There is a platitude, beloved of the documentary community, that truth is stranger than fiction. It’s often correct. But lately I’ve been worried that the glut of documentary content required to fill the yawning maw of streamers is putting this axiom to the test more frequently. Not all stories are worthy of the documentary treatment. … Read more
Remember the old “Arrested Development” axiom that “there’s always money in the banana stand”? For streamers, that banana stand is true crime, judging from the rate at which these movies are turned out. Many of the lurid tales of kidnapping, murder and stolen identities have been covered already in podcasts, but documentaries add tantalizing visual … Read more
TikTokers have started a disturbing new trend of using generative artificial intelligence to depict grisly murders and other heinous true crimes committed against children. The resulting video clips — different from deepfakes, as they do not modify existing images but instead create new ones — show young children, sometimes bruised, narrating their chilling real-life experiences … Read more