The true crime documentary is a staple of TV these days.
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Over on Foxtel, there’s a whole channel devoted to it.
Those stories plug into the same part of our brain as scary movies do – but there's the added emotional heft that the events we’re seeing are real.
While some feel there is something morbid about watching a show about people committing crimes, I don’t see it like that.
For me, they’re stories. And not every story in the world is a happy one.
Some stories tap into the darker side of humanity, show what some of us are capable of and what could happen if we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To ignore these stories because they don't say happy things is to give us a skewed vision of humanity.
At the moment there are several good true crime docos out there.
One is City of Evil, a series about the crimes committed in the sleepy state capital of Adelaide from the missing Beaumont children to the Bodies in the Barrel case.
Airing on Nine, it’s three episodes into a four-episode series.
Also on Nine is Inside Crime (Wednesdays, 9.40pm), which uses mainly archive footage and interviews to tell the stories of some well-known crimes.
Though I could do without the cliche of having journalist and host Leila McKinnon opening up a “case file” to introduce each crime – especially when the files contain nothing more than a few printouts of online news stories.
The third in the trio of top true crime shows is Exposed: The Case of Keli Lane (ABC, 8.30pm, Tuesdays).
It features ABC journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington investigating the 1996 disappearance of two-day old Tegan Lane and the arrest of mother Keli.
It’s a tantalising true story; Lane insists she handed over Tegan to her father but the Crown decided she killed the baby – and sent her to jail.
The first episode was well-structured, with plenty of moments where you question, not only Lane’s actions, but those of the people being interviewed.
And I have no idea how it’s all going to end.