In 2024 if you have electricity, a television, and Wi-Fi, you may have noticed something. There are so so, so, so many true crime shows. I tried to Google how many of these shows are currently available thru cable and streaming, and Google just replied, “We have no idea, but it’s a lot.”

I remember 15 years ago when I was first bit by the true crime bug with a show called Forensic Files. At that time, I remember I was just watching whatever was on, but this show made me sit up and pay attention. 

Its simple yet effective presentation helped me understand how blood splatter and DNA are used to solve current and cold cases. It was amazing.  If an episode opened with a video of a happy couple eating cake at their wedding and the narrator stating, “They had the perfect marriage,” you could play Bingo with what key phrases the episode would include. 

These included: alibi, blunt force trauma, dark past, affair, DNA,  and of course life insurance policy. DNA really is just the free space in the middle of your bingo card. It’s in every episode.

In 2008 Warner Bros created a network called Investigation Discovery dedicated entirely to the genre. It can easily be found now on the MAX streaming app. Not that you really have to look hard to find this content. Netflix has so much of it that their emergency contact list has Ted Bundy on it. 

Hulu is no stranger to it either. and recently put out the 3-episode series called The Perfect Wife. Spoiler alert: she is less than perfect but the series is incredible. 

Investigation Discovery (ID) and you have 134 true crime series (yes, I actually went thru and counted), they aren’t all gems. Some of the shows have actors to recreate certain parts of a couple’s life. The acting tends to be more Tommy Wiseau than Meryl Streep, and it makes for some very good unintentional humor.

The shows’ titles are usually pretty straightforward, but some do make me laugh. I had to check out “A Body in the Basement” just because I couldn’t believe there is a full season of it. And my favorite show title of all time is “Wives with Knives.” I would love to know what other names were thrown out before that was chosen. 

I just picture the conversation in the writers’ room: “Well, our show ‘Deadly Women’ has produced 11 seasons (which is actually true) Let’s do something like that. But what can we name it ? Hmmm Mascara and Massacre? Hair Ties and Dark Lies? Thelma and Deceased?” I doubt it was that exciting, but we can always wonder. 

My all-time favorite show is called Evil Lives Here. It explores events leading up to a horrible act and interviews people who were closest to the perpetrator. The show first aired in 2016 and has 15 seasons and 138 episodes, not to mention two additional spinoff series. Wow. They are like the Simpsons of murder shows, but instead of Bart writing his offenses on the chalkboard he asks to talk to a lawyer.

I hope you true crime fans have some shows to add to your watch list and expand your knowledge of DNA. Given the advances in forensic medicine, I think if OJ’s trial had taken place today it would have been over in 1 hour, including commercials.