The most devastating true crime documentary I’ve ever seen & four more that open the door to larger conversations

The psychology of true crime has always fascinated me. Are we naturally drawn to the darkest corners of human behavior? Are we trying to understand the things that scare us most? Whatever it is, as an anxious girlie, I generally avoid the genre altogether. But every so often, a true crime documentary becomes impossible to ignore.

This week, that documentary was Maternal Instinct, one of Netflix's biggest docs right now. After seeing it discussed online for a week and a coworker describing it as "one of the most beyond f**ked up stories I've ever seen," curiosity got the better of me.

It was enraging, heartbreaking, and shocking, of course. (And anyone who watched the Season 2 finale of Private Practice has been traumatized by this particular brand of violence since 2009.) 

Without spoiling anything, I walked away frustrated that the victim and her family often felt secondary to the horrifying details of the crime. The documentary spends so much time pointing out the glaring red flags that led up to the tragedy that I kept waiting for it to ask the bigger questions. What are the gaps within our systems and culture that prevent intervention? What can we actually learn from this?

Instead, it largely stops at shock value.

The best true crime documentaries move beyond sensationalizing violence and instead expose larger failures in our justice system, our institutions, or our understanding of crime itself. And just as importantly, they center the people whose lives were forever changed, rather than the people who changed them.

If you're only able to stomach the occasional true crime documentary, or you're looking for something beyond whatever's sitting in Netflix's Top 10, these five documentaries should have a spot at the top of your list when you’re ready. They all open the door to conversations that extend beyond the headlines, and most were made by someone with a deeply personal connection to the case, giving these stories the care, compassion, and perspective often missing from the genre.

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