Summary
- True crime shows have made Netflix a streaming giant with popular titles like Making a Murderer and Tiger King.
- Netflix offers a variety of true crime shows, featuring controversial cult leaders, family murders, and cold case investigations.
- The platform provides a unique perspective by allowing subjects like Amanda Knox to tell their own stories, and explores the impact of social media on crime cases.
True crime shows on Netflix are one of the biggest draws for the streaming platform. Crime stories based on real-life people and events have gained in popularity over the last few years thanks to podcasts and publicized cold case investigations. While other platforms like Hulu have delved into his public fascination with their programming as well, true crime shows have played a big role in making Netflix one of the streaming giants with shows like Making a Murderer and Tiger King becoming pop culture obsessions.
Netflix has continued to lean into true crime stories with later releases like Worst Roommate Ever and Bad Vegan among the many other titles in the genre now available on the platform. These Netflix docuseries center on a variety of subjects including a controversial cult leader, an amateur thief, and a father fighting for justice after his son's murder. While not all of these shows have reached the mainstream in the same way as other popular titles, Netflix offers enough content for true crime fans to keep binging for a long time.
50 Amanda Knox (2016)
The Suspect In A Notorious Case Shares Her Story
Amanda Knox’s name is known around the world because her arrest for the murder of her roommate while a part of a student exchange program in Italy was all over the news when it happened. She was initially convicted, spent four years in an Italian prison, and was eventually exonerated.
The documentary allows Amanda Knox to tell her own story. She gives a first-hand account of what it was like to be investigated and imprisoned while maintaining her innocence for years. Not many of Netflix’s best true crime documentaries can get the point of view of their subject as so many are told long after the events of the cases are over. It’s a great lead-in for the many documentaries available on Netflix.
49 American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020)
Social Media Builds The Story Behind A Family's Murder
American Murder: The Family Next Door takes a unique approach to presenting its case. It does so like a found footage film, using interviews, social media posts, and more to piece together what happened to the Watts family. The style received mixed reviews but the content was engaging. Despite the polarizing style of the documentary, the technique is effective because it doesn’t reveal who killed Shanann Watts and her two daughters until they’ve already seen interviews with him and heard conflicting accounts of Shanann’s personality from social media accounts. It’s a great look at how social media can change the perception of a story.
48 Murder Mountain (2018)
A Killing At The Center Of A Weed Farm Business
Marijuana is big business - both legal and illegal - in the United States, so it makes perfect sense that at least one of the true-crime series on Netflix would examine this world. In this case, it’s not so much the drug itself that gets the spotlight. Instead, it’s the illegal activity around Humboldt County’s mountain range where there are several cannabis farms.
While the documentary covers a lot of information surrounding the farms, the main focus is the murder of a 29-year-old cannabis farmer. While the series has been called “one-sided” by those who live in Humboldt County, it does provide an interesting window into the growing industry for true-crime fans.
47 Exhibit A (2019)
A Look At The Misconceptions Of Crime Scene Evidence
There is a big focus placed on forensic evidence in modern docuseries, and even in modern fictional crime dramas. Exhibit A examines just what kinds of physical evidence are actually incredibly subjective, and just how mistakes can be made in cases using them.
Each episode of the docuseries focuses on a different kind of evidence. One focuses on the interpretation of blood spatter, for example, which those watching crime dramas might think is an exact science, but it actually requires investigators to do a lot of guesswork. The series is a fascinating look at different methods true-crime fans might have thought of as fool-proof evidence before watching.
46 Inside The Criminal Mind (2017)
An Examination Of The Psychology Of Different Criminals
This German docuseries was picked up by Netflix for an international release in 2017. It’s a must-watch for true crime fans who are interested in the psychology behind criminal acts. Each episode of the series spotlights a different type of criminal, like serial killers in the first episode. They examine the why for the criminal type in each episode, making for a fascinating dissection of a criminal mind, even if each episode can’t afford to go into too much detail since it has to get into the next.
45 Cold Case Files (2017)
Dormant Cases Are Brought Back To Life
This docuseries is a reboot of an old A&E series. Both series seek to do the same thing: document the solving of cases that have been termed “cold,” those with no new leads for investigators to follow. Because each episode focuses on a different case, the best thing about the show is that it examines the many different ways a cold case can be reopened. While one episode might focus on advancements in forensic science, another might focus on a previously unknown witness coming forward. It’s a variety of techniques that are important for the closing of long cold investigations.
44 Trial 4 (2020)
The Long Journey To Justice For A Wrongfully Convicted Man
Two mistrials, one conviction, and one exoneration make up the titular four trials of Sean K. Ellis. Ellis was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer in 1993. The series uses archival footage, interviews, and even animations to tell the full story of the crime and trials.
The series doesn't jump right into the meat of the story. It’s a little slow to get there, but with eight episodes, it has room to give as much detail as possible. Fans expecting a fast-paced laying out of facts will be disappointed, but the series is worth the watch as it gives as much information about Ellis and his trials as possible.
43 Audrie & Daisy (2016)
When Social Media Targets Victims
Audrie & Daisy is not an easy true-crime documentary to watch. The series isn’t just a presentation of evidence or the timeline of an investigation. Instead, it focuses on the effect of social media on modern investigations and survivors of crimes.
In this case, those survivors are teenage girls who were sexually assaulted at parties by people they thought they could trust. The investigations into what happened to the teenage girls aren’t handled well, and both girls end up vilified on social media by their peers. In the modern age, social media is a huge component of how information is shared, and Audrie & Daisy shows the dark side of that in a compelling look at their individual cases.
42 Missing: Dead Or Alive (2023)
Real-Life Missing Persons Cases Are Investigated
There are so many true-crime series that focus on what happens after a missing person is found dead, and how an investigation works backward from that moment. This particular series starts at the beginning of a missing person’s case, and it’s a great true crime docuseries because some of the cases in the show have happy endings.
Each episode highlights a different person as a camera crew follows an investigator in a real police department. It’s easy to see the emotional toll not recovering a missing person, or worse, finding them deceased, takes on an investigator. The series allows for an emotional component instead of just facts presented by investigators years after they’ve pursued their leads.
41 Our Father (2022)
A Look At Victims Of A Criminal Fertility Doctor
Fertility fraud isn’t a crime heard of particularly often, but it does exist. That’s exactly what this documentary tracks. In fact, it documents the fraud committed by fertility doctor Donald Cline who used his own biological material to impregnate dozens of his patients. The documentary strives to tell the story of those victimized by him. While Our Father is one of the best true crime documentaries on Netflix, it’s classified as such because of the stories of the victims that it brings to light. Its execution plays more like a tabloid news show than some of the other, better, documentaries.
40 Girl In The Picture (2022)
A Woman's Death Reveals Shocking Details Of Her Life
In this documentary, a little girl in a picture sparks an investigative journalist to figure out just who she is. It might seem like a strange jumping-off point for a docuseries, but there is certainly more to it than that. The little girl, known as Sharon Marshall, grew into a young woman who was killed in a hit-and-run accident that was speculated to be murder.
Journalist Matt Birkeback wanted to figure out exactly who she was and ended up writing a book about his investigation into her life. What he found was two decades of kidnapping, assault, and forced marriage. The story is an intense one, and the documentary does its best to include all the details about Sharon’s life. It’s an incredibly sad story, but one that true crime fans will want to see.
39 Murder To Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020)
A Complex Case Of Determining Justification Of A Murder
The story of Cyntoia Brown’s incarceration has been all over the news for the last decade. When she was just 16 years old, she was being trafficked by a man in Nashville, Tennessee, and ended up killing a man while working. The documentary covers that initial case, her incarceration, and her being granted clemency and released after time served.
The documentary details how Brown was manipulated in her teen years, and how that may have impacted her choices when she did kill a man. It also details the failings of the court system to help a teenager in trouble, providing a sympathetic look at her plight, but not a completely unbiased one.
38 Abducted In Plain Sight (2017)
A Kidnapping Case Takes An Unexpected Turn
It’s unthinkable for a parent that their child could end up kidnapped. It’s even more unthinkable for it to happen twice - by the same perpetrator. That is exactly what happened to Jan Broberg in the 1970s. The docuseries is riveting, explaining how a family could be manipulated into trusting someone who would eventually kidnap one of the children. The case in Abducted in Plain Sight also provided the inspiration for the fictional Peacock original series Friend Of The Family.
37 My Daughter’s Killer (2022)
A Father's Decades-Long Search For Justice
My Daughter’s Killer is one of the most unique and one of the best true crime documentaries on Netflix because the events it outlines are unlike anything else covered on the site. Much of the docuseries is focused on Andre Bamberski, the father of a teenage girl whose death was initially ruled accidental. He didn’t believe it and pursued the truth for more than 25 years.
What Bamberski discovered is that the man whom his wife had an affair with both drugged and sexually assaulted his daughter and after getting away with it, continued to do so to other young women and patients for years. The story is harrowing, but Bamberski’s pursuit of justice for his daughter and other young women is commendable. The documentary recounts his every step to get it.
36 The Keepers (2017)
The Murder Of A Nun Opens A Dark Conspiracy
In 1969 Catherine Cesnik, a nun at a Catholic school disappeared and was eventually found dead in a garbage dump site. Her unsolved murder has been thought by some to be an action taken to cover up sexual abuse suffered by some of the students at the school who had confided in her about what was happening to them.
The Keepers follows the investigation undertaken by two of Cesnik’s former students. Because it had been more than 30 years since her death, the two launched their own investigation outside of that done by the police. Within the documentary is their theory that those in positions of power helped to cover up her murder, and there’s a compelling narrative as the two women who want justice for their teacher fight to get files unsealed, set up a tip line, and more.
35 Killer Sally (2022)
A Domestic Murder In The World On Bodybuilding
This Netflix true crime series examines Sally McNeil’s killing of her husband Ray. The duo were championship bodybuilders, which brought them together, but those in their bodybuilding circle didn’t know the volatility of their relationship. Interviews with Sally McNeil herself as well as her children, other family members and friends, and investigators associated with the case give a full picture of the death and her conviction. The series isn’t entirely unbiased since most of the information does come from Sally herself, but by speaking with her children and others affected by her actions, it provides a complete story.
34 Dig Deeper: The Disappearance Of Birgit Meier (2021)
A Murder Investigation Gone Wrong
This German documentary on Netflix focuses on Birgit Meier, a woman who disappeared, and the investigation into her vanishing that included mistake after mistake. Because it wasn’t initially clear to investigators whether Meier had left on her own, had been taken, or was even killed, the investigation wasn’t always treated as a homicide, which meant that a lot of crucial evidence was missed. The focus of the documentary is on the mistakes made during that investigation. It provides true crime fans with an examination of how crimes can go unsolved for so long.
33 The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (2022)
Teenagers Rob Celebrity Homes
The Bling Ring movie starring Emma Watson was inspired by a real group of teenagers who burglarized the homes of celebrities. While that provided a mostly fictional account of the real events, this three-part docuseries on Netflix gives a more detailed account of what really happened.
This particular series takes an interesting approach because it doesn’t just feature interviews with investigators chronicling the search for the thieves. Instead, there are interviews with those whose homes were actually robbed, like Audrina Patridge, as well as interviews with some of those who participated in the thefts. It allows for an exploration of just how violated the victims of the crimes felt, and just how much the media attention played into the heists themselves.
32 Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields (2022)
One Location Links To Several Murders
The Crime Scene series on Netflix takes a unique approach to true crime docuseries. Rather than focus on one specific case, it focuses on how a particular crime scene can contribute to multiple cases. Here, that’s an area of land known as the Texas Killing Fields.
These particular fields have been the location of the remains of several murder victims over the years, some of those victims in very close proximity and in very close timeframes. The seclusion of the area has seen some speculate that serial killers could use the fields as their personal graveyards. This docuseries provides a look at how one location can connect multiple cases - some solved and others unsolved - making for one of the most fascinating true crime docuseries on Netflix.
31 I Am A Killer (2018-2022)
Interviews With Convicted Killers
It’s rare for a true crime series to get the perspective of the person who actually perpetrated the crime. Most series focus on those investigating the case or the journalists who report on the cases after the fact. I Am A Killer is very different.
Each episode of the series features an interview with a convicted killer. It gives a unique point of view for those interested in true crime since some of the interviewees are remorseful for their crimes, some insist they are innocent, and some seem unbothered by their actions. It shows that what drives someone to kill, and how they react after the fact, can be very different from one case to the next.