The 34 Best True Crime Documentaries and Series of 2022 (So Far)

The 34 Best True Crime Documentaries and Series of 2022 (So Far)

All fans of true crime, take note: A fresh slate of compelling new documentaries and scripted true-crime shows to watch arrives with the start of a new year. We can already see trends developing for the real crime themes that will come as new projects are launched. The Summer of Scam(opens in new tab), anyone?) and other crimes that captured our attention in the past are developed into a series in 2022 that will detail everything we now know about what happened. These 2022 true-crime documentaries and series are for those itching to learn the entire tale of their favorite con artists.

By Paul Smith

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'The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman'

This three-part docuseries follows a con artist who deceived multiple people into giving him money by pretending to be a British spy. Even though he was found guilty in 2005, the crime comes full circle as a family today begins to worry for their mother's safety.

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'We Need to Talk About Cosby'

Anyone who grew up watching Cosby as "America's Dad" before his crimes came to light should watch this documentary. The film's director, W. Kamau Bell, demonstrates how the disgraced comic committed crimes at every stage of his career and provides room for his victims to share their experiences.

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'Pam & Tommy'

This Emmy-nominated miniseries chronicles the theft and early Internet leak of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's sextape by worker Rand Gauthier. The programme has a true-crime twist because it covers both Anderson and Gauthier's perspectives on the events.

'Inventing Anna'

Inventing Anna(opens in new tab) explores the life of Anna Delvey(opens in new tab), a mystery NYC socialite who conned her way into a life of luxury and is based on the widely shared The Cut(opens in new tab) article. The journalistic inquiry into Delvey (played by Ozark's Julia Garner) as she develops the narrative of the mastermind behind 2018's Summer of Scam will be the subject of this scripted television series from Shonda Rhimes.

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'Tinder Swindler'

The victims of Shimon Hayut, a con artist who used Tinder to meet women and trick them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a Russian oligarch named Simon Leviev, are followed in this romantic scam documentary. Producers and director Felicity Morris from the Netflix hit Don't F*** Cats are part of the team behind this fascinating documentary.

'The Dropout'

Numerous books and an HBO Max documentary have already been produced about the Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos story (opens in new tab). The story is now being developed, and Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried(opens in new tab) will play the software executive who promised to transform medical blood testing (and whose trial just ended in a guilty verdict).

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'Perfect World: A Deadly Game'

A gWhat ang of gamers from the year 2019 wake up one day to group chat messages from a pal confessing to three murders. The pals raced to identify the murderer before he may commit a fourth killing because they knew one was planned. This two-part docuseries, which is based on a Vice story, details the actual circumstances surrounding this quadruple homicide.

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'Worst Roommate Ever'

The stories in this docuseries about the worst roommates anyone has ever had range from murder and fraud to squatters and intimidation. Whether you're interested in severe fraud or you simply want to learn more about tenants' rights, it's absolutely worth watching.

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'Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.'

Sarma Melngailis, a well-known chef and the "Queen of Vegan Cuisine," vanished in 2015 after stealing millions of dollars from her raw food restaurant Pure Food and Wine (opens in new tab). She was duped by her husband, Anthony Strangis, who convinced her that he could extend her food empire and "make her pet dog everlasting," according to the inquiry reported in Vanity Fair(opens in new tab). This Netflix documentary series will explain how the couple transitioned from vegan aspirants to fugitives.

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'WeCrashed'

In March, there will be a new series on the dramatic growth and demise of a computer company. This drama is based on Adam Neumann (Jared Leto) and his wife Rebekah (Anne Hathaway), whose love story is at the heart of WeWork, the co-working behemoth that went from being valued at $47 billion to bankruptcy in less than two months (money is fake, etc.).

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'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King'

Netflix delves into cryptocurrency fraud in 2022 with the tale of Gerry Cotten's mysterious passing. Cotten was the sole owner of $217 million worth of bitcoin at the time of his death in 2018, according to his widow, and he ran the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada at the time. Following a group of investors who have turned amateur investigators, Crypto King speculates that the couple fled with the money.

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'The Girl from Plainville'

Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 for encouraging her then-boyfriend Conrad Roy III to commit suicide while she was 17 and he was 18. Their primary communication was via text messaging. The plot of this new series, which stars Elle Fanning as Carter and is based on the circumstances leading up to Roy's death and the subsequent trial, demonstrates how the actual events affected everyone involved.

'Jimmy Saville: A British Horror Story'

Here is yet another docuseries about the ascent and collapse of a formerly adored performer. Saville, an English DJ, television, and radio celebrity who was found to have sexually molested hundreds of women and children while he was one of Britain's biggest stars, is the subject of the two-part series.

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'Captive Audience'

The Stayner family is followed in this three-part miniseries, which poses intriguing queries regarding the popular true crime storytelling trend in this country. Steven Stayner, then 7 years old, was kidnapped in 1972 and held against his will until he managed to escape and be reunited with his family in 1980. They were then immediately thrown into the limelight as the focus of a successful TV limited series. Years later, after the family thought they had survived the media frenzy, one of Steven's siblings was thought to be responsible for a string of homicides in and around Yosemite National Park.

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'The Staircase'

The Staircase, a 2004 documentary that followed the trial of North Carolina author of crime fiction Michael Peterson, who was charged with killing his wife Kathleen, was the first of its kind to focus on contemporary true-crime cases. Now, an all-star cast will present a fictionalised account of the events from the weeks leading up to Kathleen's death through the conclusion of the media circus trial, led by Colin Firth and Toni Collette.

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Gaslit'

Julia Roberts portrays Martha Mitchell, the outspoken wife of Nixon's attorney general who spoke out against the president, in this television drama set in the Watergate era. She goes public and turns against the government after she learns that her husband, John Mitchell, was the one who gave the go-ahead for the Watergate break-in.

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'Candy'

Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife, was charged with murdering Betty Gore with an axe in 1978 but was ultimately found not guilty (opens in new tab). The women's friendship and tragic repercussions are depicted in this scripted miniseries, which stars Melanie Lynskey from Yellowjackets(opens in new tab) as Gore and Jessica Biel as Montgomery.

'Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets'

By placing large bets on GameStop in 2020, users of the Reddit subreddit WallStreetBets took on the financial sector and generated a social phenomenon. This documentary talks to both individuals who made money off their trades and those who lost everything as it explains the stock market event in simple terms.

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'Our Father'

This Netflix documentary chronicles the tale of Dr. Donald Cline, a fertility specialist who illegally inseminated scores of women with his own sperm (and counting), and the victims' quest for retribution. A few of the women and their kids describe how they learned about Cline's actions and how their quest for justice has affected their lives.

'Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey'

This four-part docuseries chronicles the life of FLDS Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) leader and prophet Warren Jeffs, who dominated the polygamous, patriarchal community with an iron grip. Former FLDS members and Jeffs' victims discuss the widespread abuse committed by the now-incarcerated leader in the documentary.

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'Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies, and the Internet'

This six-part anthology series explores crimes that result from people going as far as possible with digital fraud and misinformation, from sextortion to conspiracy theorists.

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'The Girl in the Picture'

This documentary explores the terrible tale of Suzanne Sevakis' life after her unexpected death. It begins with the end of a life and moves backwards from there. Franklin Delano Floyd(opens in new tab) kidnapped Sevakis when she was a young child, reared her as his daughter, and eventually married her. She has also gone by the names Sharon Marshall and Tonya Hughes.

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'The Most Hated Man on the Internet'

IsAnyoneUp.com, the website that popularized revenge porn, and its unrepentant founder Hunter Moore are the subjects of this three-part documentary series (opens in new tab). It also includes the site's numerous victims and those who worked to shut it down, including a committed mother and an anti-bullying activist.

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'Black Bird'

This acclaimed Apple TV+ miniseries tells the true tale of Jimmy Keene, a former athlete who was sentenced to ten years in prison without the possibility of parole for cocaine peddling. Keene has to traverse the risks of a maximum-security jail while also earning the trust of a killer when he is persuaded to obtain a confession from an alleged serial killer in exchange for being released early.

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'Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist'

This episode of the sports documentary series on Netflix details the catfishing incident involving professional football player Manti Te'o in 2013. When Te'o's grandma and his fiancée passed away on the same night while he was a collegiate athlete at Notre Dame, he won the sympathies of sports fans all around the country. There was a significant media response against Te'o after it was revealed that his girlfriend was a fake, leading some to speculate that he was complicit in the scam. Now, some ten years later, the documentary tells Te'o's side of the tale.

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'The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist'

A group of LA adolescents broke into the residences of a number of the top stars of the time, including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Orlando Bloom, in 2008 and 2009. (Emma Watson and Sofia Coppola's 2013 film (opens in new tab) about their exploits was even based on real events.) With interviews from some of the group members (Alexis Haines (née Neiers) and Nick Prugo), one of their victims (The Hills star Audrina Partridge), and Perez Hilton, this documentary tells the true story.

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'Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'

This Ryan Murphy-created television show fictionalises the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, as seen through the eyes of his victims, his family, and a paranoid neighbour. Netflix has ordered two additional seasons of Monster after the popularity of the limited series, transforming it into an anthology about "other horrible characters who have influenced society" despite accusations that it glorified the killer's crimes.

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'Unsolved Mysteries'

The third instalment of Netflix's long-running true crime series was released this year, and it featured stories of the drowning of a respected school librarian and seasoned boater as well as the inexplicable murder of a female college-bound athlete and a mass UFO encounter.

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'The Watcher'

This fictitious series, which is based on a true story from Westfield, New Jersey, follows a family of four as their move to a dream home is threatened by letters they receive anonymously from a "Watcher" who says the old mansion needs "fresh blood." (Despite its disappointing finale, Netflix renewed this show for a second season; opens in new tab.))

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'Killer Sally'

This three-part documentary explores a legendary bodybuilding crime that occurred on Valentine's Day 1995, when bodybuilder Sally McNeil fatally shot her husband, national bodybuilding champion Ray McNeil. Sally, who claimed to be choked at the time of the shooting and was a frequent target of Ray's domestic abuse, is interviewed on the show.

'Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste'

This documentary traces the emergence and demise of OneTaste, a sexual wellness company that managed a commune in San Francisco and taught customers how to practise "orgasmic meditation." After charges of abuse against the women who dedicated their life to the practice, the company and its founder, Nicole Daedone, came under FBI investigation.

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'I Am Vanessa Guillen'

This documentary tells the tale of Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier who vanished from Fort Hood in 2020 and was later discovered dead. In the movie, her family is interviewed as they discuss their quest for information and struggle for justice for sexual assault victims in the military.

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