I have a confession to make. Though I had decades to get around to understanding the FBI’s Abscam sting operations, it wasn’t until I watched American Hustle that I actually understood how the federally-funded fishing operation from the fictional “Abdul Enterprises” worked.
Call it Schoolhouse Rock for grownups, the pill of education wrapped in the flash and fun of music, big Hollywood names, and (in American Hustle’s case) some really great interior design. But, hey, it works in a way that reading straightforward news coverage, however well-written, doesn’t.
So, let’s share the wisdom. What’s a true crime property (narrative journalism, TV series, film, podcast, whatever) that helped you “get” a crime the way other news coverage of it didn’t? Maybe if we get enough, we can come up with a whole true crime syllabus and have a post-collegiate party. — EB
The Big Short was an excellent layout of the 2009 financial crisis. Adam McKay's Vice did it again with explaining Dick Cheney's tenure in his rise to US VP.
The Wire. Those season 1 high-rises (which are torn down, just like in season 3) are walking distance from where I'm typing this right now, and I drive past clusters of corner kids throwing hand signals to the passing traffic and each other every day during my commutes, but until I watched The Wire this past summer, I didn't know how any of it worked. I was a massive fan of Homicide back in the day, so I don't know why it took me so long to finally watch The Wire. And Laura Lippman (David Simon's spouse) is in my top 10 favorite fiction writers, so I have learned quite a lot about local goings-on in the crime world from her, too.
Ditto the Big Short. I never understood where the money went in that particular scheme. Now I know. Thanks, Bill Clinton! For deregulating the banks. Also, Citibank was at the rotten core of the Great Depression for the same shit, different name, and Clinton's deregulation of the banks was known as the Citibank Gift (or something like it). They never change. Different head on the snake, but same snake's body.
This is perhaps a controversial definition of True Crime, but HBO's Recount.
There was also a Frontline piece maybe eight years ago called The Warning, which was about Clinton's head of the Commodities and Futures Trading Board who basically told everyone in the 90s that the Big Short was going to happen if they passed the Graham-Leach-Bliley bill.
Oh, and on the Frontline train, their two episodes taking down the notion of forensic science, Death By Fire (about Cameron Todd Willingham) and The Real CSI.
Count me in as another for The Big Short. Also, Ozark has an excellent explanation of money laundering - even better than Breaking Bad. I guess I’m a total dunce when it comes to financial crimes. Big into Narcos when it comes to explaining about how to traffic drugs (and make cocaine). Forensic Files will teach you anything you want to know about poisoning (insulin!) and I’m learning about ghost guns from the Lost Hills podcast.
Doctor Death taught me a ton about the US health care system, and also the legal issues around disbarring. When the Brandon Teena story broke, it gave me an understanding of trans issues ( now we know much better and the reporting has been revised since, but for it even to be sympathetic was something).
I would like to add, in addition to the Big Short, Inside Job, the Oscar Documentary for that year. A really great look at the insidious way the loop of American finance is closed to those of us not in it, and how the house of cards fell in 2008. Basically, Hank Paulson was/is an idiot. The end.
A lot of this is likely my ignorance about cults at the time, but ‘Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples Temple’ was an eye opener into the cult as a long con. One of the women says (paraphrasing!), nobody joins a cult. You join a movement that appears to have some noble goals. But in the case of Peoples Temple, the charismatic monster at the head of it drew people in and then used gaslighting and abuse to scare people from leaving (and kill them if they tried in some cases, if I remember correctly). Whew! Very tough watch but a real eye opener into how that could, and did, happen.
Chain of Title, by David Dayen, taught me the granular level of mortgage fraud in the subprime bubble that exploded in 2008. He shows how the mortgages made into those securities weren’t just taken out by stupid or greedy people- many were actually fraudulent or steered into subprime when they qualified for prime mortgages. There’s a crazy level of fraud in the records transfer... Dayen actually made this stuff compelling, at least to a municipal government nerd. The dirty money is always in the details...
+1for Inside Job, and I'll add The Smartest Men in the Room for allowing me to "get" the Enron horror story, and appreciate the extent and impact of their crimes. Still think about all those people that lost their retirements because of those greedy fucks.
The Informant! was pretty educational about price fixing. I think This American Life first brought that story to light, and of course since TAL is famous for bringing a lot of true crime stories to the fore, they get a huge chunk of the credit, IMO.
The Big Short was an excellent layout of the 2009 financial crisis. Adam McKay's Vice did it again with explaining Dick Cheney's tenure in his rise to US VP.
The Wire. Those season 1 high-rises (which are torn down, just like in season 3) are walking distance from where I'm typing this right now, and I drive past clusters of corner kids throwing hand signals to the passing traffic and each other every day during my commutes, but until I watched The Wire this past summer, I didn't know how any of it worked. I was a massive fan of Homicide back in the day, so I don't know why it took me so long to finally watch The Wire. And Laura Lippman (David Simon's spouse) is in my top 10 favorite fiction writers, so I have learned quite a lot about local goings-on in the crime world from her, too.
Ditto the Big Short. I never understood where the money went in that particular scheme. Now I know. Thanks, Bill Clinton! For deregulating the banks. Also, Citibank was at the rotten core of the Great Depression for the same shit, different name, and Clinton's deregulation of the banks was known as the Citibank Gift (or something like it). They never change. Different head on the snake, but same snake's body.
This is perhaps a controversial definition of True Crime, but HBO's Recount.
There was also a Frontline piece maybe eight years ago called The Warning, which was about Clinton's head of the Commodities and Futures Trading Board who basically told everyone in the 90s that the Big Short was going to happen if they passed the Graham-Leach-Bliley bill.
Oh, and on the Frontline train, their two episodes taking down the notion of forensic science, Death By Fire (about Cameron Todd Willingham) and The Real CSI.
Count me in as another for The Big Short. Also, Ozark has an excellent explanation of money laundering - even better than Breaking Bad. I guess I’m a total dunce when it comes to financial crimes. Big into Narcos when it comes to explaining about how to traffic drugs (and make cocaine). Forensic Files will teach you anything you want to know about poisoning (insulin!) and I’m learning about ghost guns from the Lost Hills podcast.
Doctor Death taught me a ton about the US health care system, and also the legal issues around disbarring. When the Brandon Teena story broke, it gave me an understanding of trans issues ( now we know much better and the reporting has been revised since, but for it even to be sympathetic was something).
I would like to add, in addition to the Big Short, Inside Job, the Oscar Documentary for that year. A really great look at the insidious way the loop of American finance is closed to those of us not in it, and how the house of cards fell in 2008. Basically, Hank Paulson was/is an idiot. The end.
A lot of this is likely my ignorance about cults at the time, but ‘Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples Temple’ was an eye opener into the cult as a long con. One of the women says (paraphrasing!), nobody joins a cult. You join a movement that appears to have some noble goals. But in the case of Peoples Temple, the charismatic monster at the head of it drew people in and then used gaslighting and abuse to scare people from leaving (and kill them if they tried in some cases, if I remember correctly). Whew! Very tough watch but a real eye opener into how that could, and did, happen.
Chain of Title, by David Dayen, taught me the granular level of mortgage fraud in the subprime bubble that exploded in 2008. He shows how the mortgages made into those securities weren’t just taken out by stupid or greedy people- many were actually fraudulent or steered into subprime when they qualified for prime mortgages. There’s a crazy level of fraud in the records transfer... Dayen actually made this stuff compelling, at least to a municipal government nerd. The dirty money is always in the details...
+1for Inside Job, and I'll add The Smartest Men in the Room for allowing me to "get" the Enron horror story, and appreciate the extent and impact of their crimes. Still think about all those people that lost their retirements because of those greedy fucks.
The Informant! was pretty educational about price fixing. I think This American Life first brought that story to light, and of course since TAL is famous for bringing a lot of true crime stories to the fore, they get a huge chunk of the credit, IMO.