True Crime is a relatively popular genre amongst podcast listeners and documentary watchers, but what are the ramifications of it? In recent years, debate has sparked over whether we can ethically consume this kind of content. How does consuming this kind of content alter the way we view the world around us? How does it change the way we interact with tragedy? How far is too far?
It is probably safe to assume that everyone reading this remembers the Gabby Petito case in late 2021. Many of you are probably also aware that a “documentary” was released about the case in late 2022. I put documentary in quotes because it really is more of a dramatized movie detailing the events of Petito’s disappearance and the investigation that followed.
The Gabby Petito Story was produced by Lifetime Movie Network and was advertised as being a part of a series called “Stop Violence Against Women,” which focused on domestic abuse: a topic that definitely needs more awareness. However, instead of creating an opportunity to support the Petito family (of course, a dramatized reenactment would still have been an incredibly problematic way to do this), Lifetime did not compensate her family at all nor did they get approval from her family to make the movie in the first place.
Let’s look at a timeline of these events:
- September 11th, 2021: Gabby Petito is reported missing by her family
- September 19th, 2021: Human remains believed to be Gabby Petito are found in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming
- September 21st, 2021: Remains positively identified as being those of Gabby Petito
- May 2022: The Gabby Petito Story is announced by Lifetime movies, about 7 months after Gabby Petito’s remains were positively identified
- Summer 2022: The Gabby Petito Story is filmed
- October 1st, 2022: The Gabby Petio Story is released by Lifetime Movie Network
Realistically, the latest this project could have been initiated would have been weeks after she was found, assuming they had done a significant amount of planning by the time they announced the movie. It is probably safe to assume this is the case since they began filming only about a month later, and in order to do so, they would have needed to have completed the process of hiring a crew, auditioning, and hiring a cast, along with all other pre-production responsibilities.
Another recent example of this is the Jeffrey Dahmer show that was released late last year, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Show. The show garnered widespread media attention when it became one of the most viewed Netflix shows with nearly 200 million hours of watch time in the first week. Almost instantly, critics of the show pointed out the dramatized and sometimes falsified storylines and how they sometimes seemed to paint Dahmer as a misunderstood man who made forgivable mistakes. This is far from the truth. Dahmer killed 17 innocent LGBTQ+ men of color.
Once again, we are faced with the fact that producers of this show did little in contacting the families of the victims of Jeffrey Dahmer before working on the series. Some producers claim to have reached out to families for input on the show (note: they were not asking for permission to use their stories, only input related to content). Victims’ families were (rightfully) outraged at this, many of them being portrayed in the series as well.
People on social media platforms such as TikTok were posting about how “unfazed” they were by the violent crimes committed by Dahmer. Others claimed they wish Netflix would have shown more of the violence against these innocent men.
The idea of us consuming this kind of media as a form of entertainment while big corporations make profits off of these stories seems almost dystopian. These are real people with real families who lost their loved ones in violent and tragic ways. As viewers, we have to be conscientious of the content we consume and the impact that it has on our worldview. True Crime often is, at its core, an exploitative move by producers of some kind to capitalize on the pain and suffering of others. It isn’t “funny” or “relatable” to be desensitized to violent crimes occurring around us.
Is it possible for this type of content to be produced ethically? Depending on where you stand, this could be a gray area. One thing that is for certain is that in order for ethical consumption of True Crime, changes have to be made.
Sources:
https://www.tvinsider.com/1063369/the-gabby-petito-story-lifetime-movie-family-statement/
“Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is an unethical monstrosity. elESTOQUE
insider.com/lifetime-is-already-getting-flack-for-its-gabby-petito-story-project-slated-to-air-a-little-over-a-year-after-the-investigation-began-2022-9