Do you like true crime docs? If so, you’re going to love what February 2021 has in store for you. Check out these two new docuseries and one new investigative drama series that are coming out this month.
1. The Investigation on HBO & HBO Max
The Investigation is a six-episode Danish crime series that premiered on HBO and started streaming on HBO Max on Monday, February 1, 2021. The drama is based on a true crime known as “the submarine case.”
In 2017, Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall was invited aboard the Nautilus, a miniature submarine owned by Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen. When she didn’t return the next day, her boyfriend contacted authorities, who initiated a search mission. They found the sub and its owner, who they were able to rescue. Well, the owner they saved. The sub ended up sinking. There was no sign of Wall, however.
Madsen changed his story several times about what had happened to Wall. At first, he said he’d dropped her off somewhere, then that she had died and he’d buried her at sea. It turned out she had died. Or, more accurately, had been murdered and dismembered. Her torso was the first thing to wash up. Divers eventually recovered the rest of her, and Madsen was arrested and charged with her murder.
The Investigation focuses on just what its name implies: the investigation of the case and apparently doesn’t even mention Madsen’s name. As series creator Tobias Lindholm told Esquire: “I hope that this story in the way we’ve told it, can at least invite a conversation about how we as media consumers are hurting [victim’s] relatives, and how we once in a while are celebrating brutal killers that don’t necessarily need that attention. When you work with true crime, these are real people’s real lives, and we do have a responsibility towards survivors and relatives and victims.”
2. Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
2021 seems to be the year of the Cecil Hotel. On February 10, 2021, another docuseries centering on the infamous hotel will start streaming on Netflix: Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.
As Variety reported, executive director and producer Joe Berlinger “sets out to deconstruct what really happened to college student and tourist Lam, who stayed at the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles in February 2013.”
3. “The Widower” on NBC
From the producers of Dateline NBC comes “The Widower,” a special three-part series that premieres on Thursday, February 18. Well, part one does. Part two premieres on Friday, February 19, and part three premiers on Sunday, February 21.
There aren’t a lot of specifics detailing what it’s about, but it’s Dateline. They remain my favorite true crime storyteller.
However, there is a little nugget of info, as Deadline reported: “The Widower goes behind the scenes of one of the country’s most confounding murder investigations, revealing a tale of evil and a tireless quest for justice in real time. It features unprecedented and exclusive access to the alleged killer playing cat-and-mouse not just with investigators, but with Dateline’s cameras.
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Are you a true crime fan too? Do any of these sound good to you?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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