Pretty Much Pop #5: True Crime with Lucy Lawless

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:55 — 49.6MB)

Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior Princess, currently starring in My Life Is Murder) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to think about the true crime genre, of both the documentary and dramatized variety. What's the appeal? Why do women in particular gravitate to it?

We touch on Making of a Murderer, Serial, The Staircase, Amanda Knox, Ted Bundy Conversations with a Killer, I Love You Now Die, Mommy Dead and Dearest (dramatized as The Act), American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, My Favorite Murder, Casefile, Crime Talk with Scott Reisch, True Murder, and American Vandal.

Sources for this episode:

• "The Bloody History of the True Crime Drama" by Pamela Burger
• "What One Researcher Discovered About America's True Crime Obsession" by Sarah Watts
• “Bill James, True-Crime Obsessive, on the Genre’s Enduring Importance”  by Evan Hughes
• "The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime" by Alice Bolin
• "Why Do Women Love True Crime" by Kate Tuttle

For more Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast, see prettymuchpop.com. This episode includes bonus content that you can only hear by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is curated by openculture.com.

Here's an article about Lucy's new show and her love of the true crime genre. Watch the trailer.