Nobody needs a Luigi Mangione show

Earlier this week, I feel a little flooded with memes and social media posts about Luigi Mangionethe 26-year-old accused of murder UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, I emailed Simone Driessen. He is a professor of media and popular culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam and often has it smart insights about the ways that online commentary and real-world issues intersect. Above all, I wanted to know: what was going on? Because the internet had anointed Mangione a hero people?

Driessen’s response was one that many people came up with: People in the United States are frustrated with the health insurance industry, and posting responses to Thompson’s murder is a way to vent that frustration. Interest in the person behind that death, even before a suspect has been arrested or named, does not necessarily reflect support for the suspect or the act, but the idea of ​​”someone trying to take (or take away) ) the health system”. she wrote. Memes help people make sense of that feeling.

Still, Dreissen added, that didn’t necessarily explain all the people who were hungry for Mangione once he was identified as the alleged shooter. That, he wrote, “fits a little bit into a trend in society or a trend in media entertainment where we have this general romanticized depiction of criminals” thanks to the recent popularity of true-crime series.

It is not surprising, then, that more than a few people online suggesting that the Mangione case could be the fodder for the next Ryan Murphy Netflix series as Dahmer o Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Some also suggest that Dave Franco, who bears a striking resemblance to the suspect, could play Mangione.

Yes, this one it does makes sense, but does anyone need it? The fascination around the case, and Mangione as a person, has hit fever pitch, and while it may make a Hollywood dramatization an interesting prospect, it is an idea that is better left alone.

While there are already those who have qualms about turning the stories of Jeffrey Dahmer or the Menendez brothers into miniseries, there is also the fact that time has passed since those cases gripped America. Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison in 1992 in connection with the death of 15 people in Wisconsin; he was later extradited to Ohio where he was convicted of another murder. A jury condemned Lyle and Erik Menendez in the killing of their parents in 1996. The Netflix series about them came decades after those cases were essentially closed. Bonnie & Clyde came out in 1967; the duo went on their crime spree in the 1930s.