Sudden disappearances, unexplained deaths, the paranormal — Netflix’s revival of the popular true-crime docuseries Unsolved Mysteries has it all, and then some. Moreover, fans of the more than 30-year-old franchise (Volume Four of which just debuted on Netflix) will soon be able to enjoy even more of the series’ real-life stories of open cases, supernatural occurrences, and the like.
That’s because Netflix has gone ahead and renewed Unsolved Mysteries for Volume Five, with four new episodes set to arrive later this year — specifically, around Halloween.
As of this writing, it should be noted that Unsolved Mysteries is also the most popular TV show on Netflix in the US. And, really, that’s not terribly surprising. One of the reasons that I suspect true-crime content performs particularly well on the streamer is that it encompasses so much storytelling potential, from fraud to murder to all kinds of different unsolved cases.
To my point, take a look at this week’s global Netflix Top 10 TV chart. One of the streamer’s biggest shows worldwide right now is a similarly-themed title: It’s Homicide: Los Angeles, which is Law & Order creator Dick Wolf’s first foray into true crime. It’s been on the streamer’s global Top 10 for two weeks since its release and racked up 2.4 million views over the past week alone. Clearly, in other words, viewers love this stuff.
Regarding Unsolved Mysteries, five new episodes premiered on Wednesday of this week. They included “a classic throwback episode about a chilling humanoid creature that’s been spotted countless times, and a historical deep dive on the 19th century’s most notorious serial killer.”
Continues 21 Laps founder Shawn Levy, in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum site: “Unsolved Mysteries continues to resonate with viewers in ways we could never have imagined, with some episodes leading to solving cases that were once thought unsolvable. It is a privilege to collaborate with Terry Dunn Meurer and her team on this iconic franchise, and we are so excited to share this next installment of compelling and fascinating mysteries with viewers around the world.”
Here’s a guide to the mysteries viewers will encounter in each episode of Volume 4:
Episode 1: Who was Jack the Ripper?
- Logline: London, 1888. The city is gripped by a string of murders, each more gruesome than the last. Experts delve into one of history’s most notorious mysteries.
Episode 2: Body in the Basement
- Logline: Amanda Antoni’s husband finds her body in their basement with blood everywhere. The scene confounds police: Was it foul play — or a tragic accident?
Episode 3: The Severed Head
- Logline: After a teen finds an embalmed head in the woods, investigators uncover a possible connection to a black-market organ trade as they try to ID the victim.
Episode 4: Murder, Center Stage
- Logline: Sigrid Stevenson’s chilling murder on the stage of a locked campus theater still haunts a New Jersey college as new theories about her killer emerge.
Episode 5: The Mothman Revisited
- Logline: Amid eerie sightings of a tall, winged humanoid creature with red eyes, paranormal investigators explore the Mothman’s seeming link to major disasters.
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