I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: feminism and the adaptation of true crime in the #MeToo era

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers what Liz Garbus’s television version of Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO, 2018) reveals about true-crime adaptation in a post #MeToo era, particularly in relation to questions of gender, authorship, and voice. With reference to Jaimie Baron’s notion of the ‘layered gaze’ (2021), Jennifer O’Meara’s research on the digital remediation of women’s voices and the ‘sonic screen’ (2022), and Lisa Coulthard’s concept of the ‘listening gaze’ (2018), it argues that the feminist force of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark derives from its strategic remediation of McNamara’s voice through digital audio clips of the deceased writer, alongside a voice-over by actress Amy Ryan, who ventriloquizes the no longer physically present McNamara. Through a careful recalibration of women’s voices, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark illustrates how, in bringing the labour of adaptation to the foreground, there is potential for true crime to be deployed for socially and emotionally restorative ends. However, the article also delves into the problematics of the series’ call to viewers to identify with the figure of the dead white woman as both true crime investigator and victim. Exploring the documentary mechanisms and strategies used by the HBO series to adapt the story of the ‘Golden State Killer’ through the voice of the dead McNamara, it concludes with some thoughts on the limitations of its white feminist approach to narrating gender-based violence, suggesting directions for future research into women’s authorship and adaptation of true crime.