This year hasn't been the best, but there were a ton of great documentaries and docuseries.

Serial killers documentaries are all the rage these days, but I remember a time when I felt embarrassed and rather guilty about my own fascination with them. It dates back as far as I can remember and always made me feel like I was a weirdo. Part of it was that when I was growing up, I shared a first name with the most famous serial killer at the time — Jeffrey Dahmer — and I remember reading about this other Jeffrey with a morbid curiosity. I recall being terrified while watching The Silence of the Lambs at a neighbor's house …

HBO has released a new trailer for its upcoming six-part documentary series I'll Be Gone in the Dark, which follows the late crime writer Michelle McNamara as she hunts for the Golden State Killer. The series is based on McNamara's book of the same name, and her research was so harrowing that it kept her up night after night with terrible nightmares. Desperate to rest and quell her mounting anxieties, she accidentally overdosed on prescription drugs and died tragically in her sleep with her manuscript unfinished. After her death, McNamara's husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, enlisted his …

HBO has released the first trailer for its new six-part documentary series I'll Be Gone in the Dark, which follows the hunt for the Golden State Killer. The series is based on the book of the same name by crime writer Michelle McNamara, and it explores her investigation into the dark world of a violent predator who terrorized California in the '70s and '80s. The Golden State Killer, as she dubbed him, is responsible for 50 home-invasion rapes and 12 murders. The series aims to give voice to the survivors and their families, documenting an era when …