For many years, the true crime genre lived on the fringes of pop culture, relegated to hidden bookstore corners and late-night timeslot fillers on the trashier end of the TV dial. But things have changed. Podcasts like Serial sparked a nationwide obsession with true crime, and Netflix has doubled down on the craze, churning out dozens of original docs and docuseries about murders, vanishings and other mysterious happenings – many of which have gone on to become national phenomena. As with any genre on Netflix, though, there are many more that end up buried under the platform’s deluge of content, like so many unidentified corpses in the woods. That’s why we’ve combed through the evidence to come up with this list of the best true crime documentaries on Netflix, from the well-hyped to hidden gems.
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