Okay, so Serial bred a whole murderporn genre. The Richard Simmons podcast, Making of a Murderer, the Robert Durst stuff, etc.
We also know, looking back, that Serial was intensely focused on making a profit, creating false drama, and destroying the lives of everyone it profiled. Probably the most irresponsible reality program ever created -- and the other shows have followed suit to varying levels (most recently and notable the Richard Simmons thing).
We all got sucked in. We all made these programs go viral and we never thought about the people they were destroying because, of course, the narrative created shadows and doubt around them. The way the narrative was told -- with standard reality show cliffhangers and false lads -- wooed us, got us involved, made us crazy for more, more, more.
We didn't bother to stop and look at how that narrative was, by and large, one person's opinion and edited to hell and back to look exciting.
Enter American Vandal, Netflix's new comedy mockumentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3tkFOtM6goIt starts out as a straight-up (and very funny) parody and then brilliantly uses the same narrative techniques to fucking lock you into the real purpose of the show: An edgy, subversive social commentary that leaves you realizing just how awful you are for supporting the Serial genre.
American Vandal is almost lock-step with Serial and the TV show versions of the murderporn genre. The documentations speak in dulcet, even tones, they show themselves doing due diligence with all the evidence and theories, and then, in absence of answers or truly workable theories, they lead you down dark dead-ends, go off on pointless, slanderous tangents, and ultimately end up blindly following their own convoluted, nearly-fictional trail (which Serial did in the final episodes).
Well worth the watch. Especially if you enjoyed Serial or the other murderporn entries.