UNITED STATES
Salon
ERIN KEANE
Note: This story contains spoilers for the Netflix series “The Keepers.”
True crime fans cleared their schedules for a Netflix binge last weekend when the streaming service dropped the nonfiction cold case investigation “The Keepers,” a seven-part series about the 1969 disappearance and murder of a young nun in Baltimore. Comparisons to Netflix’s 2015 sensation “Making a Murderer” were unavoidable — another fascinatingly ambiguous criminal case for fans to get lost in, debate with fellow fans, and maybe even engage in some amateur sleuthing of their own.
Once upon a time — as recent as two years ago, a lifetime in Peak TV years — new seasons of fictional prestige dramas like “House of Cards” were awaited breathlessly. True crime was more the domain of documentary features and magazine shows like “Dateline” or “The First 48,” those nonfiction procedural counterparts to the “CSI” and “Law & Order” franchises. But three influential shows paved the way for true crime stories to claim a solid berth in the prestige tier of mass entertainment. Of course networks are now looking for the next story that could stretch into a multi-part binge-worthy series rather than a one-and-done feature film.
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