Nowadays, you can’t blink without a brand-new true crime story premiering on your streamer of choice. The true crime boom doesn’t show any sign of slowing down in 2025, but amid the high-profile serial killer stories, audiences can look forward to learning about some lesser-known criminal cases.
Whether you prefer to learn about scammers or historical murders, true crime has something for everyone in the new year, whether they be star-studded Netflix shows or incisive new documentaries slated to play at prestigious film festivals. To prepare you for a new year of the genre, here are the best true crime documentaries and scripted series of 2025, including what’s coming soon and on the horizon. (If you’re looking for something to binge now, check out our round-up of the best true-crime docs and shows of 2024.)
'Lockerbie: A Search for Truth'
Release date: January 2 on Peacock
Jim Swire’s 2021 true crime book and memoir, The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice, is getting adapted for the screen (and it's sure to be a tearjerker). Colin Firth will play Swire as he sets out to discover the truth behind a bombing aboard a transatlantic flight, just over 30 minutes after takeoff, that killed his daughter and 242 other passengers, as well as 16 crew members. The December 1988 incident that took place over Lockerbie, Scotland remains the largest terrorist in U.K. history.
'Sons of Ecstasy'
Release date: January 9 on Max
If mob stories are your thing, you'll want to check out Sons of Ecstasy. The documentary marks the first time members of the notorious New York crime family the Gravanos are telling their side of the story about their involvement in the ecstasy drug trade, at the peak of its popularity in the '90s. They'll share inside accounts of what went on and how the trade culminated into a dangerous rivalry between them and Shaun Attwood, an English stockbroker, another major ecstasy kingpin.
'An Update on Our Family'
Release date: January 15 on Max
Family vloggers Myka and James Stauffer's shocking, controversial story, in which they re-homed their adopted son on the autism spectrum, was one that many of us couldn't look away from in 2014. The incident then became the catalyst to question the ethics behind YouTubers/TikTokers who make (often monetized) content featuring their children. All of that and more, including just how unregulated this booming online industry is, will be the focus of this three-part HBO doc, which premieres on January 15 and then will air weekly.
'Apple Cider Vinegar'
Release date: TBA on Netflix
In 2022, there was an era where streamers really wanted you to care about scammer stories, whether they be “SoHo grifter” Anna Delvey or Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Netflix is betting you’re still riveted enough by pesky con artists to tune into Apple Cider Vinegar, their latest entry into the scammer subgenre. Before she breaks hearts as Abby in The Last of Us season 2, Kaitlyn Dever stars here as Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson, who falsely claimed to have cured herself of cancer using alternative medicine.
'Death By Lightning'
Release date: TBA on Netflix
Contrary to how it might feel these days, deranged political intrigue is nothing new in America. Case in point: Mike Makowsky’s upcoming Netflix historical drama Death By Lightning, which follows lesser-known U.S. president James A. Garfield (Michael Shannon) and his eventual assassin, his admirer-turned-adversary Charles Guiteau (Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen). Here’s hoping Macfadyen brings peak “Tom Wambsgans throwing water bottles” energy to his performance!
'The Perfect Neighbor'
Release date: TBA; Premiering at Sundance and available to stream online January 30-February 2
Under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, residents can use deadly force in self-defense without initially trying to retreat from the situation. That law played a role in an unexpected criminal case in which a local “Karen’s” dispute with her neighbor unexpectedly turned deadly. In The Perfect Neighbor, director Geeta Gandbhir uses police body cam footage to question how lax state gun laws can turn neighbors into life-threatening forces, and whether justice will be served.
'Predators'
Release date: TBA; Premiering at Sundance and available to stream online between January 30-February 2
True crime is enticing, but at what point does our fascination with headline-making perpetrators and their victims’ stories cross the line into exploitation? In an attempt to answer that question, David Osit’s documentary Predators casts an eye back to one of the genre’s earlier entries: NBC’s early aughts reality TV hit To Catch A Predator. In each episode, child predators were lured to a film set, interviewed, and eventually arrested. By examining the series’ legacy, Osit asks viewers to consider their relationship to the contemporary true crime boom, and how we can avoid being complicit in the pain that lesser entries into the genre can bring upon real people.
'Toxic Town'
Release date: TBA on Netflix
There’s plenty of true crime across the pond, too. Doctor Who alum Jodie Whittaker leads the cast of Netflix’s Toxic Town. The forthcoming series dramatizes the Corby toxic waste case, in which the Corby Borough Council was found guilty of allowing toxic atmospheric waste from a nearby steel manufacturer to impact local townspeople, leading to more than 30 cases of birth defects. The show’s star-studded British cast also includes Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood and Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie.
