10 best true crime shows on Hulu, ranked

You know the worst thing about true crime shows? The TRUE part. I’d sleep okay knowing that these plot lines are dreamed up by some TV writer, but the fact that they actually HAPPENED? Too much. Here are the best true crime shows on Hulu, ranked.

10. The First 48

The First 48 is less focused on the people that perpetrate kidnappings across the country and more so on the law enforcement teams attempting to hunt them down. Any self respecting fan of true crime knows that the first 48 hours after someone goes missing is the most critical time to find them. After 48 hours, the probability of finding the kidnapped decreases exponentially. This series shows how detectives spend those precious 48 hours in order to see missing persons (hopefully) safely returned.

9. The Most Dangerous Animal of All

I’ll give you one guess what The Most Dangerous Animal of All is … Yep! It’s humans! Unlike most animals (dolphins being the evil exception) that kill only for food, human beings come up with all sorts of reasons to murder one another. The Most Dangerous Animal of All focuses on a man who believes that his father was one of the most infamous murders to ever stalk the nation: the Zodiac Killer. No way, right? That guy was never found. He eluded law enforcement officers for years. Or did he?

8. Welcome to Chippendales

When you think of the Chippendales, many things come to mind. Rippling pectorals. Veiny hands. Little tuxedo bowties. But murder? Never. Until now, that is. Welcome to Chippendales explores the dark underbelly of The Chippendales, which hides much more than just six-pack abs. It’s about the man who created the company, his rise to riches, and the paranoia that led him to turn to murder as a solution. This series, inspired by a true story, must be seen to be believed.

7. Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence 

Add this to the litany of reasons never to go to college. Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence is the story of how a master manipulator was able to worm his way into a university and turn a group of vulnerable students into devoted cultists. Using found footage and interviews with victims, Stolen Youth paints a disturbing picture of just how easy it is for one Machiavellian mind to fool and abuse the unsuspecting, especially when entrenched power dynamics are already at play.

6. Never Let Him Go

Never Let Him Go is the crushing story of the murder of a young gay man in South Wales, and his brother’s attempts to solve the crime. As the docuseries dives deeper and deeper into the tragedy, a larger mystery is revealed. This wasn’t the first time that a man in the area was found dead with evidence of foul play, and it wasn’t the first time that someone tried to cover up a murder.

5. American Crime Story

The first season of American Crime Story is a doozy, taking a gander at one of the most famous media circuses in American history: the OJ Simpson case. The case is combed over in painstaking detail, and new revelations come to light around the murder and acquittal that shocked the nation. What other cases are at play in the anthology’s seasons? Only the famous murder of Gianni Versace, founder of the famous fashion brand, who was shot to death by a serial killer with some serious delusions of grandeur. Oh, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

4. Under the Bridge

Based on a book by Rebecca Godfrey, Under the Bridge is a series based around the murder of a young girl by her classmates in British Columbia. A frequent target of bullying, 14-year-old Reena Virk was lured to a party under a bridge by a group of teenagers, where she was beaten senseless and drowned. Watching the series is much like taking a peek under a normal-looking rock and finding all the totally weird creepy crawlies underneath. It’s a series about the darkness of youth and adolescents, and how the abnormal can occur in the most unassuming of places.

3. Under the Banner of Heaven

Under the Banner of Heaven is the tale of one of the most enigmatic groups in American society: Mormons. The series dramatizes the 1948 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter Erica in a Mormon community in Utah. Investigating the crime is Detective Jeb Pyre, a devout Mormon himself, who is attempting to uncover the truth around the crime and its ties with extremism in the Church of Latter-Day Saints. It’s a story of how religious dogma and fundamentalism can drive the faithful to kill.

2. Daughters of the Cult

Daughters of the Cult is a documentary series about women who are real-life survivors of some of the most insidious cults. The star cult in question? The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamist and extremist sect of the Mormon church marred by abuse and scandal. It’s a story of manipulation and the tactics that cult leaders use to erode the autonomy of their followers until they are completely under cult control. The cult leader in question? Warren Jeffs, a man who is currently serving a life sentence for the crimes he inflicted on followers of the church, including many of the people appearing in this documentary.

1. The Act

The Act is the dramatization of the infamous story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. For those who don’t know the gory details, Dee Dee Blanchard had a fierce case of  Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health condition where a person creates the appearance of illness in someone in their care. In Dee Dee’s case, she used a cocktail of medications and medical treatments to fake her daughter’s illness. Gypsy Rose eventually conspired with a young man she met in an internet chatroom to murder her mother, which the pair eventually plotted successfully. It’s a gripping tale about one of the most sensational true crime cases of the 21st century.