A new true-crime cable show called Sins and Secrets is premiering tonight on the Investigation Discovery channel, and you might call it a sort of dubious honor that the very first episode revolves around Knoxville. Specifically, it revisits the horrors of the Channon Christian/Christopher Newsom murders, and the way they roiled the city. In the breathless prose of the series' teaser, "Racial tensions in the city were ignited when five black suspects were arrested. As their trials approached, these tensions threatened to send Knoxville, a city long divided on the lines of rich and poor, black and white, college educated and not, over the edge."
There's a reason for the local focus, by the way--like City Confidential, the popular A&E series whose template this one openly copies, Sins and Secrets is produced right here in town by the true-crime specialists at Jupiter Entertainment.
For what it's worth, a review at Salon.com today gives a show thumbs up: "If you've never been to Knoxville or didn't follow the case, this is fascinating stuff. The show's attention to context is so unusual and welcome that I wish it didn't all feel so cursory and hurried." Of course, if you have been to Knoxville, some of the characterizations mentioned in the review might feel a tad overheated. Is Cherry Street really "no place for the faint of heart"?
Anyway, Investigation Discovery is channel 111 on the local Comcast roster, and channel 102 on Knology.
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