'Vengeance,' 'Only Murders in the Building' and the rise of true crime podcast satires

B.J. Novak's directorial debut and the Hulu comedy series both skewer the conventions of one of the most popular — and oversaturated — genres in the podcast game.

B.J. Novak, like just about everyone else in America in 2014, devoured the first installment of the genre-defining true crime podcast “Serial.” But in recent years, as the culture’s bottomless appetite for grisly tales of real-life murders showed no signs of letting up, “The Office” alum decided that the true crime podcast boom was ripe for a feature-length parody.

The result: “Vengeance” — Novak's debut feature as a writer-director. The film is a darkly comic thriller about a shallow, self-interested New York writer (played by Novak) who journeys to deep-red West Texas to make a podcast about the mysterious death of a sex partner he barely remembers. (The film hits theaters Friday via Focus Features, a unit of NBCUniversal.)

The film comes on the heels of the second season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” a good-natured whodunit about another group of self-absorbed New Yorkers — a trio of nosy neighbors played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez — who decide to make a suspenseful audio yarn about a killing in their luxury Beaux-Arts apartment building.

B.J. Novak was ‘triple-scared’ to write, direct, star in ‘Vengeance’July 28, 202205:44“Vengeance” and “Only Murders” represent a new chapter in our true crime podcast obsession, satirizing the macabre fixations and shopworn cliches of the genre while offering their own twisty thrills.

The back-to-back arrival of the two projects also suggests a wider trend. What if pandemic-battered audiences — inundated with all-too-real images of violence and disorder both in the U.S. and around the world — feel more skeptical of all these gory audio narratives?

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/vengeance-only-murders-building-rise-true-crime-podcast-satires-rcna40111


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