‘Tis the season for true crime docudramas: Here are 3 to check out in October
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IDAHO FALLS (Courtroom Insider) — Who doesn’t love a good murder mystery?
Probably a lot of people, actually.
But if you are among those we affectionately call “couch detectives,” and you just can’t get enough of true crime entertainment, there are a few new docudramas you may be itching to check out. But … are they worth your time?
To help you decide, the Courtroom Insider team did some research on three new films: “Unabomber,” “Primetime,” and “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story.” We wanted to see how they stack up against one another and how accurate they are to the real-life crimes.
Below, we’ve put together a short preview of each show, along with the relevant background for each case.
‘Unabomber’
Netflix’s “Unabomber” tells the story of Ted Kaczynski, the man arrested in 1996 for a series of mysterious mail bombings that killed three people and injured 23 others.
Released on Sept. 25, the film tells the story of the Unabomber from two perspectives: that of police investigators trying to identify and arrest the unknown killer, and that of Kaczynski as a teen at Harvard, participating in an alleged CIA research experiment.
“Unabomber” was was not well-received by critics — and audiences didn’t love it either. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a critic score of 25%, meaning only 1 in 4 critics who watched it gave it a favorable review. The audience score was a little higher at 61%, but still not great.
Critics said they had issues with the movie’s plot, Rotten Tomatoes reports, but Jacob Tremblay and Russel Crowe were both praised for their acting performances. Still, as one critic wrote, “Even talented performances from Tremblay and Crowe can’t salvage a film that fundamentally doesn’t understand or care about the actual story it’s telling.”
We concur that the film does, at times, feel a little difficult to follow between the two perspectives. But it might be worth your time simply for Tremblay’s performance. The scenes involving him and the alleged CIA experiment were specifically entertaining, coming to a sharp, if unverifiable, conclusion.
“Unabomber” is rated R for language.
The true story behind the film:
The FBI says Kaczynski’s first bombing happened in 1978 at a University in Chicago. Over the next 17 years, he delivered a series of progressively more sophisticated explosives in a nationwide mail bombing campaign.
At the height of the FBI’s investigation, the agency says a task force of over 150 analysts, investigators and others all worked tirelessly to identify the Unabomber and bring him to justice.
The biggest break in the case came in the mid-1990s, when Kaczynski’s manifesto was published. In 1995, he sent a 35,000-word essay to the FBI detailing his motives and what he saw as “wrong with the world” and demanded it be published. The manifesto was published, and that’s when Kaczynski’s brother, David Kaczynski, noticed similarities between the writing styles of the Unabomber and Ted.
On April 3, 1996, law enforcement arrested Ted Kaczynski at an isolated cabin in Montana. Inside, FBI investigators found a variety of bomb components, 40,000 journal pages that included bomb-making experiments and descriptions of Unabomber crimes, and a live bomb, ready for mailing.
Ted Kaczynski eventually pleaded guilty to the crimes and was given multiple life sentences. He died by suicide in June 2023, at age 81, while incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center-Bunter in North Carolina, the Associated Press reported at the time.
‘Primetime’
“Primetime” is a docudrama focused on journalist Chris Hansen and the production of his NBC series “To Catch a Predator.” The film is directed by Lance Oppenheim and stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen. It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 5, and in select U.S. theaters on Sept. 25. It is also available to stream on Apple TV as a rental-only release.
“Primetime” fared better with with critics than “Unabomber.” Rotten Tomatoes gave it a critic score of 86%, and it was nominated for best film at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
In our opinion, the movie is a little slow at times, but Pattinson’s performance as Chris Hansen is stellar throughout.
“Primetime” is rated R for disturbing sexual material, graphic nudity, some violent content and language.
The true story behind the film:
“To Catch a Predator,” which aired on network TV from 2004-2007, was once popular enough to make Hansen a household name. Each episode featured individuals caught in the act of allegedly trying to meet a child for illicit purposes and instead being caught on camera by Hansen.
Controversy arose after the suicide of Bill Conradt, a Texas attorney who was being investigated by the show. Hansen’s team generally would try and lure potential criminals to decoy houses, but PEOPLE reports that when Conradt didn’t take the bait, Hansen and his crew showed up at Conradt’s house. Then when law enforcement officers tried to serve Conradt with an arrest warrant, Conradt fatally shot himself.
Conradt’s death sparked investigations into Hansen’s and his team’s investigative practices. In 2008, Conradt’s sister sued NBC for $105 million, according to A&E.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin allowed the case to go to trial, ruling NBC had “placed itself squarely in the middle of a police operation, pushing the police to engage in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show.” Chin added that he thought NBC’s conduct was “so outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it,” according to statements obtained by A&E. The lawsuit, however, was settled out of court.
According to A&E, Hansen has long maintained that Conradt’s death was not the cause of the show’s ending, but only a handful of episodes aired following the incident.
‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’
“Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” is an eight-episode miniseries that premiered on Netflix on Sept. 17. The show is a dramatization of the 1892 Massachusetts murders of Andrew and Abby Borden. It presents the couple’s daughter Lizzie Borden as the killer, though in real-life Lizzie was acquitted of the crimes.
No one else was ever charged for Andrew and Abby’s murders.
Though this new miniseries primarily follows Lizzie’s point of view, assuming she actually did kill her parents, it does occasionally switch to present day. The more modern story follows the point of view of a disturbed woman obsessed with Borden and her alleged crime.
Of the three docudramas featured in this article, “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” is perhaps the most dramatized — and neither critics nor audiences seemed to like it. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a critic score of only 35% and an audience score just lower, at 32%.
Still, the series was nominated for or has won dozens of awards. It is rated TV-MA for violence, gore, sex, nudity and profanity.
The true story behind the film:
On the morning of the murders, Andrew left the Borden home to go run some errands, leaving Lizzie, Abby and maid Bridget Sullivan at home, Britannica states. After returning, Andrew reportedly went to nap on the couch and Lizzie found him dead 15 minutes later, according to her testimony.
Investigators said Andrew had been struck up to 11 times in the head with a sharp instrument. Abby’s body was found upstairs, similarly mutilated. She was believed to have been struck up to 19 times. According to medical examiners at the time, Abby is believed to have died approximately 90 minutes before Andrew.
Lizzie was arrested and charged with both murders in June of 1893; however, historians say a lack of physical evidence and societal ideas regarding women of Lizzie’s status led to her acquittal.
Have you seen any of these docudramas? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.