Cozy mysteries, true crime and my anxious mind
or why I mainly consumer murder content but it shouldn't scare you
So. I watch/listen/read a lot of murder. Or murder-adjacent content.
The podcasts I listen to are a solid 70/30 mix of murder and pop culture with a dose of self help (HIEEEE GLENNON DOYLE).
So much so that my nephew asks me about any new murder mysteries we can listen to in the car. Obviously I say no and put on something more child appropriate, like Lizzo.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being around me in person (or I guess displeasure for some people who have no taste) then you’ve probably heard me make a Murder, She Wrote reference. I’ve been watching the show literally since I was a child. It premiered when I was 2 but was on TV till I was in my teens with new episodes and re-runs have never not been available. No exaggeration my DVR currently has 116 episodes recorded. And I will always record them and save them and hoard them.
When I’m feeling sad I watch one. When I’m sick I watch one. When I need background noise I watch one. It is my comfort food of television.
When Dame Angela Lansbury died earlier this year I heard from people I hadn’t talked to in years checking to see if I was okay. I literally burst into tears at work.
I have issues.
But maybe we all do. I saw recently that repeat viewings of shows really is like a warm blanket that calms anxiety.
The world is hectic and crazy and unknown and who knows what will happen next— but I damn well know who the killer is on EVERY episode of Murder, She Wrote. I know who will get drunk on any Bravo show. And my brain needs that.
I know at the end of the romcom books I read that someone will open their heart and they’ll live happily ever after. The killer will get caught. The family will be reunited.
I need that consistency and routine like I need my Prozac every morning and a cup of coffee to start my day. It helps me deal with the insanity that can be life.
When the world is a dumpster fire around me then I know JB Fletcher is gonna figure out the killer before Mort and Doc Hazlitt is gonna be sassy and if it’s a good episode then Angela Lansbury will throw out a fun accent.
We established in my last post that I am a book nerd and I read way too much— part of this started in my teens with my beloved Nancy Drew. Planting the seed of solving crimes in my developing psyche.
I obviously read all the Murder She Wrote novels that are still being written so my beloved JB lives on in my imagination. These became my gateway drugs into cozy mysteries. I read dozens of them.
Then I watched Agatha Raisin on some British TV app and I discovered there were dozens of books of those and I read them all.
Then there was a pandemic and I just started reading non stop and my mother started buying all of these cozy mysteries at Gardner’s and I’d read them all after her and we were entwined in dozens of mysteries.
And they’re multiplying in my closet.
I’d taken a break from them but I’m jumping back in— catching up on my old friends. The lovely bakers, bookstore owners and insert cute small town job here that team up with a rugged, quiet police/lawyer/investigator to solve crimes and maybe fall in love.
But I’m also thinking. Why am I (and other women I know) so interested in mysteries and true crime? If you look at it a majority of the true crime podcasts are hosted by women, a lot of the cozy mysteries are written by women, women are watching true crime documentaries in huge numbers. Why?
Turns out knowledge is power.
It is no secret in society women are more likely to be victims of violent crimes, including murder, the main lesson I take away from Dateline is if you don’t want to get murdered then don’t get married. Men kill women.
Women want to know everything they can about the motivations, situations, psyche because subconsciously we think it’s going to give us power if we’re ever in those situations.
It’s like a training situation. If or when you find yourself in a dire situation then could your subconscious leap into action because of all the episodes of Casefile you listened to? Or will watching Murder, She Wrote obsessively mean I can tell when I meet a new group of people who will probably kill someone later?
(It will make me a guaranteed top 3 finisher at any murder mystery dinner)
Or will I just stay up all night after I finish The Stranger Beside Me and have to turn on all of the lights in case Ted Bundy somehow is still out there.