"Based On A True Story" Peacock Show: Is True-Crime Podcasting That Bad?

 Recently, Peacock, Comcast's streaming service, released a show called "Based On A True Story." The half-hour show -- with eight episodes -- dabbles in several well-established genres, from comedy to drama, and slasher flick to true-crime mystery.

It's the tossed salad of the genres, with the sharp writing, and exceptional acting making the show so entertaining. 

Here's the plotline: "Between endless bills, midlife marriage squabbles, a new pregnancy and mounting work pressures, Ava and her husband Nathan feel like they're watching their lives fall apart. Ava's passion is true crime, so when she realizes that plumber-turned-family friend Matt is the serial killer behind a string of unsolved murders in LA, she spots an opportunity. Ava and Nathan blackmail Matt into co-creating a podcast about his "work," but they quickly realize that collaborating with a killer won't be a cakewalk."

The show stars Chris Messina as Nathan, Kaley Cuocco as Ava, and Tom Bateman as the serial killer Matt. Bateman is equal parts Ted Bundy and Brad Pitt, and he crosses over between personalities with such ease and facility it's hard to predict the direction of his malevolence.

During the course of the eight episodes, viewers observe the main characters attend a true-crime podcast convention in Las Vegas. 

Here's the raison d'être for this article. Is this Peacock streaming TV show just another example of media spotlighting the crazed nature of true-crime podcasting? During the episodes at the true-crime podcasting convention, attendees are depicted as deranged, spellbound by the hint of violence, dangerously competitive, sadistic voyeurs, and morality-free podcasters.

Is this a trend?

After all, in Hulu's Only Murders In The Building, an exceptional show, viewers are also treated to crazed true-crime podcasts fans -- some good and some bad. Then we have Tina Fey, who plays a famous true-crime podcaster who (spoiler alert) turns out to be in favor of crime instead of against it. 

So are true-crime podcast fans now a meme? Are they the Gen Z version of Trekkies? 

When the true-crime podcast, Serial was released in 2014 (investigating the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old student from Baltimore) it only took six months for the podcast’s first season to be downloaded more than 68 million times.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the third quarter Podtrac podcast rankings unveil a strong theme. True-crime podcasts attract a lot of listeners. Loyal listeners. Engaged listeners who also link to the podcast through social media and email newsletters.

According to Scott Bonn, professor of criminology at Drew University and author of the book, Why We Love Serial Killers, true crime “triggers the most basic and powerful emotion in all of us—fear.” This is the primary driver of the popularity of true crime novels, television shows, and podcasts. 

True-crime podcast fans identify with victims of the crime and often use the podcast as a catharsis to help them deal with their fears. In fact, there is evidence that listening to true-crime stories can actually soothe listeners’ fears of being harmed.

A study conducted by social psychologist Amanda Vicary revealed that women prefer true crime topics more than men. In her research, Vicary found that women tend to be attracted to the psychological content of true-crime stories. Vicary also noted that since women are victims of crime more often than men, they are driven to understand the reason for the crime and ways for them to prevent such an act.

Clinical psychologist Dr. John Mayer, who studies violence and media, indicated that people, and women, in particular, use true-crime stories as a way to purposefully expose themselves to violence as a way to “build up [their] tolerance to something scary and seemingly inevitable.”

The other factor related to true-crime podcast popularity is that attraction to disaster and misfortune – like rubbernecking at the scene of a serious auto accident. The public’s fascination with them can be seen as a manifestation of its more general fixation on violence and calamity. In other words, the actions of a serial killer may be horrible to behold, but much of the public simply cannot look away due to the spectacle.

Finally, one recent trend in true-crime podcast popularity is the sense of fairness and justice that humans inherently seem to possess. Unfairness roils us to the core, and someone getting away with a violent act is as disruptive to our sense of fairness as an innocent person being punished for something they did not do.

Podcasts like Serial also seed the concept of inequity in the American justice system.

“Baby boomers and to some extent Gen Xers grew up with the concept that the police and the DA always get the right person,” psychologist Ken Grayson notes. “Many true-crime podcasts cast doubt on the ability of the police to always arrest the right person. Indeed, a recurring theme in these podcasts is that the police sometimes identify a likely perpetrator and then fit the evidence to match their identification of the guilty party.”

For true-crime podcasters, of course, they can grab that pot of gold over the rainbow by either helping to prove the innocence of a convicted person, identify the killer after the crime has become a cold case, or help to prove that a suspect is indeed the perpetrator.

So will true-crime podcasting become so ubiquitous that it is soon called "podcasting?" Will true-crime podcast fans embrace their role as the new "tin foil hat" crowd, replacing wacky political conspiracy theories? Will Joe Rogan switch from misinformation to solving true crimes related to vaccines, 5G, wifi, sexual orientation, and, most heinous of all, people not giving a crab about MMA fighters beating each other into premature dementia?