5 Most Talked-About True Crime Series Released in 2025, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
Year after year, the true crime genre remains terrifyingly appealing.
True crime isn't just entertainment – it's a social phenomenon. Through the lens of real crimes, we explore the nature of evil, the workings of the justice system, and the limits of human psychology.
2025 has seen a particularly large number of high-profile, provocative, and masterfully crafted projects that generate heated discussions in the media and among viewers.
5. 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 22%
The Ed Gein Story is the latest installment in Ryan Murphy's crime franchise about serial killers. As the title suggests, the third season chronicles the life of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin psychopath who influenced late 20th-century cinema.
This is the first Monster season not directed by Murphy – instead, it was directed by his creative partner, screenwriter Ian Brennan. For him, The Ed Gein Story was his first standalone series.
Brennan takes a frivolous approach to Gein's biography, disregarding the facts and attributing non-existent sexual proclivities, murders he never committed, and a girlfriend he never had to him.
4. 'Happy Face', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 57%
Happy Face is a classic true crime story about serial killer Keith Jesperson, also known as the Happy Face killer, who left smiley faces at crime scenes.
Jesperson is one of the most notorious serial killers and was known for frequently giving interviews and selling his drawings online.
It's important to note that the plot of Happy Face is based not on Jefferson's testimony but on a true crime podcast by his daughter, Melissa, whose testimony is relatively credible.
3. 'The Breakthrough', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 60%
The Swedish miniseries tells the story of a 20-year-old murder that was solved in 2020 thanks to forensic genealogy. The victims were a 56-year-old woman and an 8-year-old boy, killed by an unknown assailant.
Their bodies, bearing stab wounds, were found in the center of Linköping. Although the murder weapon was found at the scene, the perpetrator could not be identified through the Swedish police database.
There was not a single match with the genetic material. Over the years, the Linköping murder case became one of the largest in the country. It took law enforcement 16 years to uncover the truth.
2. 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a true crime story about a murder that took place twenty years ago. In 2007, while studying abroad in Italy, American student Amanda Knox was wrongfully accused and convicted of murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
The case is notable for the scandal surrounding it: police falsified evidence against Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and the press portrayed Knox as a monster to the international community.
A reinvestigation revealed that Amanda had been subjected to extreme psychological pressure and essentially beaten into confessing.
1. 'Death by Lightning', 2025
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
Death by Lightning is a true-crime documentary series about the circumstances surrounding the death of James Garfield, the 20th President of the US.
The series is based on real events and Candace Millard's novel Destiny of the Republic. While the show is not entirely factual, it does offer a fairly comprehensive historical perspective.
The creators pay special attention to contrasting the characters of the president and his assassin. One is a hardworking family man and the pride of the nation, the other is a psychopath who is determined to fulfill his "American dream" by any means necessary.
