Nobody needs a Luigi Mangione show

Earlier this week, Feeling somewhat Inundated with memes And social media posts about Luigi Mangioneaged 26 years On charges of murder UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson I emailed Simon Dressen. She is a professor of media and popular culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and she often does this Smart insights About the ways online comments and real-world issues intersect. Mostly, I wanted to know: What’s going on? Why did the Internet erase Mangione A Folk hero?

Dressen’s answer was one that many people came up with: People in the United States are frustrated with the health insurance industry, and publishing responses about Thompson’s murder is a way to vent that frustration. Concern about the person behind that death, even before a suspect is arrested or named, does not necessarily reflect support for the suspect or the act, but rather the idea that “there is someone trying to take over (or overthrow) the health care system.” I wrote. Memes help people understand this feeling.

However, Driessen added, that doesn’t necessarily explain everyone’s thirst for Maggione once they identified him as the alleged shooter. She wrote that this “somewhat fits into a societal trend or media entertainment trend where we have this blanket romanticization of criminals” thanks to the recent popularity of true crime series.

It is not surprising then more than A A few people connected We’ve suggested that the Mangione case could be material for the next Ryan Murphy Netflix series as Dahmer or Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Eric Menendez. Some are also suggesting that Dave Franco, who closely resembles the suspect, could play Mangione.

Yes this He does Makes sense, but does anyone need it? Fascination with the case, and Mangione as a person, has reached a fever pitch, and while that might make a Hollywood dramatization an interesting prospect, it’s an idea It’s best to be left alone.

While there are indeed those who have qualms about turning the stories of Jeffrey Dahmer or the Menendez Brothers into miniseries, there’s also the fact that it’s been a while since these issues took America by storm. It was Dahmer He was sentenced to life imprisonment In 1992 regarding the deaths of 15 people in Wisconsin; He was then extradited to Ohio where he was convicted of another murder. Jury convicted Lyle and Eric Menendez in the 1996 murder of their parents. The Netflix series about them came decades after those cases were essentially closed. Bonnie and Clyde Released in 1967; The duo went on their crime spree in the 1930s.