True Crime Shows

| Lisa Waldera

Lisa Waldera (25) is a master’s student Communication Studies from Bremen, Germany. For three years now, she’s been living on campus. Next to her study, she regularly visits the cinema and enjoys concerts of all music genres. Every other week she writes about her life at the University of Twente.

Photo by: Annabel Jeuring

Today is the 5th night I am obligated to stay inside at night. But actually, it is the nth night for me. I do it like all the other weeks before. With astonishment, I follow the riots in a lot of Dutch cities. People are now ‘fighting for their freedom’ but seem to be frustrated overall. And while some people obviously feel trapped inside their homes, I simply enjoy the endless streaming possibilities.

It might just be my impression but streaming services seem to have been shooting up like mushrooms lately. A real paradise for a movie and series fanatic like me. Netflix is an old hand already but keeps producing new content. Next to that I also tried new services during the ongoing crisis:  Disney+, Amazon prime video, Videoland, Pathé thuis. And then there is my latest discovery, Discovery+. American trash tv, mixed with scientific documentaries and true crime shows.

I don’t have many vices. No smoking or excessive drinking. But over the course of the last year, I could not help but fall for the massive amount of true crime series and documentaries offered online. At first, I felt weird about being interested in behavioral patterns of serial killers and the analysis of crime scenes. But after taking a look at the wide range, I figured that I cannot be the only one to watch these gruesome, yet exciting shows. A great way to spend hours finding the killer among a group of people instead of writing my thesis.

I had hoped that I’d learn to manage my time by the end of my Master’s study. But wrong! I only learned to be extraordinarily efficient right before an approaching deadline. Weirdly enough I manage to watch things tirelessly but my concentration ability for data analysis is exhausted after ten minutes. If only methodology was a bit more entertaining…

I must admit though, that the last couple of nights I was busy refreshing the NOS liveblog. As long as the news show riots and turmoil close by, I will skip the crime cases. The reality is scary enough. Therefore, I will go look for more positive and hope-giving entertainment. I just have to choose one of the many other streaming services.

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