'The Jinx' Director Andrew Jarecki Explains Why True Crime Pays

From "Making a Murderer" to "Serial" to "The Jinx," true-crime documentary series are hot right now. And the guy who made one of those — "Jinx" director Andrew Jarecki — says there’s a reason for that.

Jarecki joined Peter Kafka on the latest episode of "Re/code Decode" to talk about his HBO miniseries, which remains relevant nearly a year after it debuted as its subject, Robert Durst, continues to make headlines.

Jarecki also talked about his history as a tech entrepreneur: He co-founded Moviefone and sold it to AOL at the peak of the dot-com bubble; now he’s trying again with KnowMe, a mobile video editing and sharing app.

Wait a minute. How do you go from getting up close and personal with an accused triple murderer to launching an iPhone app?

"I’ve never had a plan," Jarecki said. "I’ve just got to be open to whatever the next thing is, and the next thing defines itself."

So, why are there so many popular true-crime series coming out now? Jarecki posits that it’s about a shift in how we think about serialized entertainment.

"Series now don’t need to go on for 12 years to be successful. They just have to have a compelling story," he said. "The crime thing has a specialness to it, because you can lead the audience through this labyrinth. You can have twists that are true."

Listen to or download the episode in the player above, or click here to subscribe to "Re/code Decode" on iTunes; you can also find "Re/code Decode" on TuneIn, Stitcher and Clammr.

Kara Swisher will be in this space on Monday to talk with Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, and Peter Kafka will be back next Thursday to talk to New Yorker editor David Remnick.

You might also like "Too Embarrassed to Ask," our new podcast hosted by Re/code’s Kara Swisher and The Verge’s Lauren Goode. Click here to subscribe to "Too Embarrassed to Ask" on iTunes right now. And you should also check out "Re/code Replay," an archive of audio content from our events and interviews by Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. To subscribe to that, click right here.

You can follow @Recode on Twitter for the latest on upcoming guests.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Kara and Peter. You can also suggest guests for the show on Twitter and we’ll do our best to nab them for a Red Chair interview.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Explanatory journalism is a public good

At Vox, we believe that everyone deserves access to information that helps them understand and shape the world they live in. That's why we keep our work free. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via