Bombs, heists and big cats: TV’s 25 best true-crime shows ever
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- Netflix hosts the majority of the 25 recommended shows — the article concedes "which, let's face it, is mainly Netflix" — while Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, and Sky carry standout outliers
- Making a Murderer (2015-18) and The Jinx (2015-24) are credited with kicking off the true-crime boom; directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos spent a decade on the Steven Avery case for Netflix
- OJ: Made in America (2016), the ESPN-produced five-parter on Disney+, won both an Oscar and an Emmy and chronicles OJ Simpson's trial for the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman
- Wild Wild Country (2018) covers the Rajneesh cult's 1984 Oregon bioterrorist attack — described as the first and biggest in US history — told largely through interviews with Ma Anand Sheela and locals
- Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (2025), directed by Liz Garbus, examines the Gilgo Beach killings; in June, Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven murders and was sentenced to life without parole
- The Keepers (2017) investigates the unsolved 1969 murder of Baltimore nun Catherine Cesnik and a broader abuse scandal at her all-girls school, driven by two retired former pupils working from their kitchen tables
- The list spans from 2003's Capturing the Friedmans (HBO) to 2026's The Mother of All Cons (BBC iPlayer), tracing two decades of the genre's evolution from cable experiments to streaming dominance
Why it matters: Viewers hunting the genre's definitive titles funnel overwhelmingly toward a Netflix subscription, since the listicle's own framing concedes 'it's mainly Netflix' — Disney+ holds only OJ: Made in America, HBO Max and Prime Video split the rest. The line-up signals Netflix's continued grip on true-crime audiences a decade after Making a Murderer and The Jinx launched the boom.
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