a film that will take you apart.
- you like a documentary built from home movies and the voices of friends.
- you want grandparents and their grandson at the centre.
Bad for you if
- a murder and a family in grief are too much for you.
- you need a documentary that ends with some hope.
About: grief · memory · parental love
Blackfish 2013
Documentary
Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.
The sides of Blackfish
- Tilikum, a captive killer whale
- Former SeaWorld trainers telling what they saw
- The death of a trainer during a show
Good for you if
- you like former trainers admitting what they didn't want to see.
- you care about how intelligent animals live.
- you like seeing a company's story taken apart piece by piece.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch real attacks and a real death described in detail.
- you want a light animal film. This one leaves you angry.
About: captivity · guilt · profit
Wild Wild Country 2018
Documentary
When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.
The sides of Wild Wild Country
- A guru's followers building a city in the Oregon desert
- Ma Anand Sheela, his right hand
- A small town fighting back
Good for you if
- you like a fight between a commune and a town that becomes a national case.
- you can't look away from Sheela telling her own story decades later.
- you like a true story that gets stranger with each episode, and you can't guess where it goes.
Bad for you if
- six episodes of over an hour each is too much for you.
- you need momentum, and the archives and interviews take their time.
About: faith · power · utopia