For the longest time, Forensic Files has been my go-to TV show for when it’s late at night and I need something to watch that’s self-contained and resolves itself in a single episode.
Now, thanks to Netflix, I’ve watched the entire 400-episode run, and I need something new.
I’m looking for something in the same basic style - a true-crime whodunit documentary, which introduces the victim, describes the crime, and documents how the police discover the evidence, use it to find a suspect, and reveal how the guilty party committed the crime, what their motive was, and how they can prove how it happened.
Love this stuff but can’t watch it if my family’s out and I’m the only one in. I have been known to call up a family member to ask what shirt they had on because if the police came asking, I’d have no idea. Some other’s I’ve watched:
Cold Case Files (not the TV show on one of the networks, the A&E procedural. It’s the granddaddy of these types of shows).
The F.B.I. Files: Same stuff with FBI cases.
Snapped: Spouses and family members going HAM and the ensuing investigation.
There are more, I just can’t think of them right now.
We watch a lot of Homicide Hunter, with Lt. Joe Kenda. Part of the fun is that Lt. Joe is so completely deadpan - he’s seen everything. And thus his expression never changes, as he figures out it wasn’t the boyfriend of the lady the victim was cheating with, nor any of the family of his common-law wife, but actually a mistaken identity shooting by the ex-roommate of the short-order cook who was ripped off by in a drug deal by a friend of the victim.
No doubt some of the stories are faked up, but they are fun nonetheless.
Not sure it includes these elements, but HBO ran a series called Autopsy, with Dr Michael Baden, who was formerly NYS medical examiner. He talks about various cases and describes how they were investigated. I think a couple of episodes discussed famous cases, like the prison riot at Attica or the JFK assassination.
I like The First 48. It’s a police procedural where homicide detectives try to solve murders within 48 hours, because after that the trail can grow cold. They’re mostly successful, but sometimes they don’t catch the culprit for months, and sometimes the case remains open at the end of the show.
I don’t know if you get cable but there are whole channels of this stuff now like investigation discovery, oxygen…reelz which was supposed to be an entertainment info channel like E! but is now a mostly celebrity crime channel like the night stalker dalmer ect
…for Netflix type in “investigation discovery” and have at … oh and “true crime”
by the way CNN headline news has been making new forensic files for a couple of years now … i think there on sundays
My favorite part is when faux Joe (handsome actor) sort of fuzzes out all the “noise” at the crime scene, the superfluous elements fade away, the light around Joe turns gently gold and my, my, my, you can see him solve that case right then, in that very moment!
I’ve watched a couple episodes of this one and I’m enjoying it so far. I wish the stories weren’t all set in Colorado Springs, but then again globe-trotting master detectives only exist in pulp novels.
I’ll recommend Air Crash Investigation (aka Mayday, Air Emergency, or Air Disasters). A plane crash isn’t usually a crime, but the investigation into one involves a lot of similar forensic and detective work. I think I’ve watched too many episodes, as several times I’ve been able to correctly diagnose the cause of a crash purely from the recreation of the circumstances, before they start on the investigation itself.
