General True Crime Shows

[Jaded]

I brought over urlittledogtoo's OP from the other thread elsewhere since it was a great way to start off.
 

Quote

There are threads for separate shows on the ID channel, but I wanted a thread where we could discuss the entire channel lineup of shows and those they are canceling. The title of the thread reflects the porn-level production values of most of the new shows, as well as the obligatory soft porn scenes that most of them feel compelled to include whether the story supports it or not. If there's not a half naked woman writhing on top of some guy (or guys) then you have probably tuned in the wrong channel or are watching an older (or now canceled) program.

The final straw for me was the cancellation of Disappeared and the promos for Karma's a Bitch hosted by that actor who can't get over the fact that he's not on the Sopranos any more. That and Dates From Hell, where each program has a mandatory sexy-dressing-for-the-date scene and sometimes a sex scene as well. 

Because you can't tell the story of a crime unless a beautiful girl is in her underwear at some point. Hey, and if the program is Scorned, Love Kills, there will be a woman moaning on the soundtrack to go along with it.

And if a crime is set in 1975, don't worry too much about the flat screen computer monitor in the scene or the call to 911 the witness makes on her cell phone. And when someone is born in 1945 I am sure that they will be fifteen years old circa 1972. That works, right? No one cares about little details like that. Why so nitpicky?

This channel is seriously out of control. The biggest mystery of all, though, is why I haven't gone the way of Disappeared and canceled my viewing before now. One day she was a happy viewer, and the next she was mysteriously missing....

 

[Satchels of gold]

Testing....testing....123. My first post on the new board.

[druzy]

 

Testing....testing....123. My first post on the new board.

Roger that!

[Edie Wharton]

Oh, geez--I finally saw the condo episode of Obsession.  "Die!  Die!"  I used to have a nympho neighbor upstairs who came home every night around 2am, after the bars closed.  She would then proceed to have earth-shatteringly loud sex with that evening's conquest.  Sadly, I was the neighbor saying, "Die!  Die!"  (Though really quietly because I didn't want to disturb the other neighbors!)  How could 911 not respond??  Imagine the tap dancing that would have occurred on the part of the authorities if the noisy neighbor really had been in jeopardy.  Did they ever give the location of this case?

Glad to be here with all of you!

[shlbycindyk]

Andyourlittledog2 I love your "Booga Booga" scenario.  Whenever I see a show where a woman is standing half naked in front of an uncovered window I usually start yelling "Buy some curtains!  Close your blinds!".  Unfortunately the people in TV land can't hear me and continue to put themselves in peril.  If they would just listen once in awhile it would go so much better for them.

[Yeldarbe]

I don't usually pay too close attention to the shows on this channel. It's Mr. Yeldarbe's go-to channel when nothing else he likes is on. I usually sit on my phone and lurk on twop reading about shows I liked. ....

This shit is rediculous, man. I will now watch with my snarkometer turned up. Be seeing y'all soon!

[beckie]

It is ridiculous and gets more ridiculous by season. They cancel great shows and bring in soft porn crap!

 

It used to be my go to, also. Now I watch if there are reruns of Disappeared or Kenda, or there's nothing else to watch.

[auntjess]

So many of the shows let you know who does the killing, like Snapped and the wives w/knives type shows.  I don't want the perp always to be the obvious suspect.

[Edie Wharton]

I've learned today - although I'm sure it's old news - that a fourth season of Kenda is in production now, to debut in October. I think it will have 13 episodes. Something to look forward to.

 

It's news to me, Suz at Large--great news!  Thanks for the heads up.

[Yeldarbe]

Oh man, there is one show, I think it's Tabloid! With Jerry Springer. I want to strangle whoever writes for that show. They are way too into their alliteration. I mean it was constant. Throughout the whole episode I watched. I can only really remember one specific example but I hope I wasn't the only one who noticed this!

"When they checked his CACHE of CONTACTS they realized it was an CRAZIER CATASTROPHE than first thought!"

"This JILTED JIGGALO was in for a JOLT!"

Stuff like that.

[beckie]

Apparently Disappeared is coming back, too. Although they've changed it totally, from what I've read. 

 

I'll give it an episode or two, but I'm not excited about it. why change it? It wasn't broken. It wasn't one of the shows on ID that needed fixing.

[Rina99]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/04/01/investigation-discovery-bad-boys-jack-wagner/

I'll admit it, I'm going to watch.

[beckie]

They gave up a LONG time ago. I don't even expect anything decent out of them anymore.

[auntjess]

OK, I did watch Cell Block Psychic, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.
Seemed like a cross between Long Island Medium and Cold Justice.
The going to the cell block and meeting with the killer still seems like an unnecessary gimmick, but I guess they wanted a peg.

On the other hand, I no long record Redrum. 
It isn't the stories, but the format, that makes it unwatchable for me.  It's the jerkiest show I've ever seen.
First it's the murder, then the day before, then a day after, and 2 minutes before.  Leaves your head spinning.

[walnutqueen]

OK, I did watch Cell Block Psychic, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.

 

 

I expected the worst and was not disappointed.  Another one bites the DVR dust.

 

ID is in serious need of an Intervention.

[beckie]

ID doesn't think they need an intervention, walnutqueen!

 

But if they screw up Disappeared, I'm going to be beyond pissed!

[Jaded]

It looks like people in the thread over at our previous home are requesting sections here for the shows they watch on ID. So who knows if this thread will see the action the one over there did. Having to hop from section to section to comment on shows that probably won't get many posts outside of Homicide Hunter seems tiring. That's just my opinion though. 

Here's a link to the Homicide Hunter section to make it easier to find.

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/601-homicide-hunter-lt-joe-kenda/

[Jaded]

Homicide Hunter has its own thread over at TWoP and isn't lumped into the general ID channel discussion.

That's why I said outside of Homicide Hunter.

[Jaded]

It's ok. I apologize for sounding bitchy in my reply was running on barely any sleep.

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

Oh, my people. . .my ID people. . .I've found you!! Huzzah!! Soooo much to snark on. . .hi, y'all. Can't wait to read this entire thread & be able to respond appropriately. But for now? Howdy!

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

I'm just jumping in here, but I'm positively compelled to write about the horrendous, even by ID-standards, "Dark Minds". Any other brave souls out there watching this dreck? It makes "Southern Fried Homicide" et al look like Shakespeare. . .I'm happy to expound if anyone wants to save him/herself the misery. There's so many good shows (Kenda, Disappeared--which I'm reading above is coming back: YAY!--and even Nightmare Next Door, although the V/O guy sounds eerily giddy sometimes), but when they miss? They miss so, so hard. 

[auntjess]

Some of the shows, I just won't watch.  These are the "worst nightmare" shows, like the neighbors from hell, and being held captive, and I Survived.
Not for me.

 

I wish this thread wasn't ID specific, because there are good shows, like First 48 which is airing new shows too, and The Shift, in repeats on Reelz.

The fugutive show isn't bad, and Crime 360 is pretty good.

I like the forensic shows, but they all seem to be old.

[Jaded]

I'm willing to bet if we could come up with another title this thread could become more general in nature if we ask nicely for TPTB to change it.

[auntjess]

I think a lot of people are attached to the title.
What we need is probably another catch-all file for non-ID true crimes shows, though a few do have files.

 

[beckie]

 

I'm just jumping in here, but I'm positively compelled to write about the horrendous, even by ID-standards, "Dark Minds".

I HATE Dark Minds! M. William Phelps bugs the shit out of me!

[Guest]

I wish this thread wasn't ID specific, because there are good shows, like First 48 which is airing new shows too, and The Shift, in repeats on Reelz.

The fugutive show isn't bad, and Crime 360 is pretty good.

I like the forensic shows, but they all seem to be old.

 

@auntjess, you can request new show forums here.

[auntjess]

CuriousParker, can I use that for a topic on Everything Else TV too?
The thing is, most of the shows I like are sporadic, and mostly reruns.  They show up in all kinds of places.
Another thing I'd love is a place down in EETV for general how-to remodeling shows, because while some are new, most are reruns, and again, sporadic.
HGTV and DIY runs things in mini-marathons.  For example, they're showing some Curb Appeals tomorrow, and I haven't seen these on for several months.
 

Is there a way to make a combined file for Mike Holmes' 2 older series, Holmes on Homes, and Holmes Inspection, with maybe subheads for Mike, Damon, Mike's kids, and the crew?
Thanks for any help and guidance. 
 

[Jaded]

Thanks for the heads up about Dark Minds. I'd thought about buying a recent episode that covered some unsolved cases around here. (Don't have cable, have to buy these things to watch them.)

 

But on amazon the episode description managed to include a huge error in just a few lines. It calls the cases "The Aurora County Murders." Oh, fer cryin' out loud. There's NO Aurora County in Colorado. Aurora is a large suburb of Denver that straddles two counties: Adams and Arapahoe. If the show producers are so sloppy as to create a mythical "Aurora County," how fast and loose do they play with facts that are less easily checked? Pfft.

 

I don't like Dark Minds either for various reasons one of the major ones being the host. That promo photo cracks me up because it looks like he's pouting and about to poke out his lower lip.

[Guest]

CuriousParker, can I use that for a topic on Everything Else TV too?

The thing is, most of the shows I like are sporadic, and mostly reruns.  They show up in all kinds of places.

Another thing I'd love is a place down in EETV for general how-to remodeling shows, because while some are new, most are reruns, and again, sporadic.

HGTV and DIY runs things in mini-marathons.  For example, they're showing some Curb Appeals tomorrow, and I haven't seen these on for several months.

 

Is there a way to make a combined file for Mike Holmes' 2 older series, Holmes on Homes, and Holmes Inspection, with maybe subheads for Mike, Damon, Mike's kids, and the crew?

Thanks for any help and guidance. 

 

 

Sorry for the late reply.  I didn't get the notification for some reason. 

 

You guys are free to start THREADS in the forums.  Threads can't have subthreads though.  The only reason we need people to request new FORUMS is that only admins (David T. Cole) can set those up.

 

My suggestion would be to start a thread for general discussion of DIY type shows and see how that ebbs and flows.  If you guys see a need to branch out, you can create new threads or request a new forum for a show.

[auntjess]

Thanks!

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

I HATE Dark Minds! M. William Phelps bugs the shit out of me!

Isn't he and his soul patch THE. WORST???????? Seriously. Awful. And I genuinely feel badly for the victims' families. . .doubly violated by tragedy AND MWP's soul patch and Mmmhhmmm cutaway shots. Awful.

I don't like Dark Minds either for various reasons one of the major ones being the host. That promo photo cracks me up because it looks like he's pouting and about to poke out his lower lip.

The promo's terrible, RAVEN (caCAW!) is unintentionally hysterical, and we are given NO background on his "right-hand man", the profiler. The first two episodes held such promise--I'd never heard of that guy and it's definitely an intriguing case, but he just wraps it in half-truths and never truly gets anywhere. And his Lisbeth Salmander-esque "find"? Do yourself a solid and check it out. You guys, she MAY have seen a serial killer! And now she has a map she colored!!!! She's A SAVANT! 

Sorry so many caps, but I just hatewatched the show about the "haunted theater" that people may or may not have been at the night they disappeared. 

There should be a drinking game. That said, I'm sad to say my bestie and I had a "Disappeared" drinking game. . .because I'm a terrible person. 

Please feel free to take this anywhere; I didn't mean to get all Dark Minds on y'all. . .I'm happy to talk about any of the crep & dreck on ID and whatever my cable channel is calling the HD channel that shows late 90s "Justice Files" and old The First 48 (which can do no wrong IMHO). 

 

I just set up a thread here for General True Crime shows not shown on ID network.  Take a look and post if you choose.  There's a home for that now.  

I'm so new I probably just replied to the wrong spot, but thank you for this!

@auntjess, you can request new show forums here.

Amen to Crime 360. I'm sure that show is costly to produce with all the aftereffects & whatnot, but it's always enjoyable and seems very thoughtfully done. Wish there was more.

OK, I did watch Cell Block Psychic, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.

Seemed like a cross between Long Island Medium and Cold Justice.

The going to the cell block and meeting with the killer still seems like an unnecessary gimmick, but I guess they wanted a peg.

On the other hand, I no long record Redrum. 

It isn't the stories, but the format, that makes it unwatchable for me.  It's the jerkiest show I've ever seen.

First it's the murder, then the day before, then a day after, and 2 minutes before.  Leaves your head spinning.

So it's not just me re: Redrum. I've stopped my Amazon Season Pass. too jarring, too jammed-into-22-min. . .just not well done and difficult to follow. And challenging to find empathy, too. 

I've never seen Tabloid!, but I've heard narration like this in Nightmare Next Door episodes. The cute wordplay level has varied across NND episodes. Though I notice stuff like that, I usually forget about it, along with the episode itself. But one episode just grated; it concerned the rape and murder of a child, and I thought the jokey-toned narration was brutally offensive. It was a matter of tone of voice and script content. I bought that season on Amazon Prime and just can't watch that episode again. It was an episode from I think last season. 

This season NND seems to have toned down the wordplay and the inappropriately jovial/chirpy narration. They also seem to have abandoned the scenes showing the investigating cops' leisure time hobbies, which I don't miss at all. A few of those could be really interesting but when it was part of the script formula, many of them seemed rather forced. 

Wholly agreed. The narrator got a more than a little overly trite and chipper with very sad stories. And also agreed re: Hey, I Go 4-Wheeling to Get My Sherlock Brain Fix! segments. So, so glad they're gone. I always tell my friend: if I'm ever chopped to bits, please, please make sure it's on something like "Murder Comes to Town" vs "NND". 

Small note: as a 5-year stalking survivor, if you're interested in how it genuinely feels, I can vouch for "Obsession: Dark Desires". It's not too over-the-top in reenactments and the survivors tell their own stories. I can honestly say it's a good depiction of a little-known subject. 

Oh man, there is one show, I think it's Tabloid! With Jerry Springer. I want to strangle whoever writes for that show. They are way too into their alliteration. I mean it was constant. Throughout the whole episode I watched. I can only really remember one specific example but I hope I wasn't the only one who noticed this!

"When they checked his CACHE of CONTACTS they realized it was an CRAZIER CATASTROPHE than first thought!"

"This JILTED JIGGALO was in for a JOLT!"

Stuff like that.

Also, watch the chyrons on that one. Misspellings a-plenty!

[Edie Wharton]

You guys, she MAY have seen a serial killer! And now she has a map she colored!!!! She's A SAVANT!

 

 

Perfect description.  Apparently Phelps does no real research himself, he just surfs online to find other people who have done no real research, then quotes their theories.  That woman Mary Sue'd her way into the Israel Keyes story.  Bizarre!

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

It's such Detective Light that I don't even know where to begin. I feel like he barely Googles things, asks his "experts" (throwing up in my mouth a little bit), and puts it out there for Real People to solve. Come ON. The families and victims seem genuinely and truly upset and traumatized, and it just feels so exploitive; much more so than anything else. If real people weren't involved? It would be comical. 
This guy (shakes head, scratches soul patch, looks afar). . .has got it coming. <--typical cliched response to random killer/s' actions. 

[beckie]

I think the thing that bugs me most about Dark Minds (after M. William Phelps and his accomplices) is that the show is touted as one that SOLVES unsolved crimes or digs up new evidence. So far I haven't seen one show that's done either. He'll find something and be almost gleeful over the fact he found, and then he finds out that it was already known.

 

Plus, his obsession over his sister in laws murder. I feel sorry for her......I really do, but he's almost to the point where it was personal to HIM....like he was over involved with her or something. It just feels weird to me when he mentions her.

 

 

Oh man, there is one show, I think it's Tabloid! With Jerry Springer. I want to strangle whoever writes for that show. They are way too into their alliteration. I mean it was constant. Throughout the whole episode I watched. I can only really remember one specific example but I hope I wasn't the only one who noticed this!

Almond Roca from TWOP claims to work on Tabloid. I wonder if he/she writes for them too?

Edited May 11, 2014 by beckie

[Jaded]

I think the thing that bugs me most about Dark Minds (after M. William Phelps and his accomplices) is that the show is touted as one that SOLVES unsolved crimes or digs up new evidence. So far I haven't seen one show that's done either. He'll find something and be almost gleeful over the fact he found, and then he finds out that it was already known.

 

Plus, his obsession over his sister in laws murder. I feel sorry for her......I really do, but he's almost the the point where it was personal to HIM....like he was over involved with her or something. It just feels weird to me when he mentions her.

Everything you mentioned especially the last part made me quit watching this show after about 3 episodes. It's like he uses what happened to his sister in law as a way to validate and excuse the poor way he handles the other cases he 'covers'. Like if we remember his family was a victim of crime also we'll excuse him. He needs to keep to writing and being a commentator on other shows because he's in over his head with his own show. If people are watching it it's not because he's great at what he's going it's to see if he can top the previous episode. He's like a true crime goomba.

[beckie]

He's like a true crime goomba.

The first season when they had Seven( was that the convicts name?) instead of Raven, I remember one episode where he almost threw a fit because he had to go through Kelly to get to Seven. Then conveniently, the next season, he has his own convict......and I wondered what Kelly's need was anymore.

 

Plus, there was one episode they advertised a few weeks ago where he mentioned that the way the victims were posed, made his blood boil. I found myself immediately wondering why he'd have that particular reaction, unless he was jealous or something. He's just very squicky to me. It's almost like he's doing these shows to get a reputation as a famous crime solver, but so far he's done nothing but make a fool out of himself, imo.

[walnutqueen]

It was Thirteen, beckie - but who's counting?  :-)  Phelps is nothing but a posturing wannabe.  His feigned outrage at these killers and whole tough guy act is as ridiculous as his soul patch.

[beckie]

 

It was Thirteen, beckie - but who's counting?  :-)

I knew it was a number! and that I had the WRONG one! :)

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

HOLY CATS, this means this is season 2?!?!?! Who greenlighted it AGAIN?!? OMFG. . .

Phelps' "outrage"--and believe me, those are mighty big faux quotation marks--is just too much. And wholly agreed re: sister-in-law. Sad, no doubt, but either bring up her case and put The Good People of America on the case or shut your cake hole about it. . .getting funky. 

 

That said, started watching "Dead of Night", which has great V/O work, lets the people involved take center stage, and at least the sole one that's up on Amazon Prime was very well done. My hope is restored. . .almost. 

Thanks for the heads up about Dark Minds. I'd thought about buying a recent episode that covered some unsolved cases around here. (Don't have cable, have to buy these things to watch them.)

 

But on amazon the episode description managed to include a huge error in just a few lines. It calls the cases "The Aurora County Murders." Oh, fer cryin' out loud. There's NO Aurora County in Colorado. Aurora is a large suburb of Denver that straddles two counties: Adams and Arapahoe. If the show producers are so sloppy as to create a mythical "Aurora County," how fast and loose do they play with facts that are less easily checked? Pfft.

 

Suz---just now rereading this. In the Amazon Prime notes, apparently the one about the 2 ladies & 1 gent TAKEN at the big gothic mysterious theater (really? never proved it, but I digress) is rife with inaccuracies and b-roll of the allegedly more idyllic next-town-over. 

I know. This comes as a giant shock to you that anything Soul Patch is involved with would run fast & loose with deets, but I feel compelled to let you know. 
Carry on. 

Edited May 12, 2014 by TheEditrixHasSpoken

[beckie]

 

 

HOLY CATS, this means this is season 2?!?!?! Who greenlighted it AGAIN?!? OMFG. . .

 

 

Actually I think this is season THREE!!!! And i'm with you.......who greenlights this stuff because they really need to be shot!

[cbetsky]

This is a channel that I tend to put on when I don't know what else to watch, but I'm just about done with it. I'm a bit of a true crime junkie - ever since Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule; I was addicted to "Forensic Files" before ID existed (and when it was called "Medical Detectives :) ) But last night I was watching "Secret Lives of Stepford Wives" and had to turn off the TV. Ann Rule wrote a book about the Jenn Corbin case and I know another true crime show did an episode on it; SLoSW chose to focus on Jenn's "online affair" with someone she met playing an online role-playing game. Many, many, soft-porn scenes of her and her online "lover" - who she NEVER MET IN REAL LIFE, and who turned out to actually be a woman. WTF? Her husband was portrayed as a hard-working, successful dentist who even worked at a charity clinic one day a week - his dental practice was actually struggling because he was not a pleasant person; he had a long-term affair with one of the women who worked in his office (an actual affair, not online), and it came out that he had previously murdered a former girlfriend who tried to leave him. But, you know, the whole reason he killed his wife was because she had an online affair. Not because he was an amoral jerk.

[beckie]

Yah, ID is known these days for playing fast and loose with the truth to make a subject matter fit into whatever series they have going these days. It's been going downhill for a while now.

[TheEditrixHasSpoken]

Meanwhile, First 48 is humming along on what's left of A&E's non-beardy/storage/kissing-cousin-of-TLC's-programming. . .I really hope ID can come back to better programming. There's some hope: Crimes to Remember, Disappeared, Kenda. . .but they're getting fewer & far between. Let's hope we're able to discuss something actually really good, really soon!

[walnutqueen]

Over at the TWoP forums, we've been amusing ourselves with ideas for new ID shownames (after hearing about their latest "Sinister Ministers).  Thought I'd share the list with you all:

 

 

Betties With Machetes
Coupon Clippers With Woodchippers
Coxswains with Toxins
Crones With Drones
Dorks with Forks
Felons With Melons
Geezers In Freezers
Geezers With Tweezers
Grandmas With Hand Saws
Harpies With Sharpies
Hillbillies Who Kill Millies
Hordes With Swords
Jerks with Dirks
Jesters Who Molest Her
Killers with Tillers
Limp Dicks With Ice Picks
Loners With Boners
Marines With Guillotines
Men With Tasers and Straight Razors
Misdemeanors With Coffee Creamers
Night Callers With Melon Ballers
Old Dears With Garden Shears
Shoguns With Blowguns
Skank Hos With Crossbows
Teachers under the Bleachers
Twisted Sisters with Dee Snyder
Thugs With Jugs
Zulus With Ulus

[shlbycindyk]

I'd probably watch Thugs With Jugs and Misdemeanors With Coffee Creamers.  Felons With Melons sounds interesting too.

[auntjess]

How did we miss either Dicks with Picks, or Pricks with Picks?

[walnutqueen]

or Old Farts in Golf Carts (vehicular manslaughter).  The list could be endless ...    I've been encouraging additions with the hope that if we take all the silly titles, ID won't be able to use them.  :-)

[auntjess]

Hey, they may be reading this and making a list.
Did you see that Most Infamous?  (I think it was ID, it was about Joel Rifkin, the serial killer.)

[beckie]

My favorite is still Harpies with Sharpies. lol

[smittykins]

or Old Farts in Golf Carts (vehicular manslaughter).  The list could be endless ...    I've been encouraging additions with the hope that if we take all the silly titles, ID won't be able to use them.  :-)

Would Old Farts in Golf Carts be similar to Cooters on Scooters?