Are we facing the end of true crime, despite its success? "They're becoming more relatable and riskier because people can report them."

The house of cards that platforms, producers, and publishers have been building around true crime in recent years is now beginning to shake. The format's unstoppable success among viewers has been running into legal issues, social pressure, and the reluctance of companies to confront a reputational crisis caused precisely by that pressure . And all of these issues, falling within the same timeframe, have opened a new debate about the immediate future: is this genre, as we have known it until now, on the verge of extinction? Is the system that sustains it crumbling?

In just a few months, or even in recent weeks, the setback suffered by several true crime series has been remarkable. Last Thursday, a Tarragona investigating court suspended the premiere of the Netflix docuseries "Angi: Crime and Punishment" by granting the precautionary measures requested by the protagonist, María Ángeles Molina, accused of murdering her friend Ana Páez , for showing personal images of her—for which she did not have her consent—before she committed the murder.

The Red N platform is currently in court with Rosa Peral over a scene from the series The Body on Fire , in which the protagonist is seen covered in blood after killing her ex-partner while her daughter watches from a distance, catching her in the act. This fact is not included in the sentence that punished the Guardia Urbana agent for the murder.

On April 16, the publishing house Anagrama gave up publishing El odio , although the courts upheld its release , in response to the social response provoked by the announcement of Luisgé Martín's book in which José Bretón acknowledges for the first time the murder of his children in 2011. Less than a year ago, in June 2024, the production company that was preparing a docuseries about the murder of the child Gabriel Cruz also decided to stop the project due to social pressure led by the mother, Patricia Ramírez, which reached the Senate's Interior Commission.

It's these four events, concentrated in a short period of time, that have caused "concern" to begin to become evident in part of the audiovisual industry, according to sources consulted by this newspaper. " It's clear that something is moving and that the persecution of true crime is stronger today than it was a couple of years ago ," notes a senior executive in the sector. A second adds: "We shouldn't be afraid of making true crime , but we do need to monitor how some are being made, as I believe they are not following some of the basic rules that should be followed."

In fact, recent true crime series have been released that not only haven't faced legal issues but have been critical and popular successes . The Asunta case , the series Bambú Producciones made for Netflix, is a prime example. However, the same production company made Fariña , from which it had to remove a sex scene featuring drug trafficker Laureano Oubiña with his wife following a ruling by the Provincial Court of Pontevedra, made public in June 2024, which stated that this would give a "false and ridiculed image" of him. The case is currently in the hands of the Supreme Court after admitting the appeals filed by the production company, Netflix, and Atresmedia.

"I think the genre won't fall, but limits are being set. These products have to adhere to the truth, not be offensive... You can fictionalize a case like this, but as long as it's not to attack the person and leave them in a worse situation," says lawyer Nuria González, who is handling Rosa Peral's case. "There will be more and more complaints when there are specific cases, yes. You're not going to report something you don't like if what you're telling is true or at least public. The problem arises when you start inventing, investigating, or fabricating stories about people's personalities or what they've done in their lives outside of the actual incident," the lawyer emphasizes. Mabel Klimt, director of Elzaburu, agrees: "The problem isn't so much that true crime is in danger, but rather the need to change the regulations is on the table because the sensibilities of 1984 have nothing to do with those of today ." "This is based on the creator's ability to play with the rules," concludes the partner of the firm, which receives "frequent inquiries" about this type of issue from family members.

Nor does it put an end to the genre, according to Iban Díez, a lawyer at Menta Legal, a firm specializing in the audiovisual sector and providing advice for these types of projects. "I don't think the genre is in danger, but this is one of the limits we've always established. You have to know how far you can tell, and that is established by the limits of an individual's fundamental rights. You can't delve into facts that are private and that haven't come to light in the judicial process ." This is precisely the point on which the Tarragona investigating court has agreed to suspend the documentary series Angi: Crime and Punishment. Although the judge has not addressed the merits of the case when applying precautionary measures, it is because he has seen possible arguments for a ruling that could be favorable to the complainant. "There is already quite a bit of jurisprudence on the issue of privacy or intimacy, and when we analyze true crime , this is a fundamental point," the jurist points out.

In fact, this same right to privacy already had jurisprudence long before the proliferation of true crime films. In the 1980s, Paquirri's death created a paradigmatic case for our country. Television cameras recorded his goring in the Pozoblanco bullring (Córdoba) and followed him to the infirmary, where the medical staff's work was also recorded until the bullfighter's death. These images were subsequently commercialized in other media. The case eventually reached the Constitutional Court, which concluded that under no circumstances could the images of the fatal goring and the infirmary have been considered part of the bullfighter's public life and, therefore, were within the right to privacy of his family. In this case, that of his widow, Isabel Pantoja.

"If we draw a parallel, what's the difference between that case and current true crime cases? I'd say none," says attorney Marisa Herrero-Tejedor of the Averum law firm. "I'd say that right now the true crime business is in danger because after two or three years of boom, people have realized they can report these types of issues," adds the jurist, who focuses primarily on the "entourage" of the protagonists of these true crime projects. That is, the families of the convicted or their close circles who appear in these types of projects. "Society loves to know the details of these cases, especially when there's a murder, but from a legal perspective, that right to privacy belongs to the protagonists. Just because we all know someone has committed a crime doesn't mean we have to know that person's entourage," says Herrero-Tejedor.

This fact also occurs because all of these are cases that are very close to the present. The murder of Angi's friend occurred in 2008; the murder of José Bretón's children, José and Ruth, in 2011; the crime by the Guardia Urbana, the one involving Rosa Peral, was in 2017; and that of Gabriel Cruz, in 2019. "Stories are being told that are increasingly recent in time, and those are even riskier," Ibán Diez begins. He continues: "Because these rights are much more intense today. If you're recounting events that are very long ago, the rights to privacy and intimacy are diluted over time. Now we're talking about active people, who can file a lawsuit ." And this is happening because the pace of true crime creation is so rapid that cases are becoming scarce, while interest in them is so growing that, as the events unfold, the product is created. The case of Daniel Sancho came to light last summer, and Max has had a documentary series about him in its catalog for months now.

" In Spain, there's a lack of clear legislation in this regard, but right now, public sentiment is more sensitive than it was years ago, and there's a tendency to prioritize victim protection more, at least within institutions ," notes a lawyer who prefers to remain anonymous due to the "complexity" of the cases. "And that's devastating for true crime because a jurisprudence is beginning to emerge that could curb many of these projects," he concludes.