“Murder 101” Subverts the True Crime Genre
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, true crime has become a genre all its own. As one consumes the available documentaries, podcasts, fictional adaptations, and more, it can be easy to forget they all started with real people. Loved ones who were brutally murdered, whose killers may or may not have ever been brought to justice. In many ways, the new Prime Video show, Muder 101, subverts the norms this genre has built in its rise to popularity.
Credit: Courtesy of Prime
In 2018, high school sociology teacher Alex Campbell tasked his students with an investigation into the Redhead Murders, a series of unsolved murders across the southern United States. The result was a podcast, also called Murder 101. Those students were able to shed new light on the crimes, but did not find who was responsible. Seven years later, Alex Campbell has been given the chance to teach this class again. Part coming-of-age story, part investigation, Murder 101 seeks to finally find justice for the women who were killed.
Teenagers find high school difficult. Not just because of the tests and college preparation they have to endure, but because of their fellow classmates. It’s hard to fit in at sixteen. Even harder still to think about the rest of your life. Who do you want to be? What kind of career do you want to have? Those questions and more are asked of kids whose frontal lobes are so far from being developed. Alex Campbell’s approach to sociology is to give real-world experience. While the kids don’t mention it, it’s probable that many of them have consumed some amount of true crime media. To them, as kids, these are just stories. It’s hard for them to understand that the subjects of documentaries or non-fiction podcasts are real people. Especially in a time when these stories are so prevalent. Alex Campbell’s methodology is to encourage empathy in his students. As much as his class is about solving the crime, it’s also about teaching kids to think about a life beyond their own. The judgments and opinions they form at the beginning of the class fall apart when they speak to the one woman who survived the attacks of the presumed Redhead Murders killer.
Credit: Courtesy of Prime
We all learn better when we’re presented with an undeniable reality. These students are not only learning about sociology through hands-on education, they’re also given a chance to see that the world is imperfect. That the systems they’ve been told exist to protect them can also fail. For decades, education has looked a certain way. Imparting information, quizzing on that information, refreshers, exams, rinse, repeat. Murder 101 presents a new means of learning. Something outside the box that allows kids to grasp new concepts while simultaneously seeing how they factor into the real world. Their opinions are being heard, respected, and expounded upon.
On top of the investigation for justice, Murder 101 is a portrait of what it’s like to be a high schooler today. Some of these kids have other reasons they’re interested in learning investigative tactics. They have parents who have passed away or who are incarcerated because of drug addiction. They see glimpses of themselves or loved ones in the victims in the case, which pushes them forward in the class. Murder 101 takes true crime interest and funnels it through the eyes of a teenager, someone trying to understand the world around them while comprehending more than we give them credit for.
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