These 30 True-Crime Documentaries Are Just As Mind Blowing As Netflix’s 'Tiger King'

It's no secret true crime is still having a moment (podcasts, docuseries, TV shows, oh my!). The main suspect behind the content explosion is—surprise, surprise—streaming giants. During a year spent mostly at home, documentaries like Netflix’s Murder Among the Mormons took the internet by storm with its tale of deception and death, while HBO cashed in on a legendary scammer tale with McMillions. And a year later, in 2021, those detective caps are still on and the latest true crime documentaries, like Netflix’s The Sons of Sam: Descent into Darkness, are still so captivating. (Btw, Sons of Sam transports viewers back to 1970s New York, when David Berkowitz terrorized the city, and follows journalist Maury Terry's investigation into a wild theory.)

While Netflix, HBO Max, and Amazon Prime battle it out for viewers' attention, pumping out chilling documentary after chilling documentary, everyone else gets to settle in for their ever-growing collection of shockingly true stories. By reminding watchers that reality can be even stranger than Stephen King-level fiction, these films ignite your intrigue and draw you into the mystery of every new or reopened case. After all, if you’re not going down hours-long rabbit holes filled with articles, Reddit threads, and conspiracy theories found wedged in the random corners of the internet by the end of a documentary, it didn’t do its job.

So, grab your magnifying glass, because, when it comes to true crime docs, nothing is ever what it seems (like, ever). From stories that tap into secret lives and bizarre circumstances to tales of mistaken identity and murder, these are the 30 best true crime documentaries to watch right now.