So yesterday the twitterverse and then the news websites and then the radio and TV news (because that’s the order it seems to happen these days) were all aflutter with the news that notorious gangland figure Carl Williams was killed in prison. I don’t think the news would have been much more than a blip on my radar were it not for the massive success of the Underbelly series.

I keep hearing people voicing the opinion that the show glorifies real life criminals. Or that they “don’t get it” by which statement (one of the most dismissive things you can say to a person, akin to a teenage “Whatever!” in my book) I am supposing they mean to say that they don’t enjoy the show and they are quite surprised that it is so popular.  I imagine a lot of people watch because it has become a “watercooler” show and to watch means a good conversation the next day. Or maybe they are fans of the true-crime genre. My husband is. He will watch or read anything based in Chicago in the 20s, New York in the 70s and wherever Chopper was in the 80s. He’s not a degenerate, I swear. He doesn’t think these guys are anything other than thugs at best, and cold hardened killers at worst. He just finds them intriguing.

I’ve watched a few episodes but I haven’t found it particularly riveting. The fashion and the hairstyles are fun with the 70s and 80s stuff, but I’ll stick with Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes for those, thanks. I like the shots of the old Aussie banknotes too. It doesn’t seem all that long since we changed over to the new notes with the plastic and  the holograms, but whenever Underbelly flashes up a shot of an old twenty or fifty, I chortle with nostalgic delight. “Remember them?!”  Otherwise I tune out, or get my husband to sacrifice any watercooler cred he may have had by making him watch it online a couple of days late. I don’t care. I don’t have a watercooler in my home office – the only underbelly that gets any attention around here is this one:

Pacino - named by my husband, of course...

Do you watch Underbelly or watch/read any other true-crime books or series? What do you think the fascination is? And what is your watercooler show of choice?