Or at the least it might have been if it weren’t for one good scene at first of episode 2.
The opening minutes of Murdaugh Murders‘ second episode “Alex’s Alibi” decide up with a grim instance of how the general public’s fascination with true crime can result in some lower than elegant habits. On March 16, 2023, two years after Paul and Maggie’s homicide, Netflix’s cameras are current on the Liberty Public sale Home in Pembroke, Georgia the place Murdaugh case “followers” bid on all method of things from the household’s family.
Augmented with TikTok footage from customers @wendymobley498, @storkrn1, and @danielcraigh820, Murdaugh Murders watches as the group of over 700 folks locations their bids on artifacts like Maggie’s dishes, bicycle, and turtle shell lamps (that are admittedly fairly nice). One Murdaugh fanatic named Daybreak Martin even purchases a Murdaugh household vacuum with a bag nonetheless intact that she’s excited to dig by.
Murdaugh Murders doesn’t explicitly cross judgment on any of the parents gathered at Liberty Public sale Home (apart from snitch tagging these TikTok accounts) however it doesn’t really want to to get the purpose throughout. It’s a bit gross. Benign within the grand scheme of issues, perhaps, however gross all the identical.
The idea of “true crime souvenirs” is nowhere close to a current phenomenon. Way back to the 1600s, revelers within the macabre would collect at public executions with the hope of attending to deliver a bit of the gallows dwelling with them. Gadgets belonging to Nineteen Fifties physique snatcher Ed Gein had been put up for public sale in 2015. You may actually purchase Jeffrey Dahmer’s urn proper now (please don’t).
Nonetheless, as is usually does, the existence of the web makes this timeless apply really feel much more insidious than it already is. It’s one factor to accumulate true crime relics. It’s one other factor solely to take action with the help, adulation, and a spotlight of hundreds of thousands of social media customers. Presenting that actuality in such a stark gentle is Murdaugh Murders season 2’s most interesting second.