Arguably, the event that triggered the advent of our culture’s current true crime obsession is the podcast Serial. The first season of the podcast began in 2014 and found a huge audience with more than 300 million downloads. In 2015, Netflix released its true crime series Making a Murderer, which also became a huge hit. The year after that, another popular true crime podcast, My Favorite Murder, got going, and the chain reaction continued. Now, our streaming services are saturated with true crime media, with the same famous cases getting podcasts dedicated to them, multiple documentary series, and even fictionalized adaptations.

A similar chain of events took place in the murder mystery genre years later. Knives Out was released at the end of 2019, making $311 million on a $40 million budget. The demand for star-studded whodunnits made itself incredibly clear, and studios started cranking them out. Each year, we see more murder mystery movies and shows than the last, with 2022 bringing us the hilarious See How they Run, The Afterparty, and Death on the Nile, to name a few. With the two genres being factual and fictional sides of the same coin, can they co-exist? It could be time for audiences to let go of true crime in favor of a safer, more escapist turn.

Why Are We Drawn to True Crime?

McKenna Grace and Jake Lacy in A Friend of the Family
NBCUniversal

The true crime obsession makes sense because those stories are compelling. Additionally, the extra layer of intrigue provided by the real-life source makes the genre irresistible to many people. Following a mystery and coming to a conclusion can be highly satisfying. Or, getting to learn about humans who have the capacity to do terrible things can have a morbid appeal. It's natural to wonder how the minds of these people work or learn about what might have affected them in their upbringings. There's nothing inherently evil or wrong with this hobby.

However, for some, the obsession can go too far. With something like true crime, there is always another show to watch or podcast to listen to. Its popularity breeds more content, which, in turn, increases its popularity. When you read, watch, and listen to so much true crime content, it can start to negatively affect your life. Some find that they become anxious and hyper-vigilant after learning about such a variety of circumstances in which people have been attacked.

Related: True Crime Genre: Risks of Glorification & Its Negative Impact on Victims' Families

Murder Mysteries and COVID

daniel-craig-knives-out
Netflix

Knives Out being released at the end of 2019, right before the pandemic took hold of the world made for great timing for the murder mystery genre. With the majority of people staying at home, movies and TV had to step up to the plate for entertainment. Many turned to genre movies, like rom-coms or murder mysteries, as a source of comfort with their reliable plot structures and satisfying endings. The timing of Knives Out being a fresh hit in combination with this need for comfort could be what drove the resurgence of the murder mystery genre.

In a time when the world had become a lot more threatening and unsafe for us, feelings of anxiety about the outside were heightened. To then continue to add to this by consuming true crime media at an unsustainable rate would make the situation unmanageable. Luckily, the murder mystery genre can scratch that same itch by providing intriguing plots while lessening the sense of danger by being fictional. Additionally, the characters of a murder mystery are often cartoonishly constructed, both detectives and villains, creating even more distance between these movies and reality.

Related: Why Murder Mystery Movies Have Become So Popular

Will Murder Mysteries Replace True Crime?

Evan Peters in Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story
Netflix

True crime can be a harmless interest for many of those who indulge, but, for others, it takes a darker turn. On one hand, fans of true crime can develop irrational fears of public spaces or become overly cautious about the security of their home. Spending so much of your time learning about terrible things that happen to people can get under your skin easily, so it's not a surprise that this anxiety is becoming more common. A study from 2020 concluded that individuals who consume higher amounts of crime-related media reported higher levels of fear around crime. The more true crime you learn about, the more daily activities will be tainted and feel dangerous to you.

On the other hand, some find themselves becoming desensitized to the violence discussed in these programs and become overly invested in people like Jeffrey Dahmer. Of course, this is not a new phenomenon: Ted Bundy received copious letters of admiration from women. However, it is happening at a concerning rate now that social media is involved. One TikTok user posted about feeling sorry for Dahmer after watching the Netflix series, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and others have made fan edits of him with clips from the show. There's a huge difference between rooting for the villain to get away with a crime on fictional shows and feeling sympathetic towards someone who hurt real people.

Only time will tell if murder mysteries can sustain the public's interest for long enough to take over from true crime. But, even if murder mysteries don't become more popular than true crime, it's still positive that there is more out there to break up the obsessive true crime watching. On an individual level, if you find yourself consumed by true crime, having a lighter genre interspersed in your viewing habits can help to loosen its hold.