7) The Jinx
If Robert Durst didn’t exist, the world’s crime novelists would have had to make him up. How else could exist a man who, while a wanted fugitive with tens of thousands of dollars at his disposal, got caught shoplifting a supermarket hoagie, and by most accounts –perhaps even his own- got away with multiple homicides?
Andrew Jarecki’s expertly constructed reexamination of the Durst cases would have made for a superior piece of true crime on its own, but it’s his interviews with the man at the centre of several cold cases that turned documentary into history.
The most jaw-dropping bathroom break ever recorded for television kicked off absorbing debate over the legality of Durst’s self-incrimination, Jarecki’s control of the story, and the ethical responsibilities of investigative filmmaking.
What is close to inarguable is that we’ll never see something like The Jinx on TV ever again.