Late in 2019, Netflix released a controversial documentary series called Don't F*** With Cats. The series follows the crimes, Internet-based investigation, and eventual capture of Luka Magnotta. The gritty documentary follows as a group of people online investigated and eventually tracked down the person behind a series of videos that featured violence against animals and the way that his violence eventually spiked and he took the life of a college student.
The documentary is a hard one to watch for a lot of reasons, although it does have a happy ending with Magnotta eventually being apprehended by the authorities. The series received criticism from many people while diehard fans of the true-crime genre excitedly watched and shared their thoughts on the series on social media. Whether you watched Don't F*** With Cats and need another documentary to watch or you're planning to skip it and want a different one to watch instead, there are a lot of really good documentaries and docuseries that have been released over the years.
To see 10 of the best ones to watch after (or instead of!) Don't F*** With Cats, keep reading!
The Confession Killer
The Confession Killer is a Netflix original documentary series that was put on the streaming service in 2019. The series follows Henry Lee Lucas, a man whose name was splashed across headlines all over Texas and the rest of the country in the 1980s after he confessed to a series of heinous crimes, including the murder of a woman named Debra Jackson.
After confessing to over 100 murders, Lucas was convicted of his crimes and received a sentence of life in prison in the late 1990s. But, as investigators later discovered, his confessions may not have been what they seemed. This documentary series investigates the crimes, the circumstances of his confessions, and the aftermath.
Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is a documentary that was released in 2008. The documentary is a total tear-jerker and was created as a type of visual scrapbook by Kurt Kuenne, the best friend of a man named Andrew Bagby who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Shirley Jane Turner. The documentary started out as a way for Kuenne to give something to Bagby's unborn son who Turner announced she was expecting after her arrest.
As the film went on, it transformed itself from a visual scrapbook to a true-crime documentary and the events that took place during the course of filming the interviews lead Kuenne to decide to release it publicly.
Casting JonBenét
Casting JonBenét is a true-crime documentary with a really unique twist. It was released on Netflix in 2017 and the setup for the documentary involves the casting of a fictional film that follows the lives of JonBenét Ramsey and her family. As such, the people in the documentary being interviewed are "auditioning" for the roles of JonBenét, John, Patsy, and Burke, as well as other people that were involved in the investigation.
Since the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, which has been unsolved since it occurred in 1996 when she was 6 years old, is an event that has been highly documented and covered in the news since it happened, this documentary doesn't follow the actual case. Instead, these fictional auditions are a way to examine the way that the case has become a pop culture reference in recent years.
Long Shot
What would you do if you were accused of a crime you didn't commit? The answer for just about everyone is to prove how it's impossible that you didn't do it. Long Shot is a documentary that was released in 2017 on Netflix that follows this idea.
In this documentary, a man named Juan Catalan was arrested for an alleged murder but insists that he's innocent of the crime. The only way to prove this is to get proof of where he was when the murder occurred. Unfortunately, he was at a baseball game and has to try to prove that he was in the crowd, using footage from the show Curb Your Enthusiasm.
There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane
There's Something Wrong With Aunt Diane is a documentary that was released in 2011 and premiered on HBO. The documentary follows a high-profile car crash that happened in 2009 on the Taconic State Parkway.
The crash was caused by the subject of the documentary, Diane Schuler. The crash happened after Schuler, who was in her minivan with her daughter and three nieces, drove for just under two miles down the wrong lane of the highway before crashing head-on into an SUV that had three passengers. The documentary follows the case and the events that lead up to Schuler's crash.
The Staircase
The Staircase is a documentary series that premiered in France in 2004 for 10 episodes before being picked up by Netflix in 2018 for an additional three episodes. The series follows the trial of Michael Peterson, a novelist who was accused of murdering his wife after he reported that she allegedly fell down the stairs, hit her head, and died of her injuries.
All 13 episodes of the series are now available on Netflix, being added in 2018 after the streaming service produced three additional episodes about the case. The series is definitely an interesting one that keeps viewers guessing about what happened to Kathleen.
Evil Genius
Evil Genius is a 2018 documentary series that was released by Netflix. It has a total of four different episodes and follows the high-profile murder of Brian Wells.
This case is definitely an unusual one and the four episodes that Netflix produced do a good job of detailing the case, including the events that lead up to it and the aftermath. The series follows the timeline of events that lead up to Brian Wells being taken hostage, having a bomb put around his neck, and being forced to rob a bank.
Out Of Thin Air
Out of Thin Air is a documentary series that was released in 2017 and follows a high-profile case known as the Reykjavik Confessions. In the 1970s, Guðmundur Einarsson and Geirfinnur Einarsson disappeared in Iceland and, unlike many other disappearances that have no leads as to what happened to them, this case got a total of six confessions from different people.
The documentary follows the case and the convictions of the six people that confessed to the crimes. Many people living in Iceland believed that these convictions were incorrect and a retrial eventually occurred.
The Innocent Man
John Grisham is an author who is known for his fictionalized crime novels. But, in 2006, he released his first and only non-fiction novel. In 2018, Netflix released a six-part documentary series on the novel called The Innocent Man.
The series follows two murder cases that took place in a small town in Oklahoma in the early 1980s. Several people confessed to these murders and the series follows the case, the confessions, and the possibility that these confessions weren't exactly what they seemed.
I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter
I Love You, Now Die is a documentary that was released on HBO in 2019. The documentary is divided into two parts, called The Prosecution and The Defense, and follows Michelle Carter's court case after she was accused of involuntary manslaughter after encouraging her then-boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to take his own life.
The case went viral after text messages between Carter and Roy were made public and showed Carter's encouragements and instructions for how Roy could go get in his vehicle and poison himself with carbon monoxide fumes.