The true crime genre has seen a surge in popularity in recent years.
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The likely start of that was the podcast Serial, which kicked off in 2014 with an investigation of the murder of Hae Min Lee and the jailing of Adnan Syed.
The podcast gained international attention as it called Syed’s conviction into question.
Since then, there has been a surge in true-crime podcasts, TV shows and books. And I have to say I’m ambivalent about some of them – generally the ones where the creator is “re-investigating” an old case.
That’s because the creator runs the risk of focusing on their project, rather than the investigation.
They need a big hook at the end, a shock twist to justify the whole thing; people would be disappointed with a podcast that ends with “what do you know, the police arrested the right guy”.
That’s a clear conflict of interest – you can’t be fair in an investigation if you’re wanting it to go in a direction that works for your podcast.
This is why those cases that have been solved are a better source.
And one of the better exponents of that I’ve seen in quite a while is The Good Cop on the Crime + Investigation channel.
The cop in question is retired Melbourne police detective Ron Iddles, who had a reported conviction rate of 99 per cent.
The gripping six-part series sees Iddles give a class on investigation. Each episode features a case he investigated, using them to illustrate a truth about his work.
For instance, the episode where Iddles goes through the 1982 murder of six-year-old Bonnie Clarke, the lesson is “the answer’s in the file” – meaning the chances are very high that the guilty person has already been interviewed or mentioned in the case documents.
The lesson in another episode is the ABC of homicide – Assume nothing, Believe nothing, Check everything.
What really makes The Good Cop a winner is the participation of Iddles. He serves as the narrator, staring straight down the camera and taking the viewer through the history of the case.
If you’re not watching The Good Cop, you really need to change that – it’s a cracker of a show.