When I was a young kid I would always stay up on Fridays at
10pm to watch "Dateline NBC." On that show, they would show some crime, such a murder
or a kidnapping, a police investigation, and then finally the resolution, which
usually involved throwing somebody into jail. I loved these shows and others
like "48 Hours" or "Cold Case Files". The small fact that would put all the
unconnected pieces together, the one detective who would not give up and keep
searching until the crime was solved, the criminal who thought he was so smart
but was foiled by forensics, all of this felt so satisfactory. The good guys always used their wits to catch
the bad guys.
I separated myself from real crime dramas, but I recently got back into them. While I was gone, the whole
landscape of the genre has radically changed. Starting with the podcast "Serial",
then to the podcast "Undisclosed" and similar podcasts about the Adnan Syed case,
the focus has shifted from the idea of “the police are the pillars of justice”
to the flaws of the police and the criminal justice system in general. This is
further shown by the Netflix original series "Making a Murder", where police and
judicial misconduct are highlighted.
It seems people are starting to take a more critical look at
our judicial and criminal systems and have found flaws that warrant investigation,
from flaws in the investigation and discovery procedure to the validity of forensic evidence in general. Furthermore,
these flaws are enough for people to want to advocate for and produce
meaningful content for masses to enjoy.
Listening to these issues that have been dormant for so long reminds me
that rights of people are being trampled upon by our own system. Sure I am a
passive listener and I am not running around advocating, but I personally like
the transition of the real crime genre with the new focus on these more
important issues and not just be a propaganda tool, and am glad others are
fighting for these causes.
For people who want to listen to Serial https://serialpodcast.org/season-one
or Undisclosed http://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/
