Two notorious killers back in the spotlight

A Hulu series covers the Murdaugh family scandal; Peacock takes on John Wayne Gacy.

- LORRAINE ALI NEWS AND CULTURE CRITIC

JASON Clarke and Patricia Arquette star in “Murdaugh: Death in the Family,” a series tracking the downward spiral of a prominent South Carolina legal dynasty.

(DANIEL DELGADO Jr. Disney)

One doesn’t have to be a true-crime buff to recall the murder cases at the center of two new drama series premiering this week, Hulu’s “Murdaugh: Death in the Family,” out Wednesday, and Peacock’s “Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,” out Thursday.

Both limited series are based on notorious slayings that received reams of news coverage in their day, and later, were covered ad nauseam by true-crime podcasters and in TV series. The Murdaugh murders in 2021 led to the stunning implosion of a prominent South Carolina family and legal dynasty, while John Wayne Gacy has gone down in history as one of America’s most prolific serial killers, responsible for the deaths of at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978.

So what else is there left to say about these cases? A lot, it turns out, as evidenced by these new engaging dramas premiering this week.

Spanning eight episodes each, both series explore the circumstances that gave rise to horrific crimes — from dynastic hubris, corruption and greed to societal prejudice and lazy law enforcement.

“Murdaugh: Death in the Family,” premiering with three episodes, follows Alex Murdaugh (played by Jason Clarke), who was convicted of the June 2021 killings of his wife, Maggie (Patricia Arquette) and his youngest son, Paul (Johnny Berchtold).