The Narrator's Perspective in True Crime
The Case of the Urban Guard in TV3 and Netflix Productions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v17.5408Keywords:
true crime, narrator, urban guard, Crims, NetflixAbstract
True crime is currently experiencing significant fervor and controversy due to its ethical implications, particularly concerning the narrator's authority. This article examines how new and varied true crime narrators alter audience perceptions of recounted events. Employing a threefold methodology—historical context, comparative analysis of three narrations of the same case, and interviews with creators—the study focuses on the urban guard crime in Barcelona. Analyzed productions include TV3's Crims, Netflix's docuseries Las cintas de Rosa Peral, and the fictional series El cuerpo en llamas. The findings test a proposed typology of narrators, revealing how narrative choices influence audience perception and emotional response.
Downloads
Global Statistics ℹ️
|
18
Views
|
19
Downloads
|
|
37
Total
|
|
References
Agulló, C. (Productor ejecutivo). (2023). Las cintas de Rosa Peral. [Serie de Televisión]. Netflix España.
Antoniak, J. (2021). A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture, vol. 65 (2021), nº 2, 83-95. doi:10.12775/ll.2.2021.006
Ayala, R. (2022). Cuando el crimen se convierte en entretenimiento: la historia del género “true crime”. Muy interesante, 24 junio. bit.ly/3VRbPsb
Bruzzi, S. (2016). Making a genre: the case of the contemporary true crime documentary, Law and Humanities, 10:2, 249- 280. doi: 10.1080/17521483.2016.1233741
Burger, P. (2016). The Bloody History of the True Crime Genre. JSTOR Daily, vol. 24. bit.ly/3Csyuo6
Buozis, M. (2017). Giving voice to the accused: Serial and the critical potential of true crime. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 14(3), 254–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2017.1287410
Campos, R. (Productor ejecutivo) (2017). Lo que la verdad esconde: el caso Asunta. [Serie de Televisión]. Atresmedia Televisión, Bambú Producciones.
Campos, R. (Productor ejecutivo) (2019). El caso Alcàsser. [Serie de Television]. Bambú Producciones, Netflix España.
Campos, R.; Neira, G.; De la Cuesta, J. y Orea, D. (Productores ejecutivos). (2024). El caso Asunta. [Serie de Televisión]. Bambú Producciones.
Capote, T. (1966). In cold blood. Penguin (Trad: A sangre fría, Anagrama, 2006)
Collins, Paul (2011). The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars. Ed. Crown.
Cruz, D. (18 de septiembre de 2023). ¿Es real que el creador de Las cintas de Rosa Peral engañó a los entrevistados en el documental de Netflix? www.areajugones.sport.es https://bit.ly/4g16B8H
Curry, R. R. (1995). Errol Morris' Construction of Innocence in The Thin Blue Line. Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 49(2), 153-167.
De Santos, Ágatha (2024). La fascinación creciente del ‘true crime’. Faro de Vigo, 4 junio. bit.ly/46gbwOB
Felius, G. y Estapé, X. (Productores ejecutivos). (2021). El crim de la guardia urbana (Crims) [Programa de televisión]. TV3; A punt.
Genette, G. (1970). Fronteras del relato. Barthes, R. y otros, Análisis estructural del relato. Buenos Aires: Tiempo Contemporáneo.
Gonzalo, J.R. (Productor ejecutivo). (2017). Yo fui un asesino: el crimen de la catana. [Serie de Televisión]. Cuarzo Producciones; Discovery MAX.
Gullón, R. (1987). Teoría y práctica de la novela. Alicante : Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
Hamburg, M. (Productor ejecutivo y director). (2020). Asesinato en Middle Beach [Serie de Televisión]. Armian Pictures; Blue Day Films; HBO Documentary Films; Jigsaw Productions.
Hobbs, S., & Hoffman, M. (2022). 5. ‘True Crime and…’: The Hybridisation of True Crime Narratives on YouTube. Crime fiction studies. doi: 10.3366/cfs.2022.0058
Jiménez, M. (2022). ‘Serial’, último capítulo: el ‘podcast’ que ha logrado anular una condena a cadena perpetua. El País, 22 sept. bit.ly/3CsEvRC
Lando, A. (2024). Mainstreaming y representaciones sociales: Netflix y el caso Rosa Peral. Revista de Estudios Socioeducativos. ReSed, 1(12), 198-209.
Martínez-Costa, M. P. (1998). Tipología y funciones del narrador en los relatos radiofónicos. Comunicación y Cultura, 5/6, 97-104
McCracken, E. M. (Ed.). (2017). The Serial podcast and storytelling in the digital age. Routledge.
Méndiz, A. & Sánchez-Esparza, M. (2024). Frames recurrentes en el true crime: análisis comparado del caso Wanninkhof: Patrones narrativos del relato en prensa y del documental ‘Dolores’, de HBO. Visual Review,16(3), 49-62.
Pearson, E. (1924). Studies in murder. Garden City Publishing Company.
Pearson, E. (1936). More Studies in Murder. Harrison Smith & Robert Haas.
Prieto, C. (20 de septiembre de 2023). Poli asesina de día, víctima de machismo de noche: Netflix exprime a Rosa Peral. www.elconfidencial.es. https://bit.ly/3AGfPXI
Ragone, V. y Besuievsky, M. (Productoras ejecutivas). (2020). Carmel: ¿quién mató a María Marta? [Serie de television]. Haddock Films.
Rickard, D. (2023). The New True Crime: How the Rise of Serialized Storytelling Is Transforming Innocence (Vol. 30). NYU Press.
Ristroph, A. (2018). The thin blue line from crime to punishment. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 108(2), 305-334.
Robertson, C. (2020). The Trial of Lizzie Borden. Simon & Schuster.
Romero Domínguez, L. R. (2020). Narrativas del crimen en los documentales de no ficción: éxito del true crime en las plataformas VOD. Revista Panamericana De Comunicación, 2(2), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.21555/rpc.v0i2.2332
Salvat, M. y Kastelikova, H. (Productores ejecutivos). (2021). Dolores: la verdad sobre el caso Wanninkhof. [Serie de Televisión]. Unicorn Content, HBO España
Sánchez-Esparza, M., Méndiz, A., & Berlanga, I. (2023). La narrativa transmedia en los true crime: del relato periodístico a las pantallas. El caso de Lucia en la telaraña. Literatura y lingüística, (48), 19-46. https://dx.doi.org/10.29344/0717621x.48.3255
Torregrossa, J., Cormenzana, I., y Martínez Muñoz, A. (Productores ejecutivos). (2023). El cuerpo en llamas. [Serie de televisión]. Arcadia Motion Pictures.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Authors retain copyright and transfer to the journal the right of first publication and publishing rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Those authors who publish in this journal accept the following terms:
-
Authors retain copyright.
-
Authors transfer to the journal the right of first publication. The journal also owns the publishing rights.
-
All published contents are governed by an Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Access the informative version and legal text of the license. By virtue of this, third parties are allowed to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal. If you transform the material, you may not distribute the modified work. -
Authors may make other independent and additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., inclusion in an institutional repository or publication in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.
- Authors are allowed and recommended to publish their work on the Internet (for example on institutional and personal websites), following the publication of, and referencing the journal, as this could lead to constructive exchanges and a more extensive and quick circulation of published works (see The Effect of Open Access).
