TCWD Podcast: America the Uncanny

The Octopus Murders, CIA Serial Killers, and Other Conspiracy Content

Last week, Netflix released American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, their latest conspiratorial entertainment docuseries. It connects the suspicious “suicide” of a journalist to a conspiracy involving the CIA, private security firms, drug trafficking networks, the mafia, and other nefarious actors.

But it follows the Sons of Sam, its series that suggests serial killers were a network of murderers being run by either the CIA or the military throughout America, Errol Morris’s Wormwood series about MK-Ultra, its multiple “the CIA created the Unabomber” shows, as well as MAX’s recent release about the “true story” behind the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. What makes these shows so popular right now? And what does it mean to watch them in an election year?