Netflix’s new documentary series Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes features never-before-released interviews with the notorious American serial killer - but will there be further episodes of the show?
The streaming service previously made its mark on the landscape of true crime television with Making A Murderer, an in-depth look at the conviction of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Making A Murderer season 1 was the result of ten years’ worth of filming, and last year Netflix released a second season to follow up on the case. However, Ted Bundy has been dead for more than thirty years, meaning that new interviews with him are pretty unlikely to be forthcoming. So, is Conversations With A Killer destined to be a one-season wonder, or is there a way that it could continue?
There Are More Ted Bundy Tapes, But Not Much More Insight
The tapes in Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes were recorded by journalist Stephen Michaud while Bundy was on death row, and the total audio amounts to about 100 hours - which seems like obvious material for a second season. The problem is that what Bundy had to say in the recordings was, to put it bluntly, not very interesting. Reviews of the documentary series generally agree on the point that the much-hyped tapes do not offer any real insight into Bundy’s motivations or psychology, as he doesn’t even acknowledge that he killed anyone and in general seems to be putting on a performance rather than being honest. The Ted Bundy Tapes generally relies on supplementary footage and interviews in its effort to build a picture of Bundy, but there isn’t much there that we didn’t already know.
That being said, if you enjoyed (as much as one can) Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and want to see a dramatized take on Bundy’s life, show creator Joe Berlinger has also made a feature film about the serial killer. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile stars Zac Efron in the role of Bundy, and is told from the perspective of his fiancée, Elizabeth Kloepfer (played by Lily Collins). The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival, following the release of a teaser trailer that attracted widespread criticism for seemingly framing Bundy as a sexy bad boy.
Conversations With A Killer Could Become A Series
While Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes may have exhausted the topic of Ted Bundy and his terrible crimes, the colon in the title indicates potential for an anthology series along the lines of American Crime Story. Elsewhere on Netflix the drama series Mindhunter was lauded for its chilling take on serial killers like Jerry Brudos and Edmund Kemper, so a second season of Conversations With A Killer could switch focus to one of the other twisted serial killers in American history.
When Could Conversations With A Killer Season 2 Release?
If Netflix does commission a second season of Conversations With A Killer, don’t expect to see it any time soon. A continuation of the show is not even green lit yet, let alone in production, and as with Making a Murderer it would likely take some time to amass the same kind of material used in The Ted Bundy Tapes. Not only would Berlinger (assuming that he remained as showrunner) need to find more serial killer interviews to build the second season around, he would also need to piece together more interviews and assemble archive footage. So, if Conversations With A Killer season 2 does happen, it probably won’t arrive for at least a couple of years.
