True crime ‘community’ has gone too far

By Nadia Paschal

As a constant consumer of all sorts of media, I have found myself particularly drawn to one specific genre over the years — true crime. I can’t exactly put into words why I’m so interested in this topic, but I don’t want to use the word fascinated. Words like that bother me and leave me feeling perturbed about the entire genre.

The true crime community, as it’s often referred to, has become widely exploitative and obsessive about the subjects it covers and claims to care about. 

Even referring to it as a community feels inherently wrong. Spaces that are dedicated to talking about and trying to solve these horrific crimes like they’re some kind of puzzle game to be beaten seem morally wrong. Amateur wannabe detectives gather online making podcasts, posts and videos to discuss these cases flagrantly. They get so excited talking about cases that they are obsessed with.

This kind of attitude has made a resurgence as Netflix just released “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Directed by Ryan Murphy, the series covers the Menendez brothers, who killed their parents after years of alleged abuse from them.

Whether you believe that their claims were true or not, the case is still incredibly tragic. 

Looking at it from the angle of them telling the truth, they suffered from years of horrible abuse, with no way out, and have been in jail for their whole lives. If not, they murdered their parents for no reason.

I have not watched the series yet, but have heard the backlash it’s been receiving. It seems that Murphy chose not to lean into either side of the tragedy, instead opting to make it as dramatic as possible, including lies and false rumors about the case in his series. He portrayed the tragedy and the people involved into something vastly different than reality.

This sensationalism is not new, however. In 2021, Netflix released “Crime Scene: The vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.” This series covered the supposedly mysterious death of Elisa Lam. 

Lam was a 22-year-old who was found dead in the water tank at the hotel she was staying at in 2013. 

Even though it’s been over a decade since she passed, people are still scrutinizing every detail of the incident, trying to prove why their theory is the correct one. 

The documentary only added fuel to the fire, as it did not seem to want to portray the case in the most accurate sense, but rather the most exciting and dramatic way possible.

It must be noted that Lam was known to suffer from bipolar disorder and had been displaying strong symptoms days before her death. Even the toxicology report showed that she had not been taking her medication recently.

The most likely explanation for Lam’s passing is that she was experiencing a severe bipolar episode, climbed up on the roof of the hotel, entered the water tank and ultimately drowned. Many still seem to think otherwise, hoping that something more gruesome happened, and there’s a more exciting and gruesome twist to this story.

I’ll say it simply: content creators and most studios do not care about the effects these cases had on the real people involved. They care only about the ratings they receive and the number of viewers they have. 

Every true crime movie in Hollywood starts with the words “based on a true story” because if it was truly accurate, it wouldn’t be profitable.

I’m not here to stop or judge anyone for what they watch, but I wish more people would be more ethical in their viewing of this kind of media. 

Know who you’re supporting, what their goal is with their content and whether the facts are correct. Most importantly, please do not take it upon yourself to become a supersleuth and try to solve any case, because you won’t. 

Everyone involved in true crime cases were real people, with lives and families just like you. Just listen, learn and do so respectfully