The Gabby Petito case fascination? Murder is entertainment. [View all]

[Sympthsical]

I came across this SNL sketch from a year or so ago. Given the pandemic and the rise in streaming, I laughed my head off because of how true it is.

People are really into real life murder shows and mysteries. From the Carol Baskin question in Tiger King to the entire Making a Murderer phenomenon. Shows about true crime have always had their niche, but they seem to have exploded during the age of streaming and people being stuck at home. On my personal social media, I don't see too much about politics. However, I damn well know what murder shows my friends are all watching.

It's engaging and entertaining for a lot people, and they watch them at a remove.

I'm not following the Petito case super closely. But what I see of it on social media, how every clue and excruciating detail is shared and discussed. A lot of it isn't about solving the case - not really. So much information comes out that is less "Hey, help us find this guy, figure out what happened, etc," as it is, "Hey, come rubberneck at this human car crash this week. Don't worry, next week we'll have a new one!"

The media does this with a lot of things, of course, but the Petito case just really struck me with how many people are kind of . . . preoccupying themselves with it. It feels almost like unseemly entertainment at this point.

One of the predominant questions about this case in the past week is, "Why is this getting so much attention?" And a lot of things have been discussed. But I haven't seen one obvious answer noted in the articles I've seen in passing:

This whole thing looks like a Netflix show.

No judgement. I disappear down these rabbit holes, too. For example, I know way more about Andrew Cunanan than anyone ever needs to.

Just seems like kind of where we are as a culture these days.