FROM big cats to empty picture frames, the true-crime shows people can’t stop thinking about range from the outright outrageous to the utterly devastating.

One standout for British viewers is BBC’s Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared (2016), a deep dive into the disappearance of Damien Nettles. Fans praise its empathetic tone and the way it follows the investigation as it unfolds, rather than simply laying out a timeline.

A very different kind of gut-punch lands in Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008). The film follows David and Kathleen Bagby after their son Andrew is murdered, then focuses on the later murder-suicide of his former partner Shirley Turner — the main suspect in Andrew’s death — and their one-year-old son, Zachary. It was made by Kurt Kuenne, a close friend of Andrew’s.

Recent viewing choices include Devil in the Family: the Fall of Ruby Franke (2025), about the family vlogger and the severe child abuse she committed. Viewers describe it as engaging but horrific, adding that it helped knowing the two perpetrators were jailed.

If you want your true crime with spectacle, Tiger King still gets a mention: it centres on big-cat enthusiast Joe Exotic, who was jailed for animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire after plotting to kill rival conservationist Carole Baskin.

And for sheer jaw-drop factor, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015) is held up as a modern great, charting Durst — suspected of killing his first wife and convicted for the murder of a friend and then a neighbour in 2000-01 — and building to a much-talked-about final reveal.