Two of True Crime's Biggest Obsessions Are Getting Streaming Series

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 8, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 8, 2024 |

Before Donald Trump and national politics dominated every news cycle, there was a woman named Nancy Grace, who ensured that most news cycles were dominated by true-crime mysteries, almost always involving young white women. Unsurprisingly, her reign of terror — where every suspect was presumed guilty — ended in 2016, the year that Trump turned running a country into a bloodsport.

But everything old is new again, and having already exhausted all the interesting grifters, the streamers are going back to Nancy Grace’s true-crime heyday, first with an eight-episode limited series from Hulu about Amanda Knox. Recall that Knox was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her roommate, serving four years in an Italian prison before she was acquitted. The series is being produced by someone who knows a lot about having her life ripped apart by the media: Monica Lewinsky. They’ve also cast two-time Emmy nominee Margaret Qually as Knox, which is honestly great casting.

The other series, which will probably air on Paramount+, is a scripted show about the mystery of JonBenét Ramsey’s death. Ramsey was a six-year-old whose body was found in the basement, along with a ransom note, several hours after her parents reported her missing. The parents were initially accused of staging it to look like a ransom to cover up their own involvement in the child’s murder, but the DA didn’t have sufficient evidence to indict them. Richard LaGravenese (The Bridges of Madison County, Water for Elephants) will be the series’ showrunner.

It’s only a matter of time before Casey Anthony gets her own scripted limited series as well (although the real-life Casey Anthony is currently shopping around a reality series, one that even the profit-oriented streamers find too ghoulish).