True-crime docuseries have become too reliant on cheesy reenacments

The New York Times

McMillions and Murder Among the Mormons "are among the more egregious offenders in their use of murky, dialogue-free re-enactments of such behaviors as sitting down on a couch, shaking hands and holding envelopes — images viewers are capable of conjuring on their own," says Margaret Lyons. "With its generic drone footage and repeated use of the same handful of photographs, This Is a Robbery, about an unsolved Boston art heist, seems to assume you’ll be playing on your phone while half-watching it, and it makes no demands on your visual attention." She adds: "The true-crime wave has turned out to be more of a true-crime tide, and it continues to roll in, with new tales of horrors and heartache washing ashore every day. Mysteries, miseries, the disgruntled. I have grown to accept the general appetite for others’ agony as entertainment, I guess, and whatever spiritual responsibility documentary makers have to their subjects is their business. What I cannot accept is another cheesy, bland re-enactment wedging itself into an otherwise compelling story."