True-Crime Titles You Won't Want To Watch Alone

1. Predators
Ambiguity is tough to sit with. One of the reasons we enjoy true-crime shows is that there’s usually a clear villain – a fraudster grimacing for his mugshot, say, or a shame-faced perp caught on camera. We enjoy aligning ourselves with the people who nab those criminals. But what if these shows aired footage of the bad guys begging for help? Would we be so quick to condemn? Would such footage limit the shows’ appeal? 

Directed, produced, edited, and filmed by the Emmy®- and Peabody-winning documentarian David Osit, Predators explores the long-reaching impact of the reality-news show To Catch a Predator. The program, produced from 2004-2007, was designed to lure alleged child predators to a film set, where – prior to being arrested – they would be interviewed by Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen. During these interviews, Hansen would routinely say to the targets, “Help me understand …” Osit uses Hansen's line as a jumping-off point for a larger question: Does this show, or the true-crime shows it inspired, care about the response?

In interviews with the decoys who lured would-be predators to the film set, present-day vigilantes who've taken up Hansen’s mantle, and Hansen himself, Osit seeks to ascertain whether shows like To Catch a Predator truly promote justice and advocate for victims. Do Hansen and his fellow crime-stoppers really want to understand, as they claim, or are they displaying the starkest black-and-white versions of the accused for maximum entertainment value?

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2. Don’t Date Brandon
Romance is intoxicating. It can be difficult to find anything wrong with a brand-new sweetheart. But this three-part, Paramount+ original docuseries shows how a seemingly perfect mate may be far, far from perfect. 

When Amber Rasmussen connects with Brandon Johnson on a dating app, it seems like a match made in heaven. The chemistry is so fantastic, in fact, that Brandon proposes marriage after only six weeks. It is only after the couple marries that Amber begins to suspect that she’s tied herself to a master manipulator, and she reaches out to Brandon’s ex-wife, Athena Klingerman. Soon, her fears are confirmed: Indeed, Brandon is a liar who’s hiding nefarious secrets. 

Despite Brandon’s attempts to turn the women against one another, Amber and Athena join forces, launching a podcast to expose Brandon’s deceit, and talk openly about the warning signs they missed. In doing so, more victims of Brandon’s abuse and trickery come forward, adding details to the story of this victimizer's exploits. With so many women speaking against their harasser on a popular podcast, Brandon’s toxic influence grows ever-weaker. A bully loses power when all his targets team up to fight back. 

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3. My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story
Many people dream about achieving fame – for the red carpets, the swag, the adoration. But celebrity can have a dangerous downside, a fact that actress Eva LaRue understands all too well. In the two-part, Paramount+ original docuseries My Nightmare Stalker: The Eva LaRue Story, the Emmy® winner and her daughter, Kaya Callahan, share harrowing memories of receiving threatening letters and messages from LaRue’s stalker. A full decade later, the harassment had yet to cease, and the FBI was no closer to identifying the culprit …

LaRue gained renown playing DNA analyst Natalia Boa Vista on CSI: Miami, and with this popularity came fan mail – including violent missives from a stalker she came to dub “Freddy Kruger.” For 12 years, he terrorized her and Callahan’s lives, all the while remaining in the shadows. His identity stayed a mystery to detectives, and to LaRue herself – until a forensic breakthrough finally offered hope. 

Featuring candid interviews with LaRue and Callahan, this must-watch series depicts a woman’s long journey through the emotional ringer, as well as the courage she plucked up to protect her family and continue searching for the truth. 

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4. Happy Face
What would you do if you discovered that someone near and dear to your heart committed acts of pure evil? What if that someone was your father? This is the question at the heart of Happy Face, the Paramount+ original drama series, starring Annaleigh Ashford, Dennis Quaid, James Wolk, and Tamera Tomakili, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.

Happy Face tells the story of Melissa (Tony® winner and Emmy® nominee Annaleigh Ashford) who learned as a teenager that her beloved father (played by Emmy®- and Golden Globe®-nominee Dennis Quaid) was actually a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer. Decades later, she has severed all contact with the now-incarcerated man, and made every effort to hide her connection to him. But suddenly Melissa is at a crossroads. Her dad has snaked back into her life with a shocking claim: He committed the crime for which another man is about to take the fall. Now, Melissa must choose between protecting her identity and unraveling an unsolved mystery to save an innocent person.

Happy Face is inspired by the true-life story of Melissa G. Moore, as well as the critically acclaimed Happy Face podcast from iHeartPodcasts and Moore, and the autobiography Shattered Silence, by Moore with M. Bridget Cook. All eight episodes of the series are streaming now, exclusively on Paramount+. 

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5. Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas
This docuseries follows the criminal investigation of a cast member from the SHOWTIME® reality show Gigolos, which was produced from 2011 to 2016. A cultural phenomenon, the show followed the personal and professional lives of five gigolos in Las Vegas, featuring sexually-charged shenanigans, and making stars of the oft-shirtless escorts. It was steamy, but ultimately harmless fun … right? In 2020, Gigolos cast member Akshaya Kubiak was arrested for killing one of his clients, and the benign reality-show world of sun and sensuality was quickly shown to be an illusion.

Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas weaves together the story of this tragic case with footage from the Gigolos reality series, offering a unique perspective on Las Vegas, sex work, reality television, stardom, and the particulars of a murder investigation. Driving the three-part narrative is this question: How did a man who preached about love, and who’d achieved public veneration, end up murdering another human being?

WATCH NOW: Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas 

 


6. 72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square
This three-part docuseries focuses on the 2018 stabbing of white real-estate developer Sean Schellenger in the wealthy Philadelphia neighborhood of Rittenhouse Square. Though police officers initially have no suspects, a 20-year-old Black bike courier turns himself in to authorities the following day. This man, Michael White, admits to engaging in a physical fight with Schellenger. Schellenger did indeed die from a stab wound during that altercation. But all is not as cut-and-dry as it seems.

Was White acting in self-defense? To what extent did the two parties’ racial and economic differences play in the brawl, as well as the subsequent trial? With footage that includes a comprehensive interview with White – his first since his murder trial – as well as a never-before-seen recording of the stabbing, 72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square offers another side to a crime story news buffs might think they know well.

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7. Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders
This five-part docuseries chronicles the string of deaths that rocked the United States in 1982 – the shocking moment when seven Chicagoans died from cyanide-poisoned Tylenol capsules. Though the tragedy resulted in the advent of tamper-proof packaging, it did not produce a satisfying conclusion in the justice system. For some 40 years investigators circled, but never charged, their prime suspect with the murders. The series, however, delivers a satisfying, if unsettling watch. It's a worthwhile dive into archival footage, police records, and interviews with health and law enforcement officials involved in the case, as well as the victims’ family members.

Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders may have a heavy tone, however, it never loses the pervasive hope of its interviewees that they’ll eventually get answers. Isabel Janus, the 13-year-old niece of three of the victims, says as much during the series: "I truly believe that justice will be done, if not in this lifetime, then in the next."

WATCH NOW: Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders 



8. #CyberSleuths: The Idaho Murders
When four University of Idaho students are found stabbed to death in their off-campus house, the small-town police department of Moscow, Idaho, finds itself struggling with its first homicide case in almost a decade. This three-part docuseries shows what happens when these investigators release very little information to the public, spurring amateur online sleuths to attempt to solve the case on their own. These keyboard detectives claim they’re only trying to help where cops seemingly are falling short – but are they actually slowing down the process with their speculations and do-it-yourself reporting?

#CyberSleuths: The Idaho Murders is a fascinating look at where the online Sherlocks succeed in helping law enforcement officials … and where they fall short, or even hinder the process. The series poses the question: Do we want our answers accurate, or do we just want them now, now, now?

WATCH NOW: #CyberSleuths: The Idaho Murders



9. CTRL+ALT+DESIRE
Grant Amato is a devoted son, sibling, and, to his fellow students at the nurse anesthetist program at the University of Central Florida, colleague. But when he’s kicked out of school, his relationship with his family becomes increasingly strained, causing him to seek solace in a cam modeling site. When he develops an obsession with a cam-girl named Silvie, he steals hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parents and brother Cody in order to pay for Silvie's continued attention. It’s not long, however, before fantasy smacks up against cold, hard reality, and those closest to Amato are forced to pay the ultimate price.

Incorporating interviews with cam models, recreations of events, and conversations with Amato himself, the three-episode docuseries CTRL+ALT+DESIRE explores one man’s descent into addiction – and the Internet's appeal to the isolated and directionless. Indeed, CTRL+ALT+DESIRE will make you think twice before logging on.

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10. Pillowcase Murders
Between 2016 and 2018, a spate of Dallas retirement communities discovered female residents deceased in their beds. Authorities shared the assumption of the homes’ administrators: the women did what elderly people tend to do, and died in their sleep. But when loved ones of the dead began comparing notes, they realized that many of the victims had been missing valuables when their bodies were found, and that security had been lax around the living quarters of every single one of the retirement homes affected. Still, detectives remained dismissive … that is, until similar deaths began occurring in Frisco, then Plano …

Not only is Pillowcase Murders simply a riveting watch, this three-part docuseries brings up an important, and haunting, question about culpability: If a retirement facility isn’t safe, what is?

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