Arriving home from work the other day in the wind and rain, my mood was further darkened by news headlines about Trump, floods across the UK, and a US military expert proclaiming that the world is now at its most geopolitically dangerous since the second world war. Reaching for the remote, I switched channels in search of my go-to stress remedy – a nice juicy murder drama.
It might sound counterintuitive to find solace in such grisly fare, but I find there is something soothing about following a plotline where someone, usually a woman, comes to harm or tries to outwit a psychopath, leading to an investigation. Clearly I’m not alone. On Netflix, Woman of the Hour, a film in which an aspiring actor (Anna Kendrick) crosses paths with a serial killer, topped the ratings in October until it was dethroned by Don’t Move, in which a grieving woman is paralysed by a serial killer. In September, also on Netflix, another drama about a murdered woman, The Perfect Couple, racked up 3.4bn minutes of viewing time in its first week. It became the streamer’s biggest show since Bridgerton.
